Obama calls summit a good first step

President Obama concluded his fiscal responsibility summit on Monday with some good-natured jabs at Republicans, a serious appeal to Democrats and a somber assessment of budget problems awaiting a country already facing a $1.3 trillion deficit and future entitlement bills.

His remarks came after more than 130 lawmakers, administration officials, economists, business leaders and academics spent several hours grappling with the issues of taxes, Social Security, health care, budget process and procurement. Obama gave an upbeat wrap-up of the sessions.

"My sense is that, despite partisan differences, despite regional differences and different priorities, everybody is concerned about the legacy we're leaving to our children," he said. "The hope was that if we had a forum like this to start talking about these issues, that it would turn out that there are real opportunities for progress."

He also stressed the need "to make sure that the conversation doesn't end when we go home today. We've got a lot of hard choices to make. We need to build off this afternoon's conversation and work together to forge a consensus."

Such consensus, of course, is not possible without Republicans and Democrats working together -- a point Obama made with a little dramatic touch when he called on the man he defeated for the presidency, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for the first comment. Recalling campaign debates, he said McCain was "extraordinarily consistent and sincere about these issues."

McCain thanked Obama for the courtesy, then raised criticism of the way defense procurement is handled, citing the cost overruns on the new fleet of Marine One helicopters, whose cost has ballooned to $11.2 billion from the original estimate of $6.1 billion. "Your helicopter is now going to cost as much as Air Force One. I don't think that there's any more graphic demonstration of how good ideas have cost the taxpayers an enormous amount of money," McCain said.

Obama quickly noted that he has raised the issue with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "The helicopter I have now seems perfectly adequate to me," he said to laughter. "Of course, I've never had a helicopter before," he said to more laughs. "Maybe I've been deprived and I didn't know it. But I think it is an example of the procurement process gone amok. And we're going to have to fix it."

There was more laughter when Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn urged Obama to keep reaching out to Republicans. "I will certainly do that, Tom, because I'm just a glutton for punishment. And I'm going to keep on talking to [House Minority Whip] Eric Cantor. Someday sooner or later he's going to say, 'Boy, Obama had a good idea.' It's going to happen. You watch."

Cantor laughed. But when the president called on him, he was noncommittal on any issues, saying only that he looked forward to hearing the president's speech tonight to a joint session of Congress.

Amid the humor, Obama also had some advice to both parties about how bipartisanship should work, appealing to Democrats to be more inclusive. That came in response to Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton telling the president that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., needs to let Republicans take part in crafting legislation. "If you really want consensus, I would encourage you to encourage the speaker to have a true open process," Barton said. He called the summit "a good first step, but added, "if this is all we do, it's a sterile step."

In response, Obama expressed reluctance to tell Congress how to operate. "But," he added, "I do want to make this point, and I think it's important. On the one hand, the majority has to be inclusive. On the other hand, the minority has to be constructive." That would allow both sides, he said, "to break out of sort of the rigid day-to-day politics and think long-term."

When talk turned to issues, the president acknowledged "philosophical differences" between the two parties on personal taxes. On corporate taxes, he raised the possibility of taking a page from the 1986 reform effort.

"If you closed loopholes, you could actually lower rates," he said. On Social Security, he praised what he called "a healthy debate," saying it was leading to "a healthy consensus" before noting that "one of the things we want to do is to figure out how do we capture that momentum?"

Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., said the participants had even discussed "words not to use" in the upcoming debate to avoid political problems. Obama very quickly shot back -- "Socialized medicine?"