Obama’s confrontational style extended to foreign policy matters as well.
He rejected the premise of a question on the constitutionality of the 1973 War Powers Resolution, passed by Congress to restrain presidential war-making after the undeclared Korean and Vietnam wars. Critics in both parties have charged in recent weeks that the U.S. role in trying to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi violates the resolution.
“I’m not a Supreme Court justice, so I’m not . . . putting my constitutional law professor hat on here,” he said.
Instead, as he did for much of the news conference, Obama turned the Libya question into a chance to portray himself as a good-faith actor operating in a sea of mal-intentioned politicians.
He accused critics of making a “cause celebre” out of protecting Gaddafi, who has killed Americans. Obama said that his administration has sent “reams of information” to Congress on the Libya effort, and that the United States has carried out its narrow mission there with success.
“So a lot of this fuss is politics,” he added.
Obama was most animated on the deficit debate, again taking pains to present himself as the one willing to make politically costly decisions about spending cuts.
He described himself as the commander in chief who has “difficult conversations with the Pentagon, saying, ‘You know what, there’s fat here [and] we’re going to have to trim it out.’ ”
The president’s stern new tone suggested that administration officials think the cordial outreach and behind-the-scenes negotiations they have been using in deficit-reduction talks with Republicans have not been working.
The White House had declined to discuss the details of negotiations, being led by Vice President Biden, until Friday, when Republicans walked out because of tax policy disagreements.
Among the changes the White House sought were rollbacks of tax breaks for corporate jets and hedge-fund managers — a small amount relative to the overall deficit but highly symbolic as the president tries to gain ground in the tax debate by painting the GOP as the party of the very rich.
Then, as if his earlier scoldings weren’t enough, Obama suggested that his daughters, Malia and Sasha, displayed a better work ethic toward their school assignments than the GOP has toward the debt ceiling.
“They’re not pulling all-nighters,” he said. “They’re 13 and 10. Congress can do the same thing. If you know you’ve got to do something, just do it.”
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