Posted on 02/25/2012 2:08:01 PM PST by Da Bilge Troll
President Obama met with a group of Democratic governors on Friday and discussed plans to work around Congress toward policy goals.
Gov. Jack Markell, the Democratic governor of Delaware and the vice chairman of the National Governors Association, told The Hill that the meeting was “very good” and said many of the governors were responsive to ideas about bypassing Congress.
“There was a sense that none of us should wait, we can’t wait for things to happen in Congress,” Markell said of the meeting. “We’re going to do what we can do [now].”
Obama has positioned himself against Congress as he runs for reelection, arguing lawmakers are failing to solve the country’s problems. “Where Congress won’t act, I will,” he said in October when rolling out a series of executive orders aimed at creating jobs.
Markell said the conversation with Obama did not dwell on Republican opposition to the president’s legislative proposals.
The tone of the meeting was positive, Markell said, and the governors agreed that the Obama administration has been “terrifically responsive” to their state governments.
The Democratic governors discussed the three major job goals from Obama’s State of the Union address: building manufacturing, training workers and increasing American-made energy.
“We had a great conversation very focused, not surprisingly, on jobs,” Markell said, calling jobs the “biggest issue for all of us in the room, no matter where we come from.”
He noted that although they did not discuss the election, the sense in the room was that focusing on jobs is Democrats’ best chance to win in the fall. That is the message the Democratic Party has been sending in full force this season, ranging from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) to Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who slammed the GOP presidential candidates Friday on CNN for failing to mention jobs in the most recent debate and instead talking about “divisive cultural issues.”
Markell said the discussion with Obama steered clear of the transportation bills that are being fought over in Congress, though “it’s certainly something we as governors feel strongly about.”
The meeting, which lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes, took place in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and involved more than a dozen Democratic governors and several members of the Obama administration.
Governors present included Govs. Jerry Brown (Calif.), Jay Nixon (Mo.), O’Malley, Christine Gregoire (Wash.), Bev Perdue (N.C.), Peter Shumlin (Vt.), Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii), Deval Patrick (Mass.) and Pat Quinn (Ill.).
The governors are in town for the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association. Markell, who attended the meeting for the first time as vice chairman of the NGA, also talked up the level of bipartisan cooperation between the governors, which he said contrasted with what has “not been a great level of cooperation between members of Congress.”
“We don’t really care where an idea comes from if it’s a good idea,” he said.
Governors from both parties will meet with the president on Monday.
Good get them all on record. It will be easier to convict and punish them.
Good get them all on record. It will be easier to convict and punish them.
There are remedies for that.
They won't like 'em.
You be the judge.
Maybe, if we have the fire power to write the history after they are gone.
Methinks Yamamoto was correct, we do have the ability...
5.56mm
This sounds like an impeachable offense. Question is this, do our Republican House Members have the gonads to proceed and get this bum and his cronies out of Office and in jail where they belong.
Yes.
ping
(Jay Nixon attended)
Democrats have now discovered the tenth amendment. Good for them, pass anything that is not constitutional at the federal level to the states. The tenth amendment is something that both conservatives and liberals can agree with, as long as liberals give up their totalitarian instincts.
If they are talking about states’ rights and less federal intrusion -— great!
However, we all know that is not what is being discussed.
“We simply can’t allow that silly old Constitution to get in the way of our leftist utopian agenda.”
brilliant ideas like this are the reason why democrat governors are vastly outnumbered by republican governors.
That was my first thought, also.
"Conspiricy to commit treason?"- Da Bilge TrollFoundations set long ago with one of Obama's many Executive Order Executive Order 13528-- Establishing Council of Governors
The military governors now exercise direct control of their systems.
-(paraphrasing) Grand Moff Tarkin, ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’
"Conspiricy to commit treason?"- Da Bilge TrollFoundations set long ago with one of Obama's many Executive Order Executive Order 13528-- Establishing Council of Governors
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