What really went on in those closed Obama-GOP meetings today

Word is now seeping out about President Obama's meetings on Capitol Hill today with Republican members. It's part of the president's effort to be seen as willing to deal with both sides; in fact, there's some Democratic grumbling that he met with GOP members of the House and Senate first.

Be careful about what you hear either side say in public for the cameras. Remember, all House members have to run next year, and many were elected by constituents who've had enough of economic stimulus packages that don't seem to work. And Democrats are being watched to see that they deliver on their fall campaign promises.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs described the sessions as "cordial" and part of an ongoing process to build consensus and get good ideas from all sides. Some Republicans expressed concern over stimulus provisions to be voted on and no doubt approved Wednesday, and offered support for more tax cuts, while others handed the president envelopes containing their ideas. Gibbs said later the president had passed many ideas on to his economic team for analysis.

Obama himself said he knew he would never get 100% Republican support. But some support is good. A little bit more than some is better. And he's obviously thinking this vote and this week.

According to the Washington Whispers blog, in the closed meetings Obama said he's not interested in increasing the size of government merely to do that, but wants to accomplish something real for the economy.

He told one Republican he was just as concerned about the long-term effects of tax cuts as the long-term effects of overspending and debt.

According to one participant, the president as a realistic politician said he understands some in the meeting would go out and feel the need to denounce him.

A good-natured Obama was quoted by one GOP member as saying, "I understand that and I will watch you on Fox News and feel bad about myself."

Additionally, as The Ticket reported earlier today, about a dozen moderate Republicans will have dinner with Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel at the White House this evening. To address GOP concerns, the president has already been in touch with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to press for dropping the $200 million for contraceptive promotion as having nothing to do with the economic stimulus package. So it's gone.

The president, like all his predecessors who tried unsuccessfully to bridge the persistent partisan gap on the Hill, has challenges on both sides. He wants to build trust among Republicans, give them something, while handling fellow Democrats, who with their enlarged Hill majorities are feeling their oats.

While much of the media (which thrive on conflict) today focused on the Republican side and its sometimes belligerent public reactions, perhaps the larger challenge for Obama will turn out to be restraining those Democratic partners from larding up the economic stimulus with gimmes for their hungry constituencies.

Nobody said changing the ways of Washington would be easy.

Or possible.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Associated Press

Comments

[Sal B]

Well, of course, the Repuglicans won such a great victory in the last election, they're going to insist on getting their way on everything. It's to be expected that they will put their screwball ideology before the good of the United States' people. The same thing happened during FDR's first term, and of course, they won, just as Texas history books tell us.

[ap]

know its a blog...but there are still quite a few obvious grammatical errors.

"like all the oithers who've tried "

"Part of the new White House resident president's"

also that quote re FoxNew...Obama is using sarcasm. I am sure had a non-democrat used sarcasm "good natured" would not have been the description

[PNW Trojan]

Mr. Obama; remember one smart president's words..."Talk softly, but carry a BIG STICK!" (That was pre-Reagan's "Trust....but VERIFY." Well, talking softly is polite, but you need, REALLY NEED, to start WHACKING these Freak Left, and Freak Right goons, who only know how to shovel billions to the richest blood-sucking crooks in the world....many of the Wall Street/Pig Oil/Goon Labor make African despots look like choir boys....GET ON WITH BEATING THAT BIG STICK, if....... you're going to effect CHANGE. Jeeze!!!

[Hank Essay]

Still dealing with the loss, eh Andrew? What's Laura up to these days?

[fedup]

Would be nice if along with the "change" journalists would also change and stop writing everything from a Dems point of view.
What happened to fair journalism? Why is it shoved down our throats from every reporter on this site, Dems are great, Republicans are bad and anything that goes wrong, it's all Bush's fault!

[Freedom Eagle]

"Would be nice if along with the "change" journalists would also change and stop writing everything from a Dems point of view.
What happened to fair journalism? Why is it shoved down our throats from every reporter on this site, Dems are great, Republicans are bad and anything that goes wrong, it's all Bush's fault!"

You don't read much of Mr. Malcolm's posts, or the MSM for that matter, do you?

This is like the least snarky anti-Obama blog post from him in ages.

And let us know how "from a Dems point of view" say, FOX, the Wall Street Journal, Politico, etc are. Heck all I see is Republicans on TV and in the press telling us how bad the Stimulus package is and how only more tax cuts will save us.

How'd that GOP plan working out for us the last 8 years?

They're bankrupt of ideas and morals, but the press still will shill for them and broadcast their rants to the world every chance they get.

"Liberal Media"? Hardly.

Democratic slant on this blog? Hardly.

Actual reporting? Barely.

[Vito Positano]

The first "stimulus" package was money thrown at banks without oversight, and they used used it to do three things:

1. Purchase other banks so that the combined bank would be much bigger so that it could be assured of even more stimulus money because it would be even bigger to allow to fail.

2. Reward top management for a job poorly done.

3. Horde money instead of loan it out.

By these three methods, the banks/investment firms made sure that the stimulus would only stimulate top management instead of "Main St," and is a powerful example of a "service to self" institution. What makes this dastardly is that it locked out any aid to normal citizens that are similar to you and I.

The fault lies with Bush's Henry Paulson, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and the careless and lackadaisical Congress. Later, Congress only wanted to do light, hence inffectual oversight. Oversight is soft and mushy. It's characterized by being done after the mismanagement and corruption has already taken place. This means that the company perpetrating the mess get away with it because it's very hard to reverse it and to recover the money.

Rather, Congress should supervise, not just perform oversight and should abandon it; It has proven to be worthless to me. It needs to institute a regimen of direct supervision instead.

Yes, that's supervision, which is different from oversight because supervision is done in real time, as if a person is looking over your shoulder, looking at the databases, emails, and plans, this, to approve any good activities or deny any bad activities.

This means that the enforcement arm of Congress (if it has one) would resemble a right hand man, be an equal partner, and do the supervision right inside the office of top management. This should be done and in fact can be done.

All we need is the correct kind of commitment and the right amount of it.

Obama needs to investigate and then prosecute Paulsen to punish him for dumping the people's money haphazardly into the pit. The SEC should also go after top management of these companies that I am helping to "bail" out. Obama should also sue to return all of that money back to the taxpayer, and then to dole it out again with direct, strong supervision, not just indirect, soft oversight.

Apple's Steve Jobs has earned Apple approx. 25 Billion clear. Some say that he should be recruited to take charge of at least one of the sick banks, to throw out the incompetent personell, and to steer the company to success. Unfortunately, he is too sick now to be considered. - What really went on in those closed Obama-GOP meetings today | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times