President assures nation that despite loss of Senate Obamacare will not be repealed.

Courtesy of TPM:  

"If in fact one of the item on (the Republican) agenda is to make responsible changes to the ACA to make it work better," he told reporters during a press conference, "I'm going to be very open and receptive to hearing those ideas." 

But some obvious things would not be open for discussion, Obama said, predictable things like full repeal of the law or repeal of the individual mandate. 

"In some cases, recommendations that Republicans have for changes would undermine the structure of the law," he said. "I'll be very honest with them about that, 'The law doesn't work if you pull out that piece or that piece.'"

That seems to fall in line with what Mitch McConnell visualizes as well in an interview given before the election to Time Magazine:  

Asked to imagine it was Wednesday morning and he wakes up majority leader—a position he’s aspired to, he says, since the 5th grade—McConnell strikes a conciliatory tone, saying he hopes to work with President Obama and Senate Democrats. He said there would be no shutdowns on his watch, despite the fact that he plans to use funding bills to force changes in Obama’s policies. 

Notably, a full repeal of Obamacare was not on his mind, but rather a partial repeal through the appropriations process. Finally, he named his new top priority: keeping the Senate in 2016 (though winning the White House is also “not unimportant”).

McConnell saying that there would be no government shutdown on his watch makes sense if his goal is to hang onto the Senate in 2016.

I actually do not have a great deal of confidence in the President and McConnell seeing eye to eye on much, and that includes which portions of the Affordable Care Act should be changed.

And that does not take into account the "Cruz effect: 

"Cruz also would like the Senate to be as aggressive in trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act as the House, which has voted more than 50 times to get rid of the law. 

Republicans should “pursue every means possible to repeal Obamacare,” Cruz said, including forcing a vote through parliamentary procedures that would get around a possible filibuster by Democrats. If that leads to a veto by Obama, Cruz said, Republicans should then vote on provisions of the health law “one at a time.” 

And when asked whether he would back Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for Republican leader, Cruz would not pledge his support — an indication that there are limits to how much of a partner he’s willing to be.

There is some possibility that the biggest battles coming out of Washington will NOT be between the Republicans and the President, but rather between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party folks who simply cannot abide government working at all. much less in a bipartisan manner.