OBAMACARE EXPLODES IN DEMS' FACES; GOP CIVIL WAR KILLS REPLACEMENT

OBAMACARE EXPLODES IN DEMOCRATS' FACES; GOP INFIGHTING KILLS REPLACEMENT:

DEAR GOD HELP GOP LEADERS IF THEY BLOW ANOTHER GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO REBUILD THIS COUNTRY.


Sources: CBS News, Fox News, YouTube


**** Trump blames Democrats for GOP health care bill failure, says ObamaCare is 'imploding'


President Trump said Friday the White House “learned a lot about loyalty and the vote-getting process” following the dramatic failure of a Republican-backed bill that would have made good on a campaign promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

Trump said House Republicans were 10 to 15 votes shy of getting the bill passed and blamed the defeat on Democrats. House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the bill minutes before a vote was to take place as it became apparent there was not enough support for passage. Democrats were united against it, and a conservative bloc of Republicans were unmoved by 11th-hour negotiations.

“We had no Democratic support,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “They weren’t going to give us a single vote.”

The president added that the “best thing we can do, politically speaking, is let ObamaCare explode. It’s exploding right now… Almost all states have big problems.”

Trump claimed he never said he would “repeal and replace [ObamaCare] within 64 days,” though he repeatedly promised during the campaign he’d do it on Day One.

Ryan, R-Wis., withdrew the legislation after Trump called and asked him to halt debate without a vote.

“We came really close today but we came up short,” Ryan said. He added that Friday’s developments were “not the end of the story” though he immediately pivoted to other items on the GOP agenda, including tax reform.

“We have big, ambitious plans to improve people’s lives,” he said.

Ryan made the walk to the White House shortly after noon to tell the president he lacked the votes to push the bill through. Friday marks the seventh anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act by former President Barack Obama.

The GOP bill would have replaced ObamaCare, which mandated that almost every American have health insurance.

“This was a rejection of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act,” Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez said in a written statement. “In the words of my friend Joe Biden: This is a BFD.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the failed GOP health care bill a “victory for the American people.”

Republicans have spent seven years campaigning against Obama's signature health care law, and cast dozens of votes to repeal it in full or in part. But when they finally got the chance to pass a repeal bill that actually had a chance to get signed, they couldn't pull it off.

What happens next is unclear, but the path ahead on other priorities, such as overhauling the tax code, could grow more daunting.

The development came on the afternoon of a day when the bill, which had been delayed a day earlier, was supposed to come to a vote, come what may. President Trump's top aides had told Ryan to call a vote - and possibly call the bluff of balky Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus.

But instead of picking up support as Friday wore on, the bill went the other direction, with some key lawmakers coming out in opposition.

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, said the bill would raise costs unacceptably on his constituents. Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia, a key moderate Republican, and GOP Rep. David Joyce of Ohio also announced "no" votes.

The defections raised the possibility that the bill would not only lose on the floor, but lose big.

In the face of that evidence, and despite insistences from White House officials and Ryan that Friday was the day to vote, leadership pulled back from the brink.

The GOP bill would have eliminated the Obama statute's unpopular fines on people who do not obtain coverage and would also have removed the often-generous subsidies for those who purchase insurance.

Republican tax credits would have been based on age, not income like Obama's, and the tax boosts Obama imposed on higher-earning people and health care companies would have been repealed. The bill would have ended Obama's Medicaid expansion and trimmed future federal financing for the federal-state program, letting states impose work requirements on some of the 70 million beneficiaries.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the Republican bill would have resulted in 24 million additional uninsured people in a decade and lead to higher out-of-pocket medical costs for many lower-income and people just shy of age 65 when they would become eligible for Medicare. The bill would have blocked federal payments for a year to Planned Parenthood.

Democrats were uniformly opposed. "This bill is pure greed, and real people will suffer and die from it," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state.

