Obama Takes Outreach Campaign To Capitol Hill; Outreach Campaign "A Joke"?
BLITZER: President Obama is taking his new outreach campaign directly to Capitol Hill just as leading Republicans are reviving parts of their agenda from the 2012 presidential campaign. His former rival, the House Budget Committee chairman, Paul Ryan, unveiled a new budget proposal today, sounding a lot like he did back out there on the campaign trail last year. Our chief Congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, is joining us live from Capitol Hill right now. Dana, what's the latest that's going on because there's a lot of activity.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There sure is. And you know, Wolf, one of the main reasons Mitt Romney says that he picked Paul Ryan as his running mate in the last campaign season is because Ryan is considered one of the smartest minds and best spokespeople on the issue of Republican economic principles. And today, Ryan doubled down on those ideas.</s>BASH (voice-over): If all this looks familiar, it should.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) BUDGET CHAIRMAN: The House Budget Committee Republican majority putting out yet again a budget that addresses America's needs.</s>BASH: There are some differences between this Paul Ryan budget and those in years past. The biggest, the Election Day smackdown Ryan and Mitt Romney got four months ago. He pushed the same economic policies in that campaign and lost.</s>RYAN: The election didn't go our way. Believe me, I know what that feels like.</s>RYAN: That means we surrender our principles? That means we stop believing in what we believe in? What we believe in this divided government era, we need to put out our vision.</s>BASH: What's in that vision? Cutting spending by $4.6 trillion over ten years and cutting taxes for everyone, especially the wealthy, revamping Medicare into a new system of government subsidized private health plans for those 55 and younger, eliminating the federal Medicaid program for the poor and disabled and replacing it with lump sum payments to the states.</s>RYAN: This is a document, a plan that balanced the budget in ten years.</s>BASH: But to reach that new ten-year goal, Ryan incorporates money from tax increases he campaigned against, but Obama won as part of the fiscal cliff deal.</s>RYAN: Watch out middle class, the tax bill is coming to you. (on-camera) You say that you balanced it in ten years in part by using $600 billion in new taxes that you oppose. Isn't that disingenuous?</s>RYAN: Not at all. We're not going tore- fight the past because we know that that's behind us.</s>BASH (voice-over): He also assumes Obamacare is repealed which has no chance of happening in the near future. At the same time, he still counts $760 billion in Obamacare cuts and Medicare, the very cuts Ryan spoke out against in his vice presidential acceptance speech.</s>RYAN: $716 billion funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed.</s>BASH: Democrats from Capitol Hill to the White House were quick to call Ryan's budget a bunch of gimmicks and misguided policies. But the White House is in the midst of a charm offensive so they also say this.</s>JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president certainly believes that Congressman Ryan is sincere in what he believes his budget represents in terms of policy priorities, and he commends Congressman Ryan for the effort.</s>BASH (on-camera): Now we're going to see a stark contrast and approach to the nation's fiscal woes tomorrow, Wolf. Senate Democrats are going to unveil their budget, and no surprise, it is going to follow along classically Democratic principles. For example, instead of tax cuts, we're going to see a proposal for one trillion, trillion with a T, dollars in tax increases. And I should also note that this is the first time Senate Democrats will release a budget in four years.</s>BLITZER: And the president will then release his own budget in early April. So, there'll be a lot of stuff floating around there. What is the hope that before that debt ceiling has to be raised at the end of July, they'll come up with some sort of grand bargain, if you will?</s>BASH: You know, it is going to be a very different kind of scene than we've seen in years past in that we are seeing the way it's supposed to work here. The House unveiled its budget and we're going to see a vote there. The Senate unveiled its budget, we're going to see a vote there, and then, they're going to try to come together and negotiate in public as opposed to a private between the president and the speaker and, you know, we know from recent history that has not gone well. So, it will be very, very different and we'll see if that helps to bring them together, but as you just saw, they could not be further apart where they stand right now when they're just laying out their political, philosophical principles and how to deal with this.