Obama agenda still moving despite controversies

Damp game

President Barack Obama on Saturday took two Cabinet secretaries out for a round of golf — in the rain. The White House said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood joined the president on his favored Washington-area course at Andrews Air Force Base. White House assistant chef Sam Kass completed the foursome.

Before he got into a presidential SUV for the trip to the course, Obama looked up at the grey sky with an outstretched hand. A steady rain was falling by the time he arrived about a half hour later.

Associated Press

Despite Democratic fears, predictions of the demise of President Barack Obama’s agenda appear exaggerated after a week of cascading controversies.

Even as Republicans sought evidence in a hearing Friday that the White House had been involved in targeting conservative groups for Internal Revenue Service scrutiny — an idea that former acting IRS chief Steven Miller denied in his testimony — sweeping immigration legislation was advancing toward bipartisan approval in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Across the Capitol, a bipartisan House group reported agreement in principle on a compromise on the issue, which looms as Obama’s best chance for a signature second-term domestic achievement.

The president’s nominee to become energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, won Senate confirmation, 97-0. And there were signs that Republicans might allow confirmation of Obama nominee Sri Srinivasan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, sometimes a stepping stone to the Supreme Court.

Separately, a House committee approved legislation to prevent a spike in interest rates on student loans on July 1. It moves in the direction of a White House-backed proposal for future rate changes to be based on private markets.

Even so, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said, “It’s been a bad week for the administration.”

Several Democratic lawmakers and aides agreed, expressing concern about the impact of the controversies on Obama’s agenda — even though much of it had been stymied by Republicans for months already.

At the same time, Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., voiced optimism that the IRS scandal would boost the push for an overhaul of the tax code — another White House goal — rather than derail it. “It may make a case for a simpler tax code, where the IRS has less discretion,” he said.

And long-term budget issues, the main flash point of divided government since 2011, have receded as projected deficits fall in the wake of an improving economy and recently enacted spending cuts and tax increases.

Some stalemates predate the current uproar. Even before Obama began grappling with the IRS, the fallout from last year’s attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghzai, Libya,and from the Justice Department’s secret seizure of AP phone records, the two parties were at odds over steps to replace $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts. In particular, Obama’s call for higher taxes is a nonstarter with Republicans.

Months ago, Obama scaled back requested gun safety legislation to center on expanded background checks for firearms purchasers. That was derailed in the Senate, has even less chance in the House and is unlikely to reach the president’s desk.

Republicans also oppose other recommendations from the president’s State of the Union address, including automatic increases in the minimum wage, a pre-kindergarten program funded by higher cigarette taxes and more federal money for highways and bridge repair.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California offered a scathing response when asked if the controversies would hamper Obama’s ability to win legislation from the Republican-controlled House. “Well, the last two years there was nothing that went through this Congress, and it was no AP, IRS or any other (thing) that we were dealing with.”