Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Obama Meets With Senate Democrats

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/03/12/obama-meeting-with-senate-democrats-focuses-on-budget-drones-and-immigration/



Today President Obama began his three days of meetings on Capitol Hill to discuss with Senate Democrats different issues at hand. Those issues being, “ongoing budget negotiations, an immigration overhaul and his administration’s unmanned aerial drone program.” The issue mostly at hand today was the ongoing budget negotiations. One thing that President Obama kept pushing at today’s meeting was the ability to work together and come to some sort of agreement with the Republicans. He said it was part of a bigger goal to come to some sort of “grand bargain”. President Obama never actually said what the “grand bargain” was. But I still think it’s nice to know that at least one person is willing to work with the opposing party. However, it doesn’t really mean anything unless the rest of the Democrats and Republicans can set aside their differences for more than five minutes to agree and get something done. President Obama seemed pretty hopeful today.

12 comments:

  1. I completely agree with Jamie. I am happy seeing our President trying to push both sides together because he is the only one trying. It is a shame really. If the Republicans and Democrats stop focusing on the differences and more on the similarities, a lot of changes could be made. Hopefully, both sides will compromise or agree on this issue because it needs to be acted on.

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  2. I wouldn't say that Presidnet Obama is the only person trying but I do agree that it is always encouraging to hear about progress being made on policies. These are three greatly important issues where we need to see some action and decision making going on. Like Jamie said, I think President Obama is pretty positive about the progress being made and he should be. Some progress is better than no progress.

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  3. The president, elected by the entire country, can see the big picture and realizes that the only way the federal government can progress is if Republicans and Democrats compromise on these major issues. Unfortunately congressmen, safe in their gerry-mandered districts, can continue to do nothing and,usually, get reelected. Unless that changes, Congress,for the most part, will remain stagnant.

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  4. This situation with the budget and national fiscal issues in general seems to be a rather difficult issue to solve for Washington. Neither side seems willing to give what it would need to in order to solve the problem. Maybe after enough chipping away at balancing the budget we can make progress. I don't think a 'grand bargain' is going to happen and I don't think politicians realistically expect one either, but they need to say something to reassure the public.

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  5. I am glad to see that people are realizing that Obama is willing to compromise. The problem is that when he is sticking with the Democrats, the GOP is not happy, and when he tries to compromise with the GOP the Democrats get mad for "going back" on party values. The same thing goes for the Speaker and his party. I think there needs to be more interparty cooperation from both parties before there can be across the aisle compromise.

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    1. I could not agree more. Although in a perfect world we would all judge one another without any type of bias, partisan or otherwise, the likeliness of that happening in our lifetime is not very high. Everyone wants the President to be on his/her side, which is understandable, but we must realize that he can't be on everyone's side all at the same time. Compromises must be made, whether everyone wants to make them or not. Not everyone will be pleased with every decision.

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  6. It's frustrating that there are so many huge issues like the budget and immigration, and Obama pretty much can't do anything because of the lack of cooperation from Republicans or frustrated super left wing members of the Democratic party. Obama is willing to compromise, so why can't other members of Congress? If Obama fails so does America.

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  7. I am glad Obama is stressing cooperation, but that is not always enough unfortunately. The budget continues to be a hot topic for political talk, but I don't even know what may come out of it at this rate. I do agree with Nora here wholeheartedly though. The political extremes need to get over themselves and come to the table. This is about their country, not them. They need to act in the best interest of America, not themselves.

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  8. I totally agree with Nora and Brian. Though, I feel like a topic like this should even be discussed. No matter if there is a Democrat or Republican in office, there are always going to be people on both extremes that refuse to cooperate with everyone else. I'm sure many more presidents other than Obama that have said that both sides need to cooperate.

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  9. I agree with Jamie about how this "grand bargain" will be nothing if the other Democrats and Republicans are willing to go with it. It is certainly good that Obama has a hopeful point of view because that spreads hope into other Americans. Although Sam mentioned that there will always be people on both sides of the extreme, it's not necessary for EVERYONE to come onto one side but just for enough people to do so.

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  10. How long are both of the parties going to fight? At some point we have to work together. It has gotten to a point where its just crazy. It is a good thing that the President is trying his best to try to get both of the sides working together so that we can pass bills that are much needed. For example the fiscal cliff bill, they passed it the last second, where if they worked together they could of gotten something that's better and one that actually works.

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  11. It is a relief that the man in charge, President Obama, sees the big picture. This nation can progress without the cooperation of the Democratic and Republican party. I feel as though the tension between the two parties have worsened with time. It is time to enact this "grand bargain". Satish had a good example by naming the fiscal cliff. It was frustrating to see the politicians stall for so long on a very important bill.

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