Vice President Joe Biden on Friday said Congressional gridlock has left the White House incapable of doing much more than preventing “bad things from happening” on the world stage.
“All we’re able to do right now is stop bad things from happening. That’s useful, but it’s not why we wanted to job,” the vice president said at a Democratic National Committee event.
Biden’s comments come one day after Congress gave rare bipartisan approval to President Obama’s request to authorize a mission to train and equip Syrian rebels fighting Islamic terrorists, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko pleaded with Washington for more aid to fight back against pro-Russian rebels.
Along with the threats abroad, the White House has faced stiff opposition at home from Republicans in Congress. The gridlock has spurred the president to take a number of executive actions on his top legislative priorities, but has prevented him from achieving comprehensive reform on issues like immigration.
“We wanted the job to do things and we’ve done a lot through the president’s executive orders and the first two years when we had a Democratic House,” Biden said.
He warned Democrats that the country could “slide back a decade” if Republicans win the Senate and more seats in the House in November.
IN-DEPTH
-- Andrew Rafferty
