President Barack Obama addressed the nation in his weekly address, released online on the official White House website, conjured up memories of bipartisan compromises in the past to avoid government stalemates.
Obama spoke of Republican President Ronald Reagan making deals with Tip O'Neill, the Democrat's Speaker of the House. He also spoke of the relationship between Republican Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich working with the Democrat's president at the time, Bill Clinton.
The adversarial relationship between the U.S. House of Representatives and the president is nothing new when both parties share control. The checks and balances are not always perfect but the president who can find a common ground with their political enemy can find the path to a second term easy to negotiate.
President Obama used his weekly address to extend his hand to the Republicans and attempt to get a deal done without compromising his core beliefs. He did offer Medicare reform as an olive branch to his Republican counterparts but he also reiterated his desire to remove loopholes in the tax code to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy. The following are examples of Congress working together with a president and one instance that resulted in a stalemate.
Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill Find Common Ground
Chris Mathews wrote an article in The Washington Post on Jan. 18, 2011, of the amicable situation between O'Neill the Speaker of the House and Reagan. Mathews, an aide for O'Neill at the time, compared their situation to today.
Mathews wrote, "There was something there I miss today. They argued, but they were always able to talk. And there were important times for the country when they put their heads together."
Reagan and O'Neill beat each other up politically but they learned the need for civility behind closed doors. Reagan and O