Four senior White House officials, led by the chief of staff, Denis R. McDonough, met with more than a dozen Senate Republicans on Thursday about prospects for bipartisan budget discussions.
The meeting was following up on groundwork from President Obama’s two recent dinners with some of the lawmakers. But a person familiar with the meeting, who would not be identified talking about the private get-together, was quick to advise against interpreting it as a sign of progress toward a grand bargain to stabilize the debt. Instead, it was described as an early step in a long process, with an end goal of both raising tax revenues and curbing the growth of spending for Medicare and other entitlement benefit programs.
The organizer for the Republicans was Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who also performed that role in picking attendees for an April 10 dinner with Mr. Obama at the White House.
That dinner came a month after the first such gathering that Mr. Obama arranged in March at a restaurant a couple of blocks from the White House. The March 6 dinner opened Mr. Obama’s second-term strategy of outreach to Senate Republicans, reflecting that his legislative relations with Republican leaders in Congress had hit a wall after a tumultuous two years. Since they have refused to negotiate with him further about raising taxes on the wealthy, he has turned to Republican senators who have variously signaled openness to a tax-and-spending compromise along the lines that Mr. Obama wants.
The ultimate goal of the White House strategy is to reach a deal that would get bipartisan approval in the Democratic-controlled Senate, thereby putting pressure on the Republican-controlled House. But first there has to be a deal between the Senate and the White House. The initial report on the administration officials’ trip to the Capitol suggested that the two sides have some way to go and are only now discussing what form any substantive talks would take.