</s>BLITZER: In our next hour, we'll speak with Sen. Patty Murray. She's the chair of the Senate Budget Committee. We'll get an inside into her thinking on her budget proposal that will be released tomorrow. Thanks very much for that, Dana Bash, up on Capitol Hill. Paul Ryan and House Republicans aren't the only ones stealing at least some of the president's thunder up on Capitol Hill. A senior White House official now reportedly criticizing the outreach campaign in a pretty shocking new article.</s>RON FOURNIER, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, NATIONAL JOURNAL: Thanks for having me.</s>BLITZER: Your piece today caused quite a little stir when you quote a senior White House official who you obviously don't name. He requested or she requested anonymity. You quote this official is saying about the president's so-called charm offensive, "This is a joke. We're wasting the president's time and ours. I hope all of you in the media are happy because we're doing it for you." That quote, obviously, surprise a lot of us. Give us some context of what was behind it.</s>FOURNIER: I think what's behind it, as you know, Wolf, you were part of this, is a lot of the senior staff and the political people around the president spent a lot of time these last few months very aggressively and derisively pushing back on suggestions that the president get more engaged in negotiations. So, once he very abruptly last week began the so-called charm offensive, I think a lot of people around him felt kind of hung out to dry and a little upset and kind of pushed it back on the whole narrative. And I think that's what you saw there was a little bit of anger.</s>BLITZER: So, was this official angry or irritated with the president?</s>FOURNIER: No. More, I think, irritated with us, irritated with what they called the narrative that supposedly it was the press that built up this narrative that the president has to be more involved, and now that the president is getting more involved, I think, there's some pushback internally.</s>BLITZER: Listen to what Jay Carney, the White House press secretary said today in response to a question from our own Jim Acosta. Listen to this.</s>CARNEY: I have no idea who said that, but I can tell you that opinion has never been voiced in my presence, in the president's presence, in the west wing. It does not represent president's view. It does not represent the White House's view. And it does not represent the administration's view.</s>BLITZER: Now, you don't want to release the name of this individual.</s>FOURNIER: No. But I will say Jay Carney is a very honorable man and I take at his word that something like this wasn't said in his presence. I also write my piece that I don't know the president's state of mind. I'm not a mind reader. I do know, though, that there are some officials in the White House who feel this way.</s>BLITZER: Another unnamed source in your article said this. Even more jarring than Obama's lack of engagement was his public protestations that there was nothing he could do to strike a deal with the GOP. It made him look weak said the democratic strategist with close ties to the White House. It made him look, can I use the word, "impotent." Give us some context for that. This is a different source than the other.</s>FOURNIER: This is a democratic official close to the White House who was watching the news conference last week when the president said, hey, there's nothing I can do. I can't wave a magic wand. I can't do a Jedi mind trick. There's nothing I can do to bring these Republicans around. Well, that's really isn't a strong politicalization for the president of the United States to take, according to people even close to him. That he has to at least look like he's trying, that he can't be giving up on the idea of bringing the parties together and solving this generational debt problem that we have.</s>BLITZER: You've covered this president, other presidents as we go back to covering Bill Clinton. You've covered this president. What do you think? Do you think that he is serious about this reaching out to Republicans, and potentially, there can be a grand bargain or is it just for show, if you will?</s>FOURNIER: I don't know. That's the question I raise in my story. I do think he's a very serious man. He's a very skilled man. I do think if he really puts his mind to it, he can get a lot done. It's amazing that he's gotten -- been elected which, as you know, is pretty remarkable in modern history. He's a very skilled politician. I might take him at his word and it's going to be very interesting to see what happens, because he's going up against, as you know, very</s>BLITZER: Common sense caucus as he likes to call it. We'll see if he can come up with that. Hey, Ron, thanks for coming in.</s>FOURNIER: Thank you.</s>BLITZER: Later this hour, I'll get reaction from the senior White House adviser, Dan Pfeiffer. He'll join us live from the White House. Coming up, a day after tweeting about her, quote, "very uncomfortable pat down," Sen. Claire McCaskill talks to CNN why she says it's important that it happened to her. And a round of golf is supposed to be relaxing, but not if you end up in a hole that's not supposed to be there. A very scary moment for one foursome. That's coming up. We have details.