Still lots left on plate as Obama, Ryan break bread
WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama and House Speaker Paul Ryan finally met for a private lunch Tuesday, but legislative wheeling and dealing wasn’t on the menu.
With both men focused largely on leading their respective parties through the 2016 campaign, neitherwas apparently interested in forging the kind of dealmaking relationship seen between many past presidents and speakers.
Obama, for example, wants lawmakers to approve his sweeping trade agreement with Pacific Rim nations, a proposal that Senate Republicans have signaled they may not pass before the next president takes office.
Ryan, meanwhile, left the lunch and returned to Capitol Hill for yet another vote to repeal Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
“It’s almost like it’s Groundhog Day,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
And so it went in their first one-on-one meeting since Ryan ascended to his new post in late October, kicking off the official working relationship between two policy wonks who are unlikely to reach any significant agreements.
“We get along with each other. We agree to disagree on these things, and so we will put those disagreements in check, see where the common ground is,” Ryan said Tuesday before the meeting.
But his assessment late last year, offered to reporters the day Obama called to invite him to the White House, was more pointed. “Arrogant, paternalistic and condescending” was how Ryan described Obama’s presidency.
In many ways, Ryan — who was drafted by Republicans to take over the speakership after John Boehner abruptly stepped down— had more to risk by dining with the president. Conservatives are test-driving the new speaker, who must convince them he’s on their side and unwilling to bend to Democrats.
Obama, meanwhile, has little to lose as he remains hopeful he can work with Congress on key initiatives in his final months.
But Ryan has indicated that he would rather turn the House Republican majority this year into an idea factory on proposals that could provide a substantive foundation to what has so far been a rambunctious GOP presidential nominating process.
So during their sit-down at the WhiteHouse, following a morning meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and SenateMajority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Obama and Ryan found little common ground in their priorities.
On Ryan’s rundown: the Zika virus, the opioid epidemic, criminal justice reform, Puerto Rico’s fiscal challenges and efforts to cure cancer.
For Obama the list included ratifying the trade deal and criminal justice reform, one of the few issues where he and Ryan may find common ground.
As the Republicans left the White House, aides seemed stymied but not surprised. The main thing Republicans seem to want to do, said Earnest, is undo things Obama has done.
“I’m not really sure that qualifies as the contours of a proactive legislative agenda,” he said.