OBAMA & HIS OPERATIVES FIGHT AGAINST TRUMP ADMIN (PROTESTS & LEAKS)

OBAMA & HIS OPERATIVES FIGHTING AGAINST TRUMP ADMIN (PROTESTS & LEAKS):

TRUMP ACKNOWLEDGES THIS BUT WON'T LET OBAMA'S OPPOSITION STOP HIM FROM HEALING THIS NATION.

TRUMP SAYS IT'S "JUST POLITICS".


Sources: CNN, Fox News, YouTube


****** Trump: Obama and former aides behind protests, leaks


President Trump said in an exclusive interview Tuesday that he believes former President Barack Obama and his top aides are behind the protests and leaks that have tormented the new administration – and he doesn’t expect it to stop anytime soon.

Trump, during an interview with “Fox & Friends,” blamed Obama acolytes and the ex-president himself for the organized demonstrations that have sprung up nationwide since the Nov. 8 election, and also for the politically embarrassing leaks that have hindered Trump’s messaging.

“I think that President Obama’s behind it because his people are certainly behind it,” Trump said. “And some of the leaks possibly come from that group, you know, some of the leaks – which are very serious leaks, because they’re very bad in terms of national security.”

Trump didn’t provide evidence to support the charge.

He certainly is not alone, though, in his view that top Obama administration officials could be involved. A former senior intelligence official told Fox News earlier this monththat he suspects ex-CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper – among others – were connected to leaks.

Some of those officials have pushed back. A Clapper spokesman, in a recent statement, appeared to distance the former intel boss from any leaks, voicing support for a probe while urging the new administration to take a sober approach to the investigation.

“Leaks need to be investigated, but those investigations should be conducted in a manner that is not disparaging of our dedicated IC professionals, nor destructive to the entire community,” spokesman Shawn Turner said.

Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser, also denied any involvement in leaks in an email to The Atlantic.

“It’s totally absurd and doesn’t make any sense,” he wrote.

But the assertion that Obama – who began his political career as a community organizer – is actively aiding protests against Trump is new. Though, Trump added, it doesn’t necessarily bother him.

“But I also understand that’s politics,” Trump said. “And in terms of him being behind things, that’s politics. And it will probably continue.”

He added: “I’m not really surprised because I understand the way the world works. It’s politics. I mean I’m changing things that he’s wanted to do.”

WHITE HOUSE FIRES CNN, NY TIMES, LA TIMES & POLITICO VIA BRIEFING EXCLUSION

WHITE HOUSE FIRES CNN, NY TIMES, LA TIMES & POLITICO VIA BRIEFING EXCLUSION:

MAINSTREAM MEDIA LIBERAL BIAS vs TRUMP.

TRUMP WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL BECAUSE HE'S A FEARLESS NY MEDIA GENIUS.


Sources: CNN, Alex Jones, Washington Post, NY Times


****** White House blocks CNN, New York Times from press briefing hours after Trump slams media


The White House on Friday barred news outlets — including CNN, the New York Times, Politico and the Los Angeles Times — from attending an off-camera press briefing held by spokesman Sean Spicer, igniting another controversy concerning the relationship between the Trump administration and the media.

The Wall Street Journal, which did participate in the briefing, said in a statement that it was unaware of the exclusions and "had we known at the time, we would not have participated, and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future."

The Washington Post did not have a reporter present at the time of the gaggle.

CNN's Sara Murray went on air to describe what happened:

We lined up.

We were told there was a list ahead of time, which is sort of abnormal, but we put our name on a list. And then when we went to enter, I was blocked by a White House staffer, who said we were not on the list for this gaggle today.

Now, normally, if you were going to do something like this — an extended gaggle, off camera — you would have one person from each news outlet.

As you know, we have multiple people from CNN here every day. So, if you're going to do something beyond a pool, which is sort of the smallest group of reporters that then disseminates the information, you would have one person from every news outlet.

That is not what the White House was doing today. What the White House was doing was handpicking the outlets they wanted in for this briefing.

