Washington, February 10: US President Barack Obama says he is willing to cooperate on job creation, deficit reduction, and the health care overhaul, but warned Republicans they will be taken to task if they reject cooperation.
Obama also sent a message to his own Democrats that they too will have to compromise their principles if the gridlock in Washington is to be broken.
Talking to reporters on Tuesday after a meeting with both Republicans and Democrats, Obama said, “We can’t afford grandstanding at the expense of actually getting something done.”
But he added very sternly that he would not tolerate inaction.
A bill on jobs may come through soon as both parties see employment as the most pressing matter for voters, he said.
Appealing for bipartisanship, Obama said he wouldn’t hesitate to embrace a good idea from friends in the minority party, “but I also won’t hesitate to condemn… what I consider to be obstinacy.”
Obama’s appeal was his latest effort to reach out to the Republicans following Scott Brown’s surprise election win last month, in which the rival party took the Massachusetts Senate seat the Kennedy family had held for most of the past 50 years.
He said he is ready to compromise on key priorities in a step toward the center that raised pressure on Republicans to meet him halfway.
The Republicans, in little mood to make any major concessions, expressed pleasure that the president expressed a willingness to consider their ideas, but were also suspicious that he may be trying to lay a trap for them — make compromises or be cast as obstructionists.
On energy, Obama showed a willingness to agree to Republican priorities on expanding nuclear energy, offshore drilling, and clean coal technology as a way of creating jobs, if they would agree to his priorities of enhancing alternative energies such as wind and solar power.
——–Agencies