Obama Heads To Hill To Sell Stimulus To GOP

VPM | By David Welna

Published January 27, 2009 at 9:00 PM EST

Updated July 13, 2023

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

This is All Things Considered from NPR News. I’m Robert Siegel.

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

And I’m Michele Norris. And in this segment of the program, the new president tries to set a new precedent. Rather than seeking out fellow Democrats today, Barack Obama went to Capitol Hill to make a pitch to the Republican minority. Mr. Obama is pushing for bipartisan support for the gigantic economic recovery package. In a moment, we’ll hear from a Republican House member about whether they were sold at that meeting. First, NPR’s David Welna at the Capitol.

DAVID WELNA: If there’s a word to describe how Republican lawmakers feel about the $825 billion stimulus package working its way through Congress, it’s “skeptical.” Here’s Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn today contrasting his view of that package with how Democrats see it.

Senator JOHN CORNYN (Republican, Texas): And what I hear is a lot of certitude, but an amazing lack of real certainly about whether this bill is likely to work. And I have questions, serious questions, and doubts about whether it will.

WELNA: And listening to such questions and doubts is how President Obama spent several hours at the Capitol today.

President BARACK OBAMA: Hello, everybody.

WELNA: The president was in good spirits as he came out of a closed-door session with House Republicans.

President OBAMA: I recognize that we’re not going to get 100 percent of support, but I think everybody there felt good about – that I was willing to explain how we put the package together and how we were thinking about it and that we continue to work with some good ideas.

WELNA: Moments later, House Minority Leader John Boehner confirmed it was, indeed, a good meeting he and his fellow Republicans had had with Mr. Obama.

Representative JOHN BOEHNER (Republican, Ohio): We had a very good conversation with the president. He reiterated his desire to work with us, to try to find common ground where we could. Clearly there are some differences that were expressed.

WELNA: Without going into details, Minority Whip Eric Cantor made clear that one of those differences was over the spending that makes up two-thirds of the House stimulus package.

Representative ERIC CANTOR (Republican, Virginia): Because we feel that so much of the spending that’s in the bill frankly, although it may be laudable in and of itself, has no place in the stimulus bill, which ought to be focused like a razor on the preservation, protection, and creation of jobs.

WELNA: Republicans are pushing for a stimulus bill that includes even more tax cuts. And they also feel that, unlike President Obama, congressional Democrats have turned a deaf ear to their demands. Indiana’s Mike Pence accused them today of completely ignoring the president’s call for bipartisan cooperation.

Representative MIKE PENCE (Republican, Indiana): The bill that is scheduled to the come to the floor this week will come to the floor without any consultation among House Republicans and with categorical opposition to the kind of Republican solutions that we believe are necessary to truly get this economy moving again.

WELNA: President Obama went from the House to the Senate where he joined Republican senators for their weekly closed-door luncheon. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl said while the president made no commitments, he did agree to look at a lot of things suggested by Republicans. Kyl, too, laments that congressional Republicans don’t get an equal hearing from the big Democratic majorities that control both chambers.

Representative JOHN KYL (Republican, Arizona): Somebody said, well, but they won. And that’s true. And the question is how do you want to govern? You could govern with 100 percent Democratic solution. I don’t think President Obama wants to do that. In that regard, he may have to work with House and Senate leaders to be a little more solicitous of Republican views.

WELNA: Despite their complaints, Republican lawmakers today seemed genuinely pleased and touched that a new Democratic president would make a trip to Capitol Hill just to hear their views. President Obama may not need many of their votes to get a stimulus package passed, and it’s not clear how much he’s willing to compromise to bring more Republicans onboard, but as he left the Capitol, an aura of goodwill seemed to linger behind. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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David Welna

David Welna is NPR's national security correspondent.

Having previously covered Congress over a 13-year period starting in 2001, Welna reported extensively on matters related to national security. He covered the debates on Capitol Hill over authorizing the use of military force prior to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the expansion of government surveillance practices arising from Congress' approval of the USA PATRIOT Act. Welna reported on congressional probes into the use of torture by U.S. officials interrogating terrorism suspects. He also traveled with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to Afghanistan on the Pentagon chief's first overseas trip in that post.

As a national security correspondent, Welna has continued covering the overseas travel of Pentagon chiefs who've succeeded Hagel. He has also made regular trips to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to provide ongoing coverage of the detention there of alleged "foreign enemy combatants" and the slow-moving prosecution of some of them in an episodically-convened war court. In Washington, he continues to cover national security-related issues being considered by Congress.

In mid-1998, after 16 years of reporting from abroad for NPR, Welna joined NPR's Chicago bureau. During that posting, he reported on a wide range of issues: changes in Midwestern agriculture that threaten the survival of small farms, the personal impact of foreign conflicts and economic crises in the heartland, and efforts to improve public education. His background in Latin America informed his coverage of the saga of Elian Gonzalez both in Miami and in Cuba.

Welna first filed stories for NPR as a freelancer in 1982, based in Buenos Aires. From there, and subsequently from Rio de Janeiro, he covered events throughout South America. In 1995, Welna became the chief of NPR's Mexico bureau.

Additionally, he has reported for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, The Financial Times, and The Times of London. Welna's photography has appeared in Esquire, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Covering a wide range of stories in Latin America, Welna chronicled the wrenching 1985 trial of Argentina's former military leaders who presided over the disappearance of tens of thousands of suspected dissidents. In Brazil, he visited a town in Sao Paulo state called Americana where former slaveholders from America relocated after the Civil War. Welna covered the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, the mass exodus of Cubans who fled the island on rafts in 1994, the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, and the U.S. intervention in Haiti to restore Jean Bertrand Aristide to Haiti's presidency.

Welna was honored with the 2011 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress, given by the National Press Foundation. In 1995, he was awarded an Overseas Press Club award for his coverage of Haiti. During that same year he was chosen by the Latin American Studies Association to receive their annual award for distinguished coverage of Latin America. Welna was awarded a 1997 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. In 2002, Welna was elected by his colleagues to a two-year term as a member of the Executive Committee of the Congressional Radio-Television Correspondents' Galleries.

A native of Minnesota, Welna graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, with a Bachelor of Arts degree and distinction in Latin American Studies. He was subsequently a Thomas J. Watson Foundation fellow. He speaks fluent Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

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