Legislation easily passed the US House of Representatives on Wednesday to avert another partisan budget battle and a possible government shutdown, as a dinner meeting between US President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans offered signs of a thaw in relations.
By a vote of 267-151, the House passed a measure to fund government programs until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to pass a similar bill next week.
Without such legislation, federal agencies would run out of money on March 27. The bill to continue funding the government without last-minute drama occurred as Obama took the unusual step of inviting Republican senators to a dinner on Wednesday night at a Washington hotel a few blocks from the White House that lasted about an hour and a half.
Attendees emerged optimistic about the prospects for the elusive big deal to put the nation’s finances on a more sustainable track in a way that satisfies both Democrats and Republicans.
While the meal was not intended to be a negotiation, it was an opportunity for Obama to make clear he is willing to consider some difficult spending cuts that are unpopular with his fellow Democrats in Congress, an official said.
Those could include cuts to programs that include the Social Security pension system and Medicare for the elderly.
Obama is due to discuss his other legislative priorities, including immigration reform, gun control and tackling climate change, at meetings with members of both political parties on Capitol Hill next week.
The dinner may have been a chance to reverse some of the angry partisan rhetoric that has stood in the way of compromise in recent weeks.
Asked how the soiree had gone, Senator John McCain told journalists outside the hotel: “Just great. Fantastic.”
The meetings between the president and lawmakers, whether or not they produce results, depart from what has been, at best, a stand-offish relationship between Obama and Republicans in Congress.
They suggest that Obama and Republicans are getting the message that public patience with Washington is wearing thin. This has become apparent as Americans read of inconveniences they may soon confront as a result of across-the-board cuts to the federal budget that kicked in on Friday last week after lawmakers and the White House failed to agree on an alternative.
At the heart of the bitter US budget dispute are deep differences over how to rein in growth of the US$16.7 trillion federal debt. Obama wants to narrow the fiscal gap with spending cuts and tax increases. Republicans do not want to concede again on taxes after doing so in negotiations over the “fiscal cliff” at the New Year.
Despite the scheduled dinners and meetings, and the vote on funding the government, few expect those differences to be resolved any time soon.
Some Republicans remain skeptical of Obama’s overtures.
“This president has been exceptional in his lack of consultation and outreach to Congress,” said John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican.
Cornyn was not invited to dinner with Obama, but he warned that talk of tax increases would be unwelcome.
While Republicans have taken most of the beating in surveys in connection with the so-called sequestration, a Reuters/IPSOS online poll released on Wednesday showed 43 percent of people approve of Obama’s handling of his job, down 7 percentage points from Feb. 19.
Confounding the White House’s efforts to blame Republicans for the spending cuts, most respondents in the online survey hold both Democrats and Republicans responsible.
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