Obama predicts deals on debt, immigration reform in second term

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...ster-interview

President Obama in a previously off-the-record interview with an Iowa newspaper said he believes a "grand bargain" on the deficit can be reached six months into his second term and that immigration reform can also be approved in 2013.

The Obama administration reversed course Wednesday and allowed the Des Moines Register to release an interview with the president that had previously been off the record. Obama gave the interview as he pursued the influential swing-state paper's endorsement.

While much of the interview included nothing Obama has not said publicly, the president did speak openly about his hopes for a deficit deal, and the troubles he believes Republicans will have opposing immigration legislation.
"We’re going to be in a position where I believe in the first six months we are going to solve that big piece of business," Obama said of a deficit-cutting bill.

Obama said "the second thing I’m confident we’ll get done next year is immigration reform."

In his comments about immigration, Obama tells the newspaper he will speak candidly, as his remarks were off the record. He then contends that if he wins a second term, the victory will come in large part because Republicans had "alienated" Latino American voters.

Hopefully, DREAM Act can pass the congress before our EAD expires...