Tuesday, February 25, 2014
White House Meeting Turns Into a Lightning Round for Obama and Boehner
On Tuesday Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner met to discuss a list of issues, spending less than five and a half minutes on each issue according to the article. After the meeting The Speaker went back and declared that he would not support the President's immigration reform ideas. That statement, as well as his obviously continued disapproval of the Affordable Care Act, doesn't show very much positive progress from that meeting. It seems that the partisanship and gridlock will not be stopping anytime soon in Washington. As usual this meeting was a show, and not intended to change anything. This showmanship on both the Speaker's and the President's part is part of the reason so many American's distrust their government.
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Even if, as Justin said, the whole meeting was just a show, I'm glad it happened. It shows that both sides at are at least willing to talk to each other about sensitive matters. However, in the future I hope that they talk about important matter for more then "5 and a half minutes" each. I know they are both very important people with very little time but I feel
ReplyDeleteIke they could at least fit in 15 minutes a topic. Hopefully something positive will come from this and future meetings and the gridlock will stop.
While I am glad that Boehner is not going to follow through on Obama’s beliefs as to what should be part of immigration reform, I do not hold particularly favorable views of either the speaker or the president. Boehner should be more aggressively fighting the president’s agenda. For example, the speaker outright conceded the debt limit debate on the basis on politics. I am inclined to agree with Justin that the meeting was simply political theater meant to convey some false sense of progress. Thus, this is simply, as Jimmy McMillan calls it, “playing the silly game.”
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ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like you could replace elected members of government with a hord of teenagers and then the government would be more productive. Like really? "No-negoatiation stance"? Subtweeting the president? That's what we've resorted too? Really? I suppose this meeting is a babystep in the positive direction, but at the same time I don't really care because it seems like a publicity stunt. Deep down, under the cynicism, I do hope something constructive does happen because of this.
Boehner's no negotiations stance with Obama is surprising considering he helped pass the new budget with no strings attached. I would have thought he would be more willing to work with Obama. While the article continues to describe this meeting as "constructive," I see it as the opposite. The two men simply reaffirmed their beliefs and called it a day. Nothing productive came out of it.
ReplyDeleteThese are the type of things that make me think, "what do they actually do in Washington?" Seriously though, there was no point in having this meeting if neither of them are willing to compromise. Boehner saying that there will be "no negotiations" is just childish. I'm not saying that Obama's ideas are perfect, I just feel like both sides need to be willing to come together on an agreement about at least one thing. I will never understand why it is so hard to compromise in Washington.
ReplyDeleteGood job, useless government. As everyone who commented has said, this was of course a show. Some people may fall for this and say, oh look, our government is getting along, when in reality they are strengthening the dillusion that is bipartisan compromise. The gridlock is not going to end until a sweeping change of representatives, and not reelection, or someone on one side decides they have had enough and go the other way on an issue. And I'm not sure which one is more likely at this point.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of the time I feel that our government officials do treat this as a game. It's as if they are making strategic moves to defeat the other, when Americans are truly the ones losing. President Obama and Mr. Boehner had a chance to accomplish something in that meeting, but of course there was no progress. Boehner says that he will not support the President's immigration reform, but does he have any sort of alternative? Instead of speaking out against the President, shouldn't he have spent more than five minutes discussing that issue face to face?
ReplyDeleteThe majority of the time I feel that our government officials do treat this as a game. It's as if they are making strategic moves to defeat the other, when Americans are truly the ones losing. President Obama and Mr. Boehner had a chance to accomplish something in that meeting, but of course there was no progress. Boehner says that he will not support the President's immigration reform, but does he have any sort of alternative? Instead of speaking out against the President, shouldn't he have spent more than five minutes discussing that issue face to face?
ReplyDeleteAt this point, at least the fact that Speaker Boehner and President Obama are meeting to discuss issues, even for miniscule amounts of time is good, to say the least. Both men know that they are not going to agree on any of the issueso I'm glad to see there was no BS between them. I don't think this meeting was a waste of time at all.
ReplyDeleteLike Ethan, I am glad to see that the president and The speaker are trying to communicate and work things out. However, this gridlock is going to continue until one side gives in. I respect the fact that Boehner said straight up that he doesnt like any of Obamas ideas.
ReplyDeleteThis meeting could be a sign that Boehner will at least entertain the idea of negotiation with the President. It seems like they were able to talk about the major issues, and hopefully they found points where progress could actually happen. At least now we know these two men know where each other stand.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that Obama and Boehner are at least talking to each other. I'm sure that there are other Republican members of Congress who wouldn't even be able to sit through a conversation with the president without yelling something at him. However, I'm not very optimistic about the chances for cooperation between Congress and the president in the next year and a half; Obama, having been met with incredible opposition for the duration of his presidency, seems to have given up hope as well. It would take drastic efforts on Boehner's part to get a significant group of Republicans to be willing to consistently work constructively with the president.
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