President Obama and congressional leaders sought Thursday to move beyond the cycle of crisis that has paralyzed Washington for three years, initiating talks over the broad issues at the heart of their fight: the size of government and the level of federal taxation.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats held out much hope that the talks would produce an ambitious deal to spur economic growth or tame the $16.7 trillion national debt. But senior Republicans — whose party suffered in opinion polls after forcing the second-longest government shutdown in U.S. history — said they are unlikely to use that lever to challenge Obama again.
“There’s a country saying in Kentucky: There’s no education in the second kick of the mule,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said when asked whether another shutdown is possible when the latest government-funding bill runs out in January.
“We’ve seen that movie before,” McConnell said in an interview. “We know how it ends.”
Democrats, meanwhile, noted that Republicans this week agreed to raise the debt limit without extracting concessions — the second time that has happened since the GOP’s reputation was battered by the debt-limit standoff of 2011. At the White House, the Republican surrender raised hopes that Obama’s presidency would no longer be dominated by endless partisan battles over the budget.
“Now that the government is reopened, and this threat to our economy is removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict, and focus on what the majority of Americans sent us here to do, and that’s grow this economy,” Obama said at the White House.
He urged Congress to complete an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws and a rewrite of federal farm policy, as well as adopt a budget.
“I understand we will not suddenly agree on everything now that the cloud of crisis has passed,” Obama said. But “I will look for willing partners wherever I can to get important work done.”
As Obama spoke, official Washington slowly came back to life after 16 days in shutdown. Federal workers, no longer furloughed, streamed back into the city, emerging from Metro stations to receive cheery greetings from Vice President Biden and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. At the Capitol, a worker wound the historic Ohio Clock, which had stopped ticking on the shutdown’s eighth day.
Meanwhile, congressional budget leaders met over bagels and cream cheese to begin the difficult work of forging compromise. The agreement struck this week to raise the debt limit until February and fund the government through Jan. 15 calls for a conference committee to resolve differences between separate blueprints for fiscal 2014 adopted by the Republican House and the Democratic Senate.
For much of this year, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) resisted going to conference with Democrats, saying he wanted to wait until he had maximum leverage to seek spending cuts and an overhaul of the tax code. That leverage was Obama’s need for Congress to raise the debt limit.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats held out much hope that the talks would produce an ambitious deal to spur economic growth or tame the $16.7 trillion national debt. But senior Republicans — whose party suffered in opinion polls after forcing the second-longest government shutdown in U.S. history — said they are unlikely to use that lever to challenge Obama again.
“There’s a country saying in Kentucky: There’s no education in the second kick of the mule,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said when asked whether another shutdown is possible when the latest government-funding bill runs out in January.
“We’ve seen that movie before,” McConnell said in an interview. “We know how it ends.”
Democrats, meanwhile, noted that Republicans this week agreed to raise the debt limit without extracting concessions — the second time that has happened since the GOP’s reputation was battered by the debt-limit standoff of 2011. At the White House, the Republican surrender raised hopes that Obama’s presidency would no longer be dominated by endless partisan battles over the budget.
“Now that the government is reopened, and this threat to our economy is removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict, and focus on what the majority of Americans sent us here to do, and that’s grow this economy,” Obama said at the White House.
He urged Congress to complete an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws and a rewrite of federal farm policy, as well as adopt a budget.
“I understand we will not suddenly agree on everything now that the cloud of crisis has passed,” Obama said. But “I will look for willing partners wherever I can to get important work done.”
As Obama spoke, official Washington slowly came back to life after 16 days in shutdown. Federal workers, no longer furloughed, streamed back into the city, emerging from Metro stations to receive cheery greetings from Vice President Biden and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. At the Capitol, a worker wound the historic Ohio Clock, which had stopped ticking on the shutdown’s eighth day.
Meanwhile, congressional budget leaders met over bagels and cream cheese to begin the difficult work of forging compromise. The agreement struck this week to raise the debt limit until February and fund the government through Jan. 15 calls for a conference committee to resolve differences between separate blueprints for fiscal 2014 adopted by the Republican House and the Democratic Senate.
For much of this year, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) resisted going to conference with Democrats, saying he wanted to wait until he had maximum leverage to seek spending cuts and an overhaul of the tax code. That leverage was Obama’s need for Congress to raise the debt limit.