Obama Pitches Stimulus Plan to GOP
President Barack Obama visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to angle for support for his proposed stimulus plan … from Republicans. Though he wasn’t likely to win them all over, Obama huddled with members of the House and Senate. He emerged in one piece and “optimistic” after the exchanges.
The New York Times:
Mr. Obama walked into a meeting room in the basement of the capitol at 12:17 p.m., greeted by a moderate burst of applause from the audience of dozens of House Republicans. After a short while, another round of applause could be heard in the hallway outside the closed-door session taking place in Room HC-5. The loudest applause, attendees said, came when Mr. Obama decided to let the questioning go on, even though that meant senators would have to wait for him a while longer. The questioning lasted an hour.
“We had a wonderful exchange of ideas and I continue to be optimistic about our ability to get this recovery package done to put people back to work,” Mr. Obama said, speaking to reporters as he left the House meeting.
As he moved to a similar meeting in the Senate, he added, “I recognize that we’re not going to get 100 percent of support, but I think everybody there felt good that I was willing to explain how we put the package together, how we were thinking about it, and that we continue to welcome some good ideas.”