White House: GOP threats are childish

White House: GOP threats are childish
By Justin Sink - 11/21/14 11:19 AM EST


The White House on Friday chided Republicans for warning that President Obama’s action on immigration could disrupt work on other issues, with a top aide likening the threats to the “third-grade equivalent of taking your ball and going home.”

“There’s no reason you should not be doing those things you think are in the best interest of the country where there’s bipartisan agreement because you disagree with this,” senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

“The equivalent would be if the president said, ‘If you pass legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act that will poison the well and I refuse to work with you on anything else.’ That’s an illogical approach.”

Top Republican leaders repeatedly told the president to hold off on his executive action, which will provide deportation relief and work permits to as many as 5 million Americans. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Friday that the announcement meant Obama “has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms that he claims to seek.”

“And as I told the president yesterday, he’s damaging the presidency itself,” Boehner said.

Pfeiffer downplayed the possibility that Republicans would react dramatically to the president’s policy changes.

"Certainly, our hope is that Republicans will listen to Sen. [Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.], who has said two things: one is that Republicans have to demonstrate to the American people that they can govern, and two, there'll be no shutdowns or threats or things,” Pfeiffer said.


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http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/225005-white-house-gop-threats-are-childish