Obama, GOP leaders meet as campaign din hinders compromise

WASHINGTON (AP) — Searching for potential compromise, President Barack Obama is bringing the Republicans who run the House and Senate to the White House to try to hash out an agenda for his final year, even as his top legislative priorities appear to be losing steam.

Obama’s meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday will be his first since the Wisconsin Republican took the helm more than three months ago, the long delay illustrating the lack of urgency for Obama in engaging with a Congress clearly resolved to wait him out. Obama and Ryan planned a private lunch following a joint meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose focus this year is largely on protecting vulnerable Republicans and keeping the Senate in GOP hands come November.

Ahead of the meeting, Ryan told reporters that he was excited to see the start of voting in Iowa’s presidential caucuses Monday night because “what it tells me is the days of Barack Obama’s presidency are numbered.”

As Ryan swept into the speakership in October, the White House was cautiously optimistic that the policy-minded Republican, given a powerful mandate by his unruly caucus, might be able to work with Obama in 2016 on a narrow set of issues with some bipartisan overlap. Although Obama has scaled back his legislative ambitions from the sweeping proposals he pushed earlier in his presidency, he still needs Congress to help finish what he’s started in certain areas — trade being chief among them.

But with campaign season in full bloom, enticing Republicans to work with Obama on much of anything is becoming an increasingly arduous task, especially as many lawmakers facing competitive primaries seek to avoid votes that conservative challengers could use against them. Just as Ryan and McConnell were heading to the White House, the Republicans and Democrats running to replace Obama were shuttling from Iowa to New Hampshire for the next step in a presidential primary that’s now the dominant force in the political conversation.

Ryan, speaking after the weekly GOP caucus, said he and Obama get along personally, but have their policy differences. He said he hoped they could “put those disagreements in check and see where the common ground is.”

Heading into Obama’s final year, perhaps no issue seemed riper for compromise than a criminal justice overhaul that both parties agree is sorely needed. In an early sign of progress, a Senate panel approved legislation easing strict sentencing requirements for some nonviolent offenders.