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health plans if they want to -- and then taking credit after he took steps to make that happen.
• "I'm fixing it and that's what my bill does, and I've urged the president to fix it," Landrieu says of the health care law in the ad. It ends with a screen that reads: "The result: People now allowed to keep health care plans." The three-term lawmaker aired the ad after a televised attack by Americans for Prosperity, a group funded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch that has spent more than $25 million on similarly themed commercials in several races.
• Hundreds of miles away, in Arizona, an outside group that backs Democrats stepped in after Americans for Prosperity targeted Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick. Referring to HealthCare.gov, which had a wretched debut last fall, a House Majority PAC ad said the Democratic lawmaker "blew the whistle on the disastrous health care website, calling it stunning ineptitude, and worked to fix it."
• ___
Giving Republicans room on immigration issue, Obama resists pressure to act on his own
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- For a president looking for a legacy piece of legislation, the current state of the immigration debate represents a high-wire act.
• President Barack Obama could act alone to slow deportations, and probably doom any chance of a permanent and comprehensive overhaul. Yet if he shows too much patience, the opportunity to fix immigration laws as he wants could well slip away.
• As Republican leaders dampen expectations for overhauling immigration laws this year, the White House is hoping that the GOP resistance is temporary and tactical, and Obama is resisting pressure from some political allies to take matters into his own hands and ease his administration's deportation record.
• House Speaker John Boehner this week all but ruled out passage of immigration legislation before the fall midterm elections, saying Republicans had trouble trusting that Obama would implement all aspects of an immigration law.
• White House officials say they believe Boehner ultimately wants to get it done. But they acknowledge that Boehner faces stiff resistance from conservatives who oppose any form of legalization for immigrants who have crossed into the United States illegally or overstayed their visas. As well, Republicans are eager to keep this election year's focus on Obama's health care law.
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