File Congressional Republicans for a potential grand economic bargain. Thats where we begin with you this morning. Your thoughts on the new effort of engagement by president obama and hear how optimistic you are that a deficit deal can be reached. Give us a call 2025853883, if you are outside the United States. You can catch up with us on twitter, facebook, or email us. A very good friday morning to you. I want to take you to some of the headlines about what is being called a Charm Offensive by president obama. This from the wall street journal this morning and from the Washington Post and from the New York Times there you have a picture from wednesday night at the Jefferson Hotel in washington, d. C. , where senators including tom coburn and Saxby Chambliss and joined the president for dinner that the president paid for where the deficit reduction issues came up. Heres a story from bloomberg the story goes on to say the overtures skipped over Mitch Mcconnell of kentucky and House Speaker john boehner. Both oppose raising taxes as part of any deal. 1. 20 trillion in spending cuts mandated over the next nine years and shortterm government funding set to expire on march 27, Lawmakers Said the coming weeks could provide a chance for longterm deficit reduction bargains that have eluded congress and obama. And to talk more about the story, i want to bring in one of the riders of that article. Lisa, thanks for waking up with us. Guest thanks for having me. Host tells about the strategy behind a Charm Offensive. Guest the president is doing things he has never done, which is invite republicans to dinner outside the white house. Earlier this week he had a dinner with nearly a dozen Senate Republicans. Yesterday, he had congressman paul ryan to the white house for lunch. Next week hes headed to the bill to sit down with Senate Republicans and later house republicans. This is a big shift for the president , who has taken a lot of criticism for being aloof and not really engaging with members across the aisle or even with his own members in congress. Basically, the white house asked to make efforts to block the sequester that was automatic acrosstheboard budget cuts. It failed to work. A white house and Republican Leaders cannot can deal to do that. So now the president is trying something else, which is trying to build bridges with members across the aisle, in hopes of dividing and conquering, getting rankandfile republicans to agree to a deal that may be the leadership has been reluctant to agree to. Host is it working . Guest its early to tell. The white house has acknowledged the limitations of the strategy. There are still a lot of big differences specifically when it comes to raising revenue or taxes. Obama would like to see increased revenue past parts of any deal. Republicans say they have already done that in their efforts to stop the country from going over the fiscal cliff at the beginning of the year and they are not raising any more taxes unless its part of a tax overhaul that deals that lowers rates as part of that. So there are still pretty major differences. The white house spokesman jay carney yesterday said that we know this is still going to be a long shot, that the differences are still pretty intense. Is too early to say. Im not sure anyone is expressing great confidence. But republicans on the hill that said this is a really good place to start and they welcomed the president s overtures. Host you brought up jay carney is a response yesterday. He was asked whether he should a been reaching out to members sooner. I want to play a clip of jay carney yesterday. [video clip] again and again, this president has moved towards republicans in trying to find Common Ground in these negotiations. As you have seen him say and is evidenced by the meetings he has been having, he remains interested in that. He believes that when he hears, republicans say that they are interested in finding that Common Ground, that they believe its possible to marry entitlement reforms that produce savings with tax reforms that produce savings and achieve deficit reduction. He wants to have that conversation and thats what hes doing. Host lisa is still with us. Where did it change in strategy comes from . Is it attributed to someone specifically at the white house . Guest [indiscernible] democrats and officials assumed that republicans would never be able to swallow the defense cuts that were part of the sequester deal, that they would never sllow allow those cuts to happen. It was a little bit of a shift in the Republican Caucus where they broke their traditional opposition. Many particularly younger house republicans, new members, those that came in with a lot of tea party support, they said that they did not like the way sequestration has been implemented but they would like more specificity in the across theboard cuts. That is a bit of a surprise to the white house, which expected the Republican Caucus would never allow this to happen. Part of the change stems from a miscalculation and from the simple fact that efforts to avert this just is not just did not work, the strategy of going to republican districts, it did not seem to deter republicans from allowing this to go into action. Republicans think they agreed to increase tax cut as part of the fiscal cliff deal and they felt the president was pushing them to do something they already did. That he was asking for too much. Host the reaction from democrats to this Charm Offensive for rankandfile republicans . Guest democrats will not say they dont want the president meeting with republicans. Publicly, they said its a good thing. I think that many particularly on the hill are sceptical anything will come out of it. Host thanks for joining us. Guest . Thanks for having