On Capitol Hill, the leaders of a deeply unpopular Congress have begun to talk about doing something radical.
Agreeing with one another.
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) met with Republican members of the debt super committee Wednesday.
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In anticipation of President Obama’s address to Congress on jobs Thursday night, leaders in both parties have already identified a few jobs-related bills that could pass both the GOP-led House and the Democrat-held Senate in the coming months.
To agree on any of them would mark a significant change in tone for this divided Congress. So far, Republicans and Democrats have cut deals only when they absolutely had to stave off a disaster, such as a government shutdown or national default.
“We have to focus on areas of commonality and try to transcend differences here,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told reporters Wednesday. “We need to build consensus, and that is going to require us all not to impugn motives or to question patriotism. We have a job to do.”
The prospect of more cooperation is a hopeful sign, but an examination of the bills favored by both parties shows that they are too small-bore to solve the country’s vast problem with unemployment. Several only reauthorize existing programs and are unlikely to give the economy a new boost.
The most positive impact, economists said, might not be what these bills do for the economy, but what they do for Congress itself if they allow a skeptical country to see Washington working together rather than just fighting.
“For them to show their constituents that they can actually work together and pass some measures . . . is positive,” said Jared Bernstein, a former member of President Obama’s economic team who is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Does it go far enough? Not by a long shot. But at least they’re not shooting themselves in the feet.”
Still, change is hard. In the few days since Congress returned from its August recess, Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate have gone right back to sniping at one another. In the House, the number-two Democrat said he thought the lack of job creation was mainly Republicans’ fault — for forcing showdowns that brought Congress twice to the brink of disaster.
“The Republicans talked a lot in the last Congress about how certainty was important to the business community. I think they were right,” Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.). said. “They have spent the year adding to uncertainty.”
But leaders and their aides believe that there is room for these people to agree. The list of potential compromises on jobs, compiled from interviews with Republican and Democratic aides, begins with an extension of a federal payroll tax “holiday.”
That involves reducing the tax that employees have taken out of their wages to fund Social Security, from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. That reduction is already in place for 2011: The administration says it saves the average family about $1,000.
Now, Obama has suggested extending it through 2012. Congressional Democrats are on board — and Cantor said Wednesday that he had supported the idea in the past.
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