Obama pushes agenda in rare session with GOP senators
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Seeking help on issues including immigration and energy issues, President Obama traveled to the Capitol, where he held a rare meeting with Republican senators on Tuesday.
“Obviously, there were continued differences on some of these issues,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a prepared statement released after the meeting. “ But the president believes that direct dialogue is better than posturing, and he was pleased to have the opportunity to share views with the conference.”
Obama has had a prickly relationship with the GOP, but with Republicans having 41 senators, the president needs some of the minority to get his program passed in this midterm-election year. The recently passed version of financial regulation got through the Senate with the help of four Republicans, including Massachusetts’ Scott Brown, whose victory broke the Democrats’ effective supermajority.
The president left the White House just before noon and returned before 1:30 p.m. Going into the meeting, the president was asked, “What’s your message,” and he replied: “We want to see if we can get some more work done.”
Leaving, Obama told reporters that he had “a good, frank discussion about a whole range of issues.”
According to the White House, Obama asked for Republican help on a range of issues including his small business package that the president touted earlier in the day. Obama also asked for help in ratifying the START treaty and confirming Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.
Hearings on the Kagan nomination are scheduled to start June 28 and a confirmation vote is likely before the summer break so that Kagan can take her seat before the Court’s fall term. The Senate is also expected to eventually ratify the treaty.
Obama also pushed two unresolved issues, immigration and energy reform. Republicans have been cool to any suggestions of cooperation, citing past disputes including the healthcare insurance overhaul and that is unlikely to change in this midterm election year.
Republicans didn’t seem impressed by Obama’s visit. Kansas Republican Sam Brownback told reporters that he was skeptical that anyone would cross the aisle.
“Everything seems to be as far left as you can possibly get it instead of being bipartisan,” Brownback said.
Later Tuesday, Obama travels to California to help Sen. Barbara Boxer’s campaign fundraising.
-- Michael Muskal
