Can Obama build on his outreach to GOP?
Better days could be ahead for compromise in Washington, House Budget chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., forecasted Sunday, three days after breaking bread with President Obama and just before his budget proposal is slated to be released facing, he conceded, an almost surefire rejection from the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Readying his plan to balance a budget stained by the blind, across-the-board knife of the sequester, Ryan said on "Fox News Sunday" that his original draft, which will be peppered with some of the same hot-button maneuvers as last year's "Ryan Budget" - including a proposed voucher system for Medicare recipients - is a presumed non-starter. But, he reasoned, "there are things that we can do that don't offend either party's philosophy, that doesn't require someone to surrender their principles, that make a good down payment on getting this debt and deficit under control."
Ryan, the GOP's 2012 vice presidential nominee and a potential 2016 presidential candidate, lauded Mr. Obama's so-called "charm offensive" amid the most caging gridlock in modern congressional history. The president's wine-and-dine effort with a dozen Senate Republicans last week at the Jefferson Hotel and subsequent outreach to Ryan, individually, over broiled sea bass at the White House, he said, did not go unnoticed.
"This is the first time I've ever had a conversation with the president lasting more than, say, two minutes or televised exchanges," Ryan said. "I've never really had a conversation with him, on these issues before. I am excited that we had the conversation. We had a very frank exchange."
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Some wiggle room on budget negotiations, Ryan said, comes courtesy of the deal that went through during the start-of-the-year "fiscal cliff" drama. Abetted by $620 billion in tax hikes imposed on the wealthiest Americans, his newest blueprint proposes balancing the budget through $5 trillion in cuts over 10 years, as opposed to last year's plan, which set its sights on 2040.
Ryan voiced a concern held by many GOP lawmakers that Democrats will use the continuing resolution - the stopgap measure funding government through March 27 which Congress must replace or risk shutting down the government - as a vehicle to employ further tax increases. He cautioned both parties: "We don't want to refight the 'fiscal cliff.' That's current law. That's not going to change."
Heading into this next fiscal storm, Ryan said, his lunch with the president was, at the very least, a fresh approach to a years-long battle that has left Americans' trust in the government in shambles.
"I hope that this is sincere," Ryan said. "We had a very good, frank exchange. But the proof will be in the coming weeks as to whether or not it's a real, sincere outreach to find common ground."
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on CNN's "State of the Union" echoed Ryan's skepticism: "I believe anytime both parties are talking it's a good thing," he said. "This should have happened four years ago. I'm glad it's happening now. But is this about politics, or is this genuine? Only time will tell."
Appearing later in the program, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisted the president's outreach is indeed sincere, arguing the idea behind the meetings is not, "'I'll do this with you now, and do that with them later.' I think it is, 'Let's get some things done together to make elections less important.'"
If Mr. Obama, Pelosi continued, "can defuse some of their opposition to some of these issues, bravo again for the American people that we can get a job done for them. That's far more important than what happens in an election."
Republicans, for the most part, seem to agree, however guardedly. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., one of the 12 senators who dined with Mr. Obama on Thursday, offered perhaps the most full-throated endorsement of the president's new peace tactic, welcoming with "open arms" his gesture, which he said he reads to be "tremendously sincere."
"He is moving in the right direction - I'm proud of him for doing it," Coburn said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's time to start leading, and the way you do that is quit poking your finger in people's eyes and start building relationships, and I think he's got a great chance to accomplish a big deal.
"But, you know," Coburn added, "you've got a lot of scabs and sores on people that it's going to take a while for that to heal."
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., agreed that it's a positive shift in the political climate: "If we're going to really get to an agreement, this is a good step," he said on ABC's "This Week." "You have to start meeting with people. You have to start developing relationships. You've got to spend a fair amount of time figuring out what we agree on first."
The president has plans to meet with the Senate Democratic Caucus on Tuesday - whose Budget Chairman, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., will soon propose a counter to Ryan's budget - House Republicans on Wednesday and Senate Republicans and House Democrats on Thursday - an agenda McCarthy said is "positive" considering Mr. Obama "doesn't know that many people in the House" and "has problems on both sides of the aisle."
But one of the most stubborn sticking points in budget negotiations - whether tax hikes are a necessary medium for generating revenue - the House Budget Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who joined Ryan at the White House on Thursday, said on "Face the Nation," demands an attitude adjustment from more than just the president.
"It's an important move forward," Van Hollen said of Mr. Obama's GOP outreach on budget talks. But "ultimately," he continued, "our Republican colleagues are going to have to back off their position where they're saying that you can't close one single tax loophole for the purpose of reducing the deficit. You've got to take a balanced approach going forward."
But timing-wise, as immigration reform and gun legislation roil and polarize national debate, CBS News Political Director John Dickerson weighed in, the president may have more luck schmoozing Republicans on the budget than on any other issue of the day.
"The president's trying to figure out how much communication is good and useful communication," he said on "Face the Nation." "On immigration reform, for example, Republicans are telling him, 'Stay out of this; we don't need your help. You put your fingerprints on this, it kills the bipartisan effort. So in some senses, reaching out to the other side is harmful to the ultimate goal.
"In this case, though," Dickerson continued, "they're out of the crisis mode of budgeting. They're back to slower pace. The president can play a role here. He hasn't had good relations with the leaders... so now he's going around to the members directly."