host we are taking your calls and emails and tweets on this subject in our first 45 minutes this morning. If you, its already on facebook i will take a few calls. Rob from new york, new york, on the democratic line. Your take on what is being called a Charm Offensive by president obama . Caller its not going to work, no matter what president obama does. The republicans want to destroy him. The bottom line is without getting into a Campaign Finance reform, the way that elected officials get their hands on money in from all the wealthy corporations and wealthy individuals who persuade them and influence them to get legislation that benefits them, where we have mitt romney paying 13 taxes. I paid over 30 and i dont even make 50 cows and dollars per year. Mitt romneys is a worth 200 million. I dont even make 50,000. If we dont resolve the way elected officials get their hands on campaign money, we will be the hatfield against the mccloys, we will be black against white, middleclass against poor. Host the headline from the Washington Post from san diego, california, roberta. What is your take on president obama bypassing Republican Leaders in congress and going to the rankandfile members . You think its a good strategy . Caller i dont really trust the man to do much of anything that is good for the american citizens. First, i am an american. I vote republican, but i never voted republican or any party my whole life. I always have believed when we vote, we should vote american. We have never in my lifetime had the president that does what he does, divides the people, divide them among rich and poor and white and black and men and women, any where there is to divide the nation, he has done that from the white house. He spends money worse than anybody. It costs 180,000 per hour to Fly Air Force one and he is in that airplane every time i see him go back and forth from the white house. I would say a three hour flight and half a million dollars, but then that means you fly back, so its 1 million every time he gets in the plane. Theres something wrong with a man that does not seem to get that he spends more money out here than anybody else does. Host tweets taking your calls and comments and tweets all morning. The president s efforts have gotten pretty good reviews so far from some of the republicans that were at the dinner we mentioned on wednesday night. This from the Washington Post story also, john boehner responded to the president reasons efforts. I want to play a little of it. [video clip] the president is reaching out to republican senators. I know. We went through zero months of Campaign Style events all over the country we went through months of camping style events. It was interesting that this week we have gone 180. After being in office four years, he is actually going to sit down and talk to members. I think it is a hopeful sign. Im hopeful something will come out of it. But if the president continues to insist on tax hikes, i dont think we will get very far. If the president does not believe we have a spending problem, i dont know if we will get very far. But i am optimistic. Host that was House Speaker john boehner yesterday. Now do mark from alabama on our independent line. Good morning. Caller barack obama is too conservative. These to the right of center and is courting the republicans too much. He needs to go back. The man is conservative. I dont know why people pinkie is some kind of socialist. Far from it. He always does everything he can to appease the republicans. He has no backbone. The man is a jellyfish. The rich peoples greed has destroyed the country for the working man. America sucks nowadays. Host the editorial in the wall street journal that the editorial this morning in the wall street journal. Sandy is on the democratic line from columbus, ohio. Good morning. Caller i was calling in for a brief comment on the socalled all of a sudden that these kind of catering to the republicans. He has reached out to them for some time. What he is fighting for that i dont think the American People understand is that we are already at the bottom. The seniors, the unemployed, the working man, and poor. And the cuts that the republicans want you to do, they cannot stand right now. Taxesve always had pay p and we may have to pay a little more at some time in the future. But at this time with the state of the country, you are putting it on the backs of poor people panic and not stand any more right now with food prices, gas, and so forth. The direction hes going by trying to close the loopholes for the rich is they have made a lot of money. Wall street, everybody is way up. Its not middle or halfway ground. The way hes going is the correct way to go. We know that we are eventually going to have to pay a little more. But right now, what can we do . Host i want to go to rose from massachusetts on the independent line. Considering the efforts by the president this week, how optimistic are you that this grand bargain that has been talked about on deficit spending will be reached . Caller i am hopeful, very hopeful. I back president obama 100 . I am on Social Security. He has to increase the medicare cost to the recipients by , i would not mind, because my medicare premiums have stayed the same for 12 years since i first got on it. Everything else has gone up. Host theres room for entitlement reform . Caller yes, there is. Most certainly. There are people that cannot afford it. It goes according to your income. When your income goes up the percentage this year was not much, but when you first got on medicare, you started paying 80 and it is 20 years later and you are still paying the same 80, somethings got to give. Host thanks for calling. I want to point out the story from the New York TimesMinority