Obama hosts congressional leaders after midterm vote

US President Barack Obama has hosted congressional leaders at the White House in the wake of crushing midterm elections. Obama pledged to judge new ideas on merit, not on the party that proposed them.

Deutsche Welle, 7 Nov 2014

US President Barack Obama and the congressional leadership met for lunch at the White House on Friday, just three days after midterm elections which gave the Republicans control of both houses of Congress.

The luncheon meeting was geared towards opening dialogue on ways to break the deadlock on pending issues.

Obama made it clear to the gathering he would not consider new proposals for improving American life on the basis of which party created them.

"I am not going to judge ideas based on whether they're Democratic or Republican; I'm going to be judging them based whether or not they work," he said.

The US president also said the meeting provided an opportunity to see how they could "make progress on behalf of the people who sent us here."

Obama, a Democrat, and the Republicans were expected to focus on points of compromise on issues including the overhaul of the tax code and immigration reform.

Earlier on Friday, Obama, who is in the final two years of his second and last term, opened a meeting of his cabinet and said the midterm election results were "significant."

Voters listen to speakers at an election
watch party, Kansas, November 4, 2014

Despite Republicans taking control of both houses of Congress, Obama still has presidential veto power over legislation if a compromise cannot be found.

Fight against "Islamic State" (IS)

Meanwhile, Obama authorised the US military to deploy up to 1,500 more troops to Iraq as part of the mission to combat the "Islamic State" (IS) group.

In one of his first requests since Tuesday's vote, the president also asked Congress for more than $5 billion (4 billion euros) to help fund the fight against the IS in Syria and Iraq.

Washington said the extra military personnel would not serve in a combat role, but would train, advise and assist Iraqi military and Kurdish forces fighting Islamic militants.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama had also authorized the additional troops to operate at Iraqi military facilities outside Baghdad and Erbil.

Until now, US troops had been part of a joint operation center, set up in conjunction with Iraqi forces.

In recent weeks, the US and some of allies have conducted air strikes against Islamic State targets after militants seized large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

lw/pfd (AP, Reuters)