Obama gives Rubio a gift from Cuba

Now Rubio has been handed a new crusade. At his press conference today, he gave sharp and detailed answers to questions about his plans to stymie Obama’s new Cuba policy. And while Rubio, who is a Cuban-American, has always opposed efforts to reach out to Havana, until now the issue was too specialized to garner national attention.

Obama, however, today made Cuba policy a major national issue. In some areas, he has the authority to act without the consent of Congress. For example, as part of the deal to free Alan Gross, as well as an American spy held by the Cubans for 20 years, Obama released the three remaining incarcerated members of the spy network known as the Cuban Five. Obama also changed the regulations on how Cuban business can purchase agricultural goods, to make such deals easier to finance. It is up to Obama’s secretary of state, John Kerry, to begin the process of removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But in order to lift the embargo on Cuba, Obama will need an act of Congress. With Republicans set to control both the House and the Senate as of January, the chances of this happening are slim. House Speaker John Boehner and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled today that they opposed mending ties with Raul Castro. McConnell even went so far as to say he would defer to Rubio on Cuba policy: “I am very likely going to follow his lead.”