Politics

McCain: Obama may ‘get away’ with circumventing Congress on jobs act

Nicholas Ballasy Senior Video Reporter
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Arizona Sen. John McCain said Thursday that Senate Republicans “will do everything” they can to try to “stop” President Obama from implementing parts of his $447 billion jobs plan without congressional approval.

But McCain admits Obama “could get away with it.”

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McCain made the statements during an unveiling of the “Jobs Through Growth Act” — the Republican alternative to Obama’s American Jobs Act.

“I’m sure that the president and other presidents before him, Republican and Democrats have tried to exceed their constitutional authority, but we will do everything we can to try to stop it but I’m not saying he can’t get away with something,” McCain said, in response to a question from TheDC.

Obama told his advisers on the White House Jobs and Competitiveness Council in Pittsburgh on Tuesday that he is “not going to wait for Congress” to act on jobs.

“So my instruction to … all the advisers who are sitting around the table is, scour this report, identify all those areas in which we can act administratively without additional congressional authorization, and just get it done,” he said. (RELATED: Jackson: Obama should declare a ‘national emergency,’ add jobs with ‘extra-constitutional’ action)

On numerous occasions, the president has vowed to find common ground with Republicans in Congress.

“I’ve shown repeatedly my willingness to work overtime to try to get them to do something to deal with this high unemployment rate. What we haven’t seen is a similar willingness on their part to try to get something done,” Obama said on Thursday. “I don’t know when rebuilding our roads and bridges that are decaying became a partisan issue.”

McCain said there has been “no outreach” by President Barack Obama to congressional Republicans on job creation.

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