President Obama hosted a bipartisan lunch on Friday with House and Senate Leadership to discuss ideas for the upcoming session of 114th Session of Congress in the aftermath of the mid-term elections. Despite new polling that shows mid-term election voters favor the President working with Congress on immigration instead of going it alone by a 3-to-1 margin, he was insistent on moving forward with his executive amnesty before the end of the year.
In the onset, President Obama indicated that he "won't judge ideas based on if they're Democratic ideas or Republican ideas," but he'll "judge ideas based upon whether they will work." However, once the press left the room, the mood quickly changed. Republicans in attendance said they asked Pres. Obama for more time to work on immigration legislation, but he indicated he will take executive action by the end of the year if Republicans couldn't pass legislation to ease deportations during the lame-duck session.
According to a senior House Republican aide, while House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was making an argument on immigration, President Obama responded that his patience was running out. Vice President Joe Biden interrupted to ask how long Republicans needed to get an immigration package together, but reports say the President "angrily" cut Vice President Biden off.
On "Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace," Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said that President Obama refused to discuss common ground issues and insisted on "giving a lecture about his plans for executive amnesty".
"He just was so focused on this executive amnesty issue, that he ignored the idea of having a dialogue on ways to change the direction of the country and move forward with regard to jobs and the economy," Sen. Barrasso said.
For more on this story, see Breitbart.com and the Washington Post.