Leader Nancy Pelosi in the house told reporters yesterday she believes it is important for the president to get to know members of congress and vice versa. [video clip] what you make of this new overture from the white house towards republicans . Has it produced results . I hope so. They seem to be pleased. They talked about immigration and that limits. Its always good. As one who has been a leader in the congress for a while, its always important to understand the motivation of members and what possibilities are in terms of courage. And so, i think it is important that they all get to know which other better. Host wesley from sacramento, california, on the democratic line. Your take on the president s Charm Offensive and how important is it for him to have this personal oneonone time with members of congress . Caller its very important for him to have such a dialogue and reach out to the republicans. But i am a little pessimistic about the returns of his efforts. The lady from san diego called the club about the travels of the president. We forget that george bush put america on a credit card, all of which obama inherited. George bush put two wars on a credit card. We have Mitch Mcconnell and these other clowns in there whos said their number one job is to make sure obama was a one term president. They failed in their efforts. The beat goes on. Obama is my man. Im a retired marine. I hope that he prevails. Thank you. Host a few other headlines heres a picture of the president joined by a group including Vice President joe biden, lawmakers, and members of womens organizations, and the violence against women act on thursday. He said this victory shows that when the American People make their voices heard, washington listens. Thats what mr. Obama said in that ceremony. I also want to go to the front page of the wall street journal, bin laden kin nabbed you can read more about that in a number of papers this morning. One other headlined, un council puts more sanctions on north korea. This is from the front page of the New York Times we will get into those sanctions in the next segment of the washington journal this morning when we look at Foreign Relations issues in the United States. For the next 20 minutes we are staying focused on obamas, offensive and its impact on deficit talks. On twitter kate from scottsdale, arizona, on our independent line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im a firsttime caller, and thank you, cspan. You know the phrase, damned if you do, damned if you dont, it resonates in this country louder than ever before. We have a president who was thwarted from the first day he entered office by this Republican Party. I am not in favor of a party. I am in favor of the attempts and trying. John boehner in his arrogance just in the clip you just showed, he cannot do anything without being insulted, denigrated, disrespected. No president is perfect, but i have never seen i did not vote for a long time because i was so sick of what this country who we are given four options as a president. We have a man who is trying to communicate to us as a people,. Will everybody be pleased . No, but we have to come together and not allow our public figures to insult us as americans by asso disrespectful to west by being so disrespectful to us by not allowing them to Work Together corporate tivoli. For john boehner . Stand up there and talk in the way he did about the president after meeting with the Republican Party the reason he does not work with them is because they dont work with him. Host now to the republican line with marty from michigan. Give us your take on how republicans have tried to work with president. Caller thanks for taking my call. I really appreciate your guys network. Moving the goalposts, moving the football, this is ridiculous. This is not a football game. This is peoples lives. They moved the football. I see john mccain, with a picture of snoopy and theyre moving the football with charlie brown. This is crazy. The republicans dont work with the democrats. They did not work with bush. We went to war. But the democrats voted to go to war, too. The country is at 122 trillion dollars of unfunded debt. 885 billion in medicaid, Social Security its 16 billion. 100 trillion in the debt. We only bring into 0. 40 trillion in Gross Revenue 2. 4 trillion. We need to get together as a people. I agree with the lady who called the last time to say that the president is being insulted. Ive been called a racist because i dont want to see a government that lives outside its means and i dont want to see the country spending my daughters future away. Host on twitter a few other headlines this morning rand paul, the kentucky senator, has gotten some good headlines from his filibuster on the senate floor. Here it is from the baltimore sun, the lead editorial this morning also, this from the Washington Times this morning at all the talk about rand paul has increased speculation about whether he will be weighing a 2016 president ial bid. This from politico back to the subject of the president s Charm Offensive and optimism about coming to a deal on the debt, and edgar has been waiting from beaumont, texas, on the democratic line. Caller good morning. I think the president is doing a good job. He has tried and tried and tried again to try to talk to the republicans to set a deal. He has even tried to compromise with them when he passed to the health care bill. The only reason why they passed it was he had to give them what theyre asking for. Time and time again, the president tried to come up with things to get us out of the deficit we are in, by creating jobs and he put a plan to the republicans about working on the roads and bridges and they voted that down. Wille got a president who go