At the White House meeting — Cantor was the last of the Republican leaders to arrive — Obama brought up the letter and noted that not a single House Republican had backed his economic stimulus bill. According to a firsthand account of the meeting, Cantor took exception: “With all due respect, Mr. President, we offered you ideas on the stimulus plan directly, and they were ignored completely.”
Cantor suggested that if he were to view the stimulus negotiations through a partisan lens, he would argue Democrats started the “party of no” name-calling about the same time that Obama was meeting with House Republicans to discuss the stimulus plan.
In response, the president reminded Cantor that Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had urged House Republicans to unite in opposition to his stimulus plans even before they had met with him to discuss it.
Obama ultimately reiterated his commitment to reach across the aisle, a participant in the meeting said. At that, Cantor brought up Obama’s request that his Cabinet secretaries find $100 million in cost savings. That was a “good start,” Cantor told the president, but he added, “We could do more.”
Obama asked Cantor to present him with a list of places where the federal government could save more money. The self-described conservative eagerly agreed.
“You can expect us to have something very soon,” Cantor said, explaining that he’s “looking for wherever there is waste or duplicative spending.”
Obama pointedly reminded Cantor that he was the president — and that he reserves the right to disagree with whatever cuts the Republican whip recommends...
There’s room for compromise. During the meeting, Cantor told Obama and the assembled congressional leaders that Americans are growing increasingly frustrated by the government’s size, scope and management decisions. Obama acknowledged that, in recent weeks, he has received tea bags from Americans upset by the government’s decision to spend trillions of dollars shoring up the economy.
No comments:
Post a Comment