{"id":12318,"date":"2015-12-23T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T17:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/budget-deal-done-obama-and-congress-go-their-own-ways\/"},"modified":"2015-12-23T09:04:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T17:04:00","slug":"budget-deal-done-obama-and-congress-go-their-own-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/budget-deal-done-obama-and-congress-go-their-own-ways\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget deal done, Obama and Congress go their own ways"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 Five days after Paul Ryan was sworn in as House speaker, the White House promised to invite him to meet President Barack Obama for a perfunctory but traditional photo opportunity. It would be a chance for the leaders to shake hands for the cameras and exchange pledges to work together.<\/p>\n

Ryan never got that invitation.<\/p>\n

It turns out the White House didn\u2019t want a photo marking the advent of a new Republican speaker. And despite the new leadership, neither side was eager to signal a reset in relations. Instead, both Republican and White House officials say they picked up this fall where Obama and former House Speaker John Boehner left off.<\/p>\n

As Ryan himself put it, the House has an agenda and \u201cit doesn\u2019t require the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mutual lack of interest has taken hold with little drama.<\/p>\n

Seeing scant reason to dig in and fight, congressional leaders and the White House reached an agreement on a massive year-end tax and spending package last week, without shutting down the government. The deal represented something once commonplace in Washington: a compromise, with elements for all sides to like and dislike.<\/p>\n

But no one is talking about the dawn of a new era of cooperation.<\/p>\n

\u201cKudos to him,\u201d Obama said of Ryan\u2019s work in \u201cactually\u201d passing a budget the way Congress used to. In his year-end press conference, the president said he had \u201csome optimism\u201d on \u201ca narrow set of issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

After years of battling an unruly opposition, Obama long ago let go of the notion that he could find a secret to working with Congress. As \u201ccharm offensives,\u201d dinners, and golf with Boehner yielded little, the White House relied on executive actions and negotiations with foreign leaders to advance its agenda. With just a year left in office, Obama has pared down his legislative expectations to two major pieces of business \u2014 final approval of the massive Pacific Rim free trade deal and a criminal justice reform bill.<\/p>\n

Republicans complain of a president eager to thwart Congress\u2019 prerogatives, but his allies on Capitol Hill endorse the strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s tried, and thank goodness he came to the realization that the crazy Republicans won\u2019t help him on anything,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

From the perspective of Hill lawmakers \u2014 Republicans, and some Democrats \u2014 their interests are only drifting further away from a lame-duck president.<\/p>\n

Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell see few areas of potential overlap. McConnell has sent mixed signals on criminal justice reform and poured cold water on the prospect for a major Asia trade bill. His goal for 2016 is to get the annual appropriations process back on track and promoting and protecting vulnerable Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n

He blames Obama.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president\u2019s a smart, capable guy but he\u2019s very, very liberal,\u201d McConnell told The AP. \u201cSo you\u2019re left \u2014 when you have a president who\u2019s this liberal \u2014 with a smaller set of things that you can agree to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan says he wants to put together a \u201cbold\u201d GOP agenda that shows what the party stands for and offers an alternative to Democrats in a campaign year.<\/p>\n

That does not include passing legislation intended to win Obama\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe owe the country a fresh approach, a new plan, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cAnd so no, it doesn\u2019t require the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was reason to believe the Ryan era might have ushered in warmer relations. White House officials consider the new speaker an earnest negotiator and have voiced respect for his interest in policy. He was recruited by his party to be a unifier between the conservative and moderate factions in the House, and has shown success wrangling his members.<\/p>\n

But the White House hasn\u2019t changed its approach to Congress very much to account for the new leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question should be less about the relationship between two people and the public perception around that, and more about what is possible with the current makeup of the Republican caucus,\u201d White House communication director Jennifer Psaki said.<\/p>\n

Obama doesn\u2019t see a point in wooing lawmakers, especially because his public advocacy can serve to repel Republican support. That partly explains Ryan\u2019s delayed invitation for the photo opportunity, said an official familiar with the president\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the best thing the president can do is get out of the way, said the official, who wasn\u2019t authorized to speak publicly and demanded anonymity.<\/p>\n

The speaker also isn\u2019t focused on White House invitations, Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck said. The leaders have talked by telephone a handful of times. Ryan attended a White House reception for lawmakers. They chatted at a ceremony on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

After Congress passed its budget deal last week, Obama called to congratulate Ryan. He also invited the speaker to dinner at the White House, Ryan\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

No date was set, however.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Five days after Paul Ryan was sworn in as House speaker, the White House promised to invite him to meet President Barack Obama for a perfunctory but traditional photo opportunity. It would be a chance for the leaders to shake hands for the cameras and exchange pledges to work together. Ryan never got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12318"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}