Republican lawmakers have no obligation to make nice with President Barack Obama — have a "kumbaya meeting" — if they recapture the Senate, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan says.
"The reason the Republicans are winning now is because the American people are rejecting Barack Obama's leadership and they're rejecting his policies," Buchanan said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"His own party, many of them, are running away from him and refuse to even identify with him or say they voted for him. This is clearly a referendum on Obama's administration and leadership.
"If the Republicans win, I don't think there's any mandate to work with Obama. It's more of a mandate to move the country in a different direction. Folks saying we should ride away and have a kumbaya meeting with the president … is the antithesis of what the American people are saying."
Buchanan — former senior adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Gerald Ford and a former presidential candidate himself — said he was "rather astonished" at first lady Michelle Obama's remark that blacks should vote Democrat no matter who's on the ballot.
"The first lady said don't worry about what issues or what stands they're taking and what positions they hold and what they've said, our interest is in voting for the Democratic party," Buchanan said.
"It suggests that is something of an identity thing as much as being African American. I find it mildly disturbing. There are many Republican and conservative African Americans and to suggest that people ought to vote on the basis of race and one party alone [...] to seek justice, equity and progress for African Americans [is] dead false.
"[Actor and Newsmax contributor] Ben Stein had a very good point on this when he said this is the most racially inclined administration that I have ever seen."
Buchanan said he had earlier predicted that Republicans could wind up with 52 seats to the Democrats 48.
"Since then, the Republicans have been doing better in Georgia than I thought," he said.
"I don't know if they're going to win clean out, but I predicted that Scott Brown was going to win in New Hampshire and that's a tossup and Joni Ernst was going to win and that's very, very close. I'll stick with 52 to 48 with a little different mix."
One of the first orders of business that should be tackled once the new configuration on Capitol Hill begins is fixing the corporate tax rate.
"One thing we all agree on with these inversions by American companies, buying small foreign companies, moving abroad, changing their nationality and identity and location to avoid American taxes, is you've got to get the corporate tax rate down at least to the minimal level of western countries," he said.
"The Republicans ought to put together a good proposal that removes some loopholes and gets those rates down and then you send that to the president and see if he will sign it.
"On other things like immigration, tell him no amnesty. That is it."
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