HONOLULU (AP) – President Barack Obama plans new steps to help more Americans buy a home and attend college, part of a 2015 agenda he hopes can build on the postelection momentum from high-profile moves on immigration and Cuba.
His approach for the new year appears to look straight past newly emboldened Republicans who take full control of Congress on Tuesday.
Fresh from a two-week Hawaiian vacation, the president was readying executive actions and legislative proposals to start promoting right away while advisers and speechwriters flesh out the broad themes that Obama wants to emphasis in his State of the Union address on Jan. 20. It will be his seventh since taking office, but his first before a Congress entirely in GOP hands.
In a sign of their divergent paths, Obama was heading out of Washington on Wednesday just as the new Congress was settling in. He plans stops in Michigan, Arizona and Tennessee aimed at highlighting how his own economic policies were contributing to the country’s recovery.
Obama, expected back in Washington on Sunday, has appeared energized by the end-of-the-year action on immigration policy and Cuban relations, suggesting continued presidential relevance despite a political landscape dramatically altered by deep Democratic losses on Election Day.