Obama: I Haven’t Used Veto Because Bills ‘I Objected To Typically Blocked in Senate’

Obama: I Haven't Had to Veto Bills Because "Legislation I Objected To Was Typically Blocked In Senate" (RealClearPolitics)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: What I've said repeatedly is that I want to work with them; I want to get things done. I don't have another election to run.

There are going to be areas where we agree and I'm going to be as aggressive as I can be in getting legislation passed that I think help move the economy forward and help middle class families. There are going to be some areas where we disagree and, you know, I haven't used the veto pen very often since I've been in office, partly because legislation that I objected to was typically blocked in the Senate even after the House took over — Republicans took over the House.

Now I suspect there are going to be some times where I've got to pull that pen out. And I'm going to defend gains that we've made in health care; I'm going to defend gains that we've made on environment and clean air and clean water.

But what I'm hopeful about, and — and we saw this so far at least in the lame duck — is a recognition by both Speaker Boehner and Mitch McConnell that people are looking to them to get things done and that the fact that we disagree on one thing shouldn't prohibit us from getting — getting progress on the areas where there's some overlap. (NPR Interview with Steve Inskeep, aired December 29, 2014)