Obama avoids political showdown, reschedules Congress speech
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US President Barack Obama has avoided a major political showdown with the opposition Republican as he agreed to address the joint session of the Congress on September 8 instead of September 7 after objections from House Speaker John Boehner.
Obama, who wanted to outline his much-anticipated jobs creation plan on next Wednesday evening, has now agreed to reschedule the Congressional speech on the economy, after the Speaker proposed an alternative date on September 8.
"The President is focused on the urgent need to create jobs and grow our economy, so he welcomes the opportunity to address a Joint Session of Congress on Thursday, September 8th and challenge our nation's leaders to start focusing 100 per cent of their attention on doing whatever they can to help the American people," said Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary in a statement on Wednesday.
The President wanted to address the Congress on September 7th, but the Speaker "determined on Thursday would work better,” Carney said after Boehner wrote to Obama that September 7 is not possible due to parliamentary and logistical and problem.
Major media outlets termed Boehner’s response as unprecedented snub to the US President. Congressional historians say that Boehner's move was unprecedented, The New York Times reported.
"The Senate Historical Office knows of no instance in which Congress refused the president permission to speak before a Joint Session of Congress," Betty K. Koed, associate historian with the Senate was quoted as saying.
Koed said permission to speak in a joint session is given by resolution of the House and Senate, and arrangements are made through the leadership offices of each chamber.
"Though Obama would need both chambers of Congress to adopt a concurrent resolution in order to be allowed to speak, it is highly unusual for Congress to reject a president’s request," The Washington Post reported.
It said the political maneuvering injected still more ill will into the ongoing fight between the White House and Congressional Republicans in their attempts to gain the upperhand in the debate over ‘how to solve the nation’s ongoing economic problems’. "And both sides quickly pointed fingers at one another for the scheduling problem," the daily said.
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