So Breitbart, the Washington Times, the One America News Network — news outlets that maybe the White House feels are more favorable were all allowed in, whereas I was blocked from entering, Politico was blocked from entering, the New York Times, the L.A. Times. All of these news outlets were blocked from going to a gaggle.

White House Correspondents' Association President Jeff Mason called in to CNN to say the organization is “still getting information about” the decision, adding:

They clearly wanted to have a gaggle that was not on camera and was not the full press corps today. We don't object to there being briefings like that that aren't always on camera, but we have encouraged them when they want to do something like that ... [to] still do it in the press room and do it in a place where all the reporters have a chance to ask questions.

So, we've made that clear, and we're going to continue to have discussions with them about that. And we're not happy about how this happened today.
The Post's Executive Editor Marty Baron issued the following statement:

“It’s appalling that the White House would exclude news outlets like the New York Times, CNN, Politico, the Los Angeles Times, and BuzzFeed from its publicly announced briefings. This is an undemocratic path that the administration is traveling. There is nothing to be gained from the White House restricting the public’s access to information.

We are currently evaluating what our response will be if this sort of thing happens again.”
White House deputy communications director Raj Shah insisted this was all much ado about nothing.

But New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet declared that “nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.”

BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith, whose outlet also was excluded, added this: "While we strongly object to the White House's apparent attempt to punish news outlets whose coverage it does not like, we won't let these latest antics distract us from continuing to cover this administration fairly and aggressively."

Ben Wizner, director of the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union called the White House's move "yet another disturbing example of the Trump administration’s contempt for the vital role a free press plays in our democracy."

White House press secretary Sean Spicer himself had previously criticized the idea of limiting media access to the White House.

Two months ago, in a panel discussion, he said open access for the media is “what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”

recent days, the president has grown increasingly critical of what he calls the "fake news media. Hours before the limited-access gaggle, Trump devoted much of an address at the Conservative Political Action Conference to bashing the media.

“A few days ago, I called the fake news media the enemy of the people, and they are,” the president said. “They are the enemy of the people.”

Fox News anchor Bret Baier quickly discouraged gloating on the right, noting that his network's rivals showed solidarity when the Obama White House tried to freeze out Fox News eight years ago.

In 2009, the Obama administration attempted to exclude Fox News from a round of TV interviews with “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg. Jake Tapper (then of ABC, now of CNN) stood up for one of his network's “sister organizations” during a press briefing.

“Can you explain why it's appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one?” Tapper asked Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary at the time.

Rival networks refused to conduct interviews with Feinberg unless Fox News was granted one, too.

Fox Business Network told The Post that one of its reporters, Blake Burman, also was blocked from participating in the gaggle.

Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts said on air that his network will join others in protesting the exclusion of certain outlets.

PRAY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP & VP PENCE (FLORIDA RALLY)

PRAY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP & VP PENCE:

PRAY FOR THE US MILITARY.


Sources: Right Side Broadcasting, YouTube


I Timothy 2:1-2

" I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

PRES TRUMP SIGNS EXEC ORDER TO UNRAVEL OBAMACARE'S WEB OF DECEIT

PRES TRUMP SIGNS FIRST EXEC ORDER TO UNRAVEL OBAMACARE'S WEB OF DECEIT:

TRUMP DOESN'T NEED TO DELIVER LONG LYING SPEECHES TO TAKE ACTION.

GOD BLESS AMERICA & U.S. MILITARY.


Sources: Fox News, Reuters, YouTube


**** Trump, in Oval Office, signs first executive order on Obamacare

President Donald Trump signed his first executive order on Friday in the Oval Office shortly after his inaugural parade ended, directing agencies to ease the regulatory burdens associated with Obamacare as the U.S. Congress determines how to repeal and replace the health care law.

Trump also signed the commissions for his Defense Secretary James Mattis and his Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, who were confirmed by the Senate on Friday.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer also told reporters that Trump's Chief of Staff Reince Preibus is sending a memo to agencies directing an immediate regulatory freeze.

