Obama presses agenda
WASHINGTON — There’s a new cadence to President Barack Obama’s musings about Congress: Why can’t House Republicans be more like their mates in the Senate?
As Obama presses his economic agenda across the U.S., he’s playing one chamber against the other, hoping Americans will hear his calls for compromise and conclude it’s not his fault almost nothing is getting done in Washington.
Call it a congressional two-step: Praise Senate Republicans for modest displays of cooperation, then contrast them with House Republicans, whom Obama has started describing as stubborn saboteurs. It’s a theme Obama has used repeatedly to bolster his argument that he’s the one acting reasonably as he prepares for clashes this fall with Congress, whose relations with him have been notoriously strained.
“A growing number of Republican senators are trying to get things done,” Obama said Tuesday as he unveiled a new fiscal proposal in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Days earlier, Obama accused the House GOP of risking another financial crisis by issuing ultimatums over the debt ceiling and government funding.
“We’ve seen a group of Republicans in the House, in particular, who suggest they wouldn’t vote to pay the very bills that Congress has already racked up,” Obama said. “That’s not an economic plan. That’s just being a deadbeat.”
Obama has reason to be cautiously optimistic about the Senate, which passed a far-reaching immigration overhaul Obama sorely sought with bipartisan support and struck a deal over Obama’s nominees that has led to a flurry of confirmations after months of logjam. A number of prominent GOP senators also have criticized a Republican plan to threaten a government shutdown unless funding is cut off for Obama’s health care law.
But even in the Senate, there’s skepticism about Obama’s intentions. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said Obama’s contrasting tone about the House and Senate amounts to a divide-and-conquer strategy that calls into question the White House’s outreach.
“These discussions have been going on for five years and no agreements have been reached yet,” Sessions said. “It could be the president is playing the Senate like a fiddle.”
On most issues — including pressing tax and spending matters — Senate and House Republicans are unified in their opposition. There was no telling Republicans apart Tuesday, for instance, as they panned a corporate tax cut and jobs spending package the White House had portrayed as a concession to Republicans — who oppose using tax revenue to support more spending. That proposal will be among the topics Obama discusses today when he meets separately with House and Senate Democrats.
