President Obama Chats About His Meetings

"We had a wonderful exchange of ideas and I continue to be optimistic about our ability to get this recovery package done and people back to work," President Obama said as he left a meeting with House Republicans this afternoon in the Capitol. "Obviously the news over the last couple of days, the number of layoffs that have taken place all across the country has just underscored how severe this recession is and how important it is to react."

The president said, "I recognize that we’re not going to get a hundred percent support, but I think everybody there felt good about — that I was willing to explain how we put the package together, how we were thinking about it, and that we continue it welcome some good ideas."

Minutes later, President Obama arrived at the U.S. Senate to meet with Senate Republicans.

"Hello, everybody," the president said to reporters at the Ohio Clock. "I had a very constructive meeting with the House members, members of the Republican Caucus. I’m a little bit late for my Senate colleagues — former Senate colleagues."

Obama again said that "the main message I have is that the statistics every day underscore the urgency of the economic situation. The American people expect action. They want us to put together a recovery package that puts people back to work, that creates investments that assure our long-term energy independence, an effective health care system, an education system that works. They want our infrastructure rebuilt. And they want it done wisely so that we’re not wasting taxpayer money."

The president recalled, "As I explained to the Republican House Caucus and I will explain to my former Senate colleagues, the recovery package that we’ve proposed and is moving its way through Congress is just one leg in a multi-legged stool. We’re still going to have to have much better financial regulation.  We’ve got to get credit flowing again. We’re going to have to deal with the troubled assets that many banks are still carrying and that make the — that have locked up the credit system. We’re going to have to coordinate with other countries because we now have a global problem."

Obama said he’s "absolutely confident that we can deal with these issues, but the key right now is to make sure that we keep politics to a minimum. There are some legitimate philosophical differences with parts of my plan that the Republicans have and I respect that. In some cases they may just not be as familiar with what’s in the package as I would like. I don’t expect 100 percent agreement from my Republican colleagues, but I do hope that we can all put politics aside and do the American people’s business right now."

And with that — accompanied by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Phil Schiliro, and Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrence Gainer — the president turned away, ignored the questions reporters were shouting, and walked into the LBJ Room just off the Senate Floor.

– Jake Tapper and Matt Jaffe