GOP Calls Out Democrats On Low Job Numbers: Decision 2010 (Videos)

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Sources: MSNBC, Zimbio, Youtube, Google Maps

GOP Leaders Denounce Racist Tea Party Behavior & Slurs

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GOP Leaders Disavow Protesters' Biased Epithets Toward Lawmakers



Nobody condones the racial epithets used toward black lawmakers on Saturday, the second-ranking House Republican said Sunday.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) disavowed the actions by some conservative, "Tea Party" activists who, on Sunday, used the N-word toward Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), and spat at Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.).

"Nobody condones that at all," Cantor said during an appearance on ABC. "There were 30,000 people here in Washington yesterday. And, yes, there were some very awful things said."

The actions toward the protesters drew quick rebukes from members of the Congressional Black Caucus and House Democrats as a whole.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), a gay lawmaker who also faced epithets yesterday based on his sexual orientation, called on the GOP to distance itself from the protesters, while Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) denounced Republican speakers at the rally and demanded they apologize for the actions of the protesters.

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who was one of the speakers at the rally, said he decried the behavior of the protesters "in the strongest terms."

House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Sunday On NBC Meet the Press that the “isolated incidents” at the rally on Saturday were “reprehensible.” But he said that these “few isolated incidents” should obscure the fact millions of Americans fear the impact of the Democrats’ healthcare reform.

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said Sunday on NBC Meet the Press that the incidents were the result of “a handful of people “who just got stupid.”

Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) said that he welcomed debate on Sunday, but pleaded with Pence to ratchet down the tone of the debate.







Dem Rep Calls On GOP To Condemn Biased Slurs Hurled At Frank, Lewis



Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) took to the House floor tonight to call on Republicans to "distance" themselves from the ugly epithets allegedly yelled at minority members of Congress by anti-health care reform protesters gathered on Capitol Hill today.

Ryan called on Republican pols who addressed today's anti-reform rally to "come out and condemn" the protesters for their alleged slurs against black members and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who is openly gay.

"This behavior is irresponsible it does not belong in a civilized society," Ryan said of the protests. Video after the jump.

Ryan seemed visibly upset by the allegations, but he didn't refrain from using a questionable phrase himself to describe the protesters.

"I wanted to come to the floor today after hearing about experiencing and reading some of the reports about what happened here today in the nation's capitol to some of the finest servants that this institution has ever seen by some of these tea bagger protesters who have been out today," he said.

Ryan said that that it was now up to the Republicans to condemn what was said.

"We call on the Republicans to say 'shame on you' to that kind of behavior," he said.




Tea Partiers Call Lewis 'N****r', Frank 'F****t', At Capitol Hill Protest


Tea partiers and other anti-health care activists are known to get rowdy, but today's protest on Capitol Hill--the day before the House is set to vote on historic health care legislation--went beyond the usual chanting and controversial signs, and veered into ugly bigotry and intimidation.

Civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and fellow Congressional Black Caucus member Andre Carson (D-IN) related a particularly jarring encounter with a large crowd of protesters screaming "kill the bill"... and punctuating their chants with the word "nigger."

Standing next to Lewis, emerging from a Democratic caucus meeting with President Obama, Carson said people in the crowd yelled, "kill the bill and then the N-word" several times, while he and Lewis were exiting the Cannon House office building.

"People have been just downright mean," Lewis added.

And that wasn't an isolated incident. Early this afternoon, standing outside a Democratic whip meeting in the Longworth House office building, I watched Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) make his way out the door, en route to the neighboring Rayburn building. As he rounded the corner toward the exit, wading through a huge crowd of tea partiers and other health care protesters, an elderly white man screamed "Barney, you faggot"--a line that caused dozens of his confederates to erupt in laughter.

After that incident, Capitol police threatened to expel the protesters from the building, but were outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed. Tea party protesters equipped with high-end video cameras were summoned to film the encounter and the officers ultimately relented.

After the caucus meeting, TPMDC's Evan McMorris-Santoro caught up with Frank, who reflected on the incident.

"I'm disappointed at a unwillingness to be just civil," Frank said. "[T]he objection to the health care bill has become a proxy for other sentiments."

"Obviously there are perfectly reasonable people that are against this, but the people out there today on the whole--many of them were hateful and abusive," Frank added.

Asked by TPMDC whether today's protesters were more hateful than at other rallies, Frank took issue with party leaders for aligning themselves with the movement.

I do think the leaders of the movement, and this was true of some of the Republicans last year, that they think they are benefiting from this rancor. I mean there are a couple who--you know, Michele Bachmann's rhetoric is inflamatory as well as wholly baseless. And I think there are people there, a few that encourage it.

"If this was my cause, and I saw this angry group yelling and shouting and being so abusive to people, I would ask them to please stop it," Frank concluded. "I think they do more harm than good."



Shortly thereafter, the same group of people surrounded Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) as he entered a first-floor elevator. Above the cacophony, I heard one man call Waxman a "crook" and a "liar."

"This is incredible," House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) told reporters of the slurs. "It's shocking to me." He said he hadn't heard such vitriol since March 15, 1960 when he was protesting segregation laws that forced him to sit in the back of buses. "A lot of us have been saying for a long time that much of this, much of this, is not about health care at all," Clyburn said. "I think a lot of those people today demonstrated this is not about health care."

What is it about, a reporter asked?

"It's about trying to extend a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful."


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Sources: MSNBC, Meet The Press, TPM, Youtube, Google Maps

GOP House Leaders Blame Pelosi For Dysfunction, Partisanship

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House GOP aims Fire At Dem. Leaders


After a spirited back-and-forth with President Barack Obama on Friday, House Republicans re-focused their barbs on a familiar target: House Democratic Leadership.

Obama’s hour-and-a-half exchange with House Republicans didn’t leave either side with much renewed hope for bipartisanship, but GOP leaders muted their criticism of the president after his forceful performance, instead blasting Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

House Minority Leader John Boehner and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor have spent much of the last year bashing Obama and his policies, blaming the president for failing to acknowledge their legislative suggestions.

But after their direct confrontation with Obama, the pair praised the president for spending 90 minutes with them, saying it was a forum “we need to have more of" and expressing confidence that Obama would follow through on more dialogue with Hill Republicans.

Instead, Pelosi and Hoyer were their targets. Boehner and Cantor bashed the House Democrats’ leadership style and placed the future of this session of Congress squarely on Pelosi and Hoyer’s backs.

“It’s really up to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer to carry through,” Boehner said. “I think the president will carry through in terms of having more meetings with us, having more discussions with us, but there’s got to be more than just discussions.”

Pelosi's team quickly pushed back. "Republican leaders continue to complain about the absence of bipartisanship, but they are ignoring some of the facts: More than 100 Republican-sponsored bills passed the House (many with unanimous support), and many other major bills received Republican support," said Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami. "All you hear from Republicans is their opposition to the Recovery Act (which included jobs and middle-class tax cuts), health insurance reform and Wall Street reform."

Pelosi and Boehner will meet next week, a confab scheduled before the retreat, a Democratic leadership aide said.

But Boehner said Democratic leaders have all but closed the door on bipartisanship: They "looked up and said, 'We have a 40-vote majority; we're just going to go it our way.'"

“I think the speaker and the majority leader need to assess how they’re running the House,” he said. “This is not the way the founders envisioned the House working.”

Of course, Boehner wasn't ready to let Obama off the hook entirely.

About two hours after the event ended, Boehner's office issued a news release accusing Obama of repeating "discredited talking points during dialogue with House GOP."


Sources: Politico, MSNBC

GOP & Obama Meet In The Middle; GOP Shines!

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Obama Takes Tough Questions From House GOP


President Obama and House GOP Leaders promised greater efforts to step back from the partisan brink Friday, acknowledging that Washington's toxic political climate has made it increasingly tough to tackle major problems.

The pledge was immediately called into question, however, as the two parties repeatedly expressed sharply differing viewpoints during a rare meeting at a House Republican retreat in Baltimore.

Obama accepted an invitation from House GOP Leaders to address their caucus. His speech Friday was followed by an often pointed question-and-answer session.

"House Republican leaders are grateful for Obama's willingness to come ... and have a frank and honest conversation," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana. "We welcome the dialogue with the president."

The president accused Republicans of frequently mischaracterizing his policy proposals, particularly in the health care debate.

Republicans, in turn, complained the White House and congressional Democrats had ignored their ideas, locked them out of the policy-making process and unfairly labeled them as obstructionists.

"Both sides can take some blame for a sour climate on Capitol Hill," Obama said, adding that Democrats and Republicans need to be careful in choosing their rhetoric. "A ton of civility instead of slash and burn would be helpful."

The president highlighted what he said was problematic GOP rhetoric on his health care proposals. Republicans, he said, had characterized the proposed program as some "kind of Bolshevik plot."

In fact, he said that much of his plan was similar to what Republicans had proposed during the failed Clinton-era push to overhaul health care.

Both sides need to "close the gap a little bit between rhetoric and reality," the president argued. Calling his health care plan "some wild-eyed plot to impose big government in every aspect of our lives" leaves little room for bipartisan negotiation, Obama said.

The president questioned how Republicans could negotiate in good faith after using such rhetoric without exposing themselves to conservative primary challengers.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he tried to be honest about differences over administration proposals.

"I truly believe a government takeover of health care ... is the essence of their bill," Boehner said.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Obama conceded there's been a failure on his part to "try to foster better communications even if there's disagreement."

He has promised regular meetings with GOP leaders in the future. Boehner welcomed the gesture but said it is equally important for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give Republicans a greater role in the legislative process.

Bipartisanship "isn't about taking one little Republican idea and throwing it in a 2,000-page bill," he said after Obama argued that Democratic leaders had taken GOP proposals into account in the health care debate.

"If you're really serious about building a bipartisan product ... you need to do it from the beginning."

Republicans criticized the president for failing to fulfill a promise to televise all the health care negotiations on C-SPAN. Obama called the criticism "legitimate" but noted the overwhelming majority of committee hearings on the legislation had been conducted in front of TV cameras.

After the bills had cleared the committees, however, it became a "messy process," he conceded.

"I take responsibility for not having structured it in a way where it was all taking place in one place that could be filmed," he said.

Obama and Republicans strongly criticized each other on a range of issues tied to taxes and spending.

GOP leaders said Obama's $862 billion stimulus plan had been ineffective and repeatedly urged the president to consider an across-the-board tax cut.

Obama said it would be wrong to slash taxes for the richest Americans or the banking sector in a weak economy. He also argued that the stimulus program had saved key jobs in GOP districts across the country.

"There is not a single person in here who, had it not been for what was in the stimulus package, wouldn't be going home to more teachers laid off, more firefighters laid off, more cops laid off," he said.

"The component parts of the Recovery Act are consistent" with what many Republicans say are important, he said.

The stimulus helped in terms of "rebuilding our infrastructure, tax cuts for families and businesses, and making sure that we were providing states and individuals some support when the roof was caving in."

The president said he agrees with the GOP emphasis on fiscal responsibility but hinted that Republicans could do more to help control spending, including curtailing legislative earmark requests for their own districts.

He also said he is willing to work with Republicans on the enactment of a line-item veto.

"There's not a president out there that wouldn't like that," he said.

Despite their disagreements, both sides agreed the day's dialogue was a step in the right direction.

"I hope that the conversation we begin here doesn't end here, that we can continue our dialogue in the days ahead," Obama said.

The day "went very well," Boehner replied later. "There are issues we do agree on" and Republicans will work to find "common ground."

We should "set aside perhaps the things that the president believes in that we philosophically don't, but if there is some common ground we ought to go ahead forward with those," said Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia.

Friday's meeting, he said, was "the kind of discussion, frankly, that we need to have more of."


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Sources: CNN, MSNBC, Google Maps