Interview of the President by Mort Kondracke

Logic will prevail over time, once the emotion gets out of the issue.

Q So you don't think that this town is so polarized that you can't get stuff done, that over time --

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely there's going to be something done on entitlements, and there will be something done on immigration. It just takes time. Just like reforming Medicare. Circumstances --

Q But you're not going to see it. It will be some time after your --

THE PRESIDENT: This time?

Q Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, as you noticed in my remarks, I didn't say, get it done tomorrow. Now, I did say, you can solve this. On the Social Security issue I said, I've laid out my plan, which I did, which will work, which is basically the -- I don't know if I need to review it with you.

Q You don't. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. And on immigration, I was a little more forthcoming when I said, it can be resolved in a way that upholds laws. In other words, it was -- whether or not the Congress has the political will to address it or not, I can't predict yet. But I will tell you something, Mort, I do believe that these members are beginning to feel some pressure from concerned employers about two aspects of the current law. One, that they're having trouble finding workers. And if you're a chicken plucker or an apple grower or a hotel manager, you got to be concerned about finding people willing to do that kind of work, particularly if this economy continues to grow and the unemployment rate remains down.

Secondly, employers are concerned about work site enforcement, not because they know that we shouldn't uphold the law -- which we will do, we'll have work site enforcement -- but because they're uncertain about who they're dealing with because of the fraud and the documentation. Therefore, we'll argue, the members -- or should argue to members, if they're having trouble finding employees, let's be rational about how to help them. And secondly, if document fraud is a concern for those who are actually providing jobs, why don't we come up with a new document that is tamper-proof?

As I say, these issues -- one of the interesting things about the legislative process that I've learned, at least -- I gave a speech as the governor of Texas about reforming how we pay for our schools. And at the time it was quite controversial. And people came to me and said, you don't need to address this issue now. And I said, why not? It's coming. And I call it the storm clouds on the horizon: We can see the storm clouds; shouldn't we deal with them now?

Legislative bodies tend to be reactive. In other words, until the crisis is at hand, sometimes it's hard to get them to act. There is a crisis coming. These issues will be dealt with, and the question is, when. It's much easier to deal with the issues before the crisis is really upon them.