Obama presses charm effort to avoid shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama pressed on with his Republican charm offensive Thursday, holding a White House lunch with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan in an effort to stave off a late March government shutdown.

Obama, who has been seen as not doing enough to court Republicans, is now trying to woo them to prevent a government shutdown and reverse $85 billion in automatic across-the-board cuts that took effect last week.

The cuts were designed to be so crude and controversial that the Obama administration and a bitterly divided Congress would be forced to find a better way to cut the federal deficit.

When that didn't happen federal agencies were forced to chop the same rough percentage of their budgets, something economists warn could threaten the economic recovery.

The midday luncheon with Ryan followed the president's Wednesday night dinner with a dozen Republican senators.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama found the dinner "very constructive and very pleasant."

Efforts have shifted to the Senate after House Republicans swiftly passed legislation to keep federal agencies running, while also easing some effects of the budget cuts. If the shutdown can be avoided, it could clear the way for lawmakers and Obama to at least discuss a broader budget agreement.

The looming shutting down is just the latest impasse between Obama and opposition Republicans who want to cut the U.S. deficit without raising revenues. Obama, however, has pressed for a mixed package of spending cuts and increased revenues.

"We don't have to agree on everything, we don't have to solve all of our differences to move forward on finding solutions to the challenges that we face," Carney said.

The president also plans to meet with the rank and file members of both parties in both houses next week — pointedly reaching out to them instead of Republican leaders in Congress.

House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other members of the Republican leadership were left out of Wednesday's dinner with Obama.

Boehner on Thursday said Obama's recent outreach to congressional Republicans is a "hopeful sign" that progress could be made in breaking the recent impasse over how to reduce the federal deficit.

But he said the president will not get very far if he insists on raising taxes.

While the White House says the president's outreach is on issues that go beyond the current fiscal crises and include his push for gun safety measures and an immigration overhaul, the focus remains on keeping the government funded. And the billions of dollars in budget cuts that must be made by the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30 are a major challenge.

Democrats who control the Senate hope to extend flexibility in carrying out the spending cuts to departments other than defense and veterans affairs, which already are protected in the Republican legislation that passed in the House on Wednesday.