Of all the meetings scheduled between President Barack Obama and members of Congress this week, Wednesday's scheduled pow-wow with House Republicans is likely to be the most lively.
Obama, who served as an Illinois senator before rising to the presidency, won't be in familiar territory like he was Tuesday when he met with Senate Democrats. For about an hour this afternoon, he will share a basement room of the Capitol with 232 Republicans, many of whom actively campaigned against his reelection, and others who have publicly accused him of being a "socialist" and an "imperial" leader.
The direct talks will be the first time he has addressed the entire group for three years, when Republicans invited the president to a conference-wide retreat in Baltimore. For many lawmakers, Wednesday's meeting will be the first time they meet Obama face-to-face.
The decision to hold an open discussion with House Republicans is part of a new, so-called "charm offensive" by the White House meant to ease tensions with Capitol Hill. In the aftermath of the failed negotiations to avoid $85 billion in automatic, across-the-board spending cuts last month and the terse conversations involved in finding an alternative to the "fiscal cliff" in January, the relationship between lawmakers and the president could use a bit of thawing.
Obama is expected to address plans for a wide-ranging budget deal, a Herculean task that will require rare, widespread bipartisan cooperation. While both parties pay lip service to the need for debt and deficit reduction, neither can agree on how to achieve it.
Republicans have called for a plan that would overhaul the nation's most expensive entitlement reforms, notably Social Security and Medicare, along with steep cuts to discretionary spending. Republican leaders, in both chambers of Congress, have been outspoken about their unwillingness to budge on taxes, citing the higher rates that came with the fiscal cliff deal earlier this year. Many Democrats are unwilling to touch the entitlements, and they want higher taxes in exchange for cuts.
That sour history hangs over today's meeting, when Obama and Republicans will have a chance to feel out the opposition and hopefully gain a better understanding of whether anyone can seriously consider a "grand bargain."
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