For most of his presidency, Barack Obama has viewed outreach to Congress as a chore rarely to be touched, and rank-and-file Republicans largely a contact point of last resort.
But the onset of across-the-board spending cuts and the refusal of Republican leaders to budge on new revenues to reduce the deficit has brought the president to Capitol Hill in a way few Republican senators say they can remember since he was a senator.
Since this weekend, Mr. Obama has spoken to at least a half-dozen Senate Republicans, trying to restart talks on a comprehensive deficit deal in the wake of the cuts, known as sequestration. In tone and detail, senators said Tuesday that they were hearing a president they had not heard in years.
“Maybe because of sequestration and frustration with the public, the time is right to act, and what I see from the president is probably the most encouraging engagement on a big issue since the early days of his presidency,†said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of Souh Carolina. “He wants to do the big deal.â€
The president spoke around noon Tuesday with Mr. Graham for about 10 minutes, the senator said, and both agreed that a major deal could be reached that raises revenues by closing tax loopholes and slows the growth of Medicare and other entitlements.
“The president is engaging with lawmakers of both parties and will continue to do so,†said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. Repeating a phrase the president first used on Friday, Mr. Carney added that Mr. Obama’s outreach was an effort at “finding the members of the caucus of common sense and working with them to bring a resolution to this challenge.â€
He said Mr. Obama was making clear to Republicans that he remained committed to his compromise offer for long-term deficit reduction, which would combine spending reductions in the fast-growing entitlement programs, chiefly Medicare and Social Security, with new revenues from overhauling the ! tax code to reduce tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.
The question, Mr. Carney added, is whether the new revenues are used mainly for deficit reduction, as the president wants, or diverted to new tax cuts, as Republicans demand â€" tax cuts that Mr. Carney said would disproportionately benefit the wealthy.
Mr. Obama has also had phone conversations with other Republican senators, including Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Rob Portman of Ohio and Bob Corker of Tennessee. Mr. Obama just missed Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, over the weekend. And senior White House aides opened a channel with Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri and a member of his party’s leadership.
Mr. Corker called the conversation “constructive.†Mr. Portman, while reluctant to detail private talks, was also positive.
“I think there’s a window of opportunity between now and the end of the summer,†Mr. Portman said. “This is the last best chance.â€
