In 2017, Republicans will have control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House. But one central New York Republican is warning his party not to get too cocky.
Rep. John Katko (R-Camillus) says the GOP needs to learn a lesson from the Obama administration.
"I think Obama overreached with a Democratic House, Senate and White House in his first two years in office. And he overreached with Obamacare and Dodd-Frank and some other things,” said Katko, referring to the financial regulation law more commonly known as Dodd-Frank.
And Katko believes that overreach led directly to the current state of affairs for the Democratic Party, which has been losing power on the state and national level for the last six years.
“During that time they lost 11 Senate seats, they lost 60 House seats and went from 35 percent of governors being Republican to 67 percent."
So Katko has some advice for his party.
“We’ve got to be very smart. So I hope whatever we do, we have to be measured and understand that we can’t overreach like the Democrats did,” said Katko.
That means finding issues that both Democrats and Republicans can work together on, for example fixing the nation’s infrastructure and rewriting the tax code. And he expects the Trump administration to be a willing partner with Congress.
"I think what happened to Obama is that early on he just made a decision that he was going to bypass Congress, and he did a lot of his legislating through the executive branch executive order. I don’t think this president is starting out with that mindset. I think he’s going to work with Congress to get things done.”
