January 25, 2015, 07:00 pm
Following the Obama’s State of the Union address last Tuesday, “my first thought was it sounded like he was running for a third term,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tells CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
McConnell: Obama sounds like he's running for a third term
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A top Republican joked in an interview broadcast late Sunday that President Obama may become the first president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to seek a third term in office.
Obama acknowledged this during his State of the Union address: “I have no more campaigns to run. I know because I won both of them.”
Nevertheless, Republicans remain uneasy about a president that they believe has overstepped his authority more than any other in recent memory.
Obama signaled during his address that he intends to forge ahead with his policy agenda in the final years of his administration.
“He seemed to have completely forgotten or chose to ignore the election last November,” McConnell said.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he is disappointed Obama didn’t extend an “olive branch” to the new Republican leadership during his speech.
"You know, the president could have, with the State of the Union, just put out an olive branch, could've taken just a little bit different tone that would've indicated to us that there's some interest in working with us,” Boehner said in a joint interview with McConnell. "I can tell you, we're interested in working with him.”
One area of potential compromise between the White House and Congress is helping middle-class families afford to pay for childcare.
The Obama administration has floated the idea of raising the childcare tax credit these families receive.
"We're all for helping working-class families around America,” Boehner said. "I think we'll take a look at this when he sends his budget up, something that could be looked at in the overall context of simplifying our tax code and bringing rates down for everyone.”
But for every point of compromise between Obama and Republicans, there are many more areas of disagreement.
McConnell shot down the president’s idea of a taxpayer-funded community college education for students.
"We added more debt during the Obama years than all the presidents from George Washington down to George Bush,” McConnell said. "And giving away free tuition strikes me as something we can't afford.”
Republicans also plan to challenge President Obama on immigration.
McConnell said he believes he can rally enough support for legislation that would roll back Obama’s controversial immigration order that provide amnesty to nearly 5 million people who are living here illegally.
“(The president) did exactly what he said he didn’t have the authority to do,” McConnell said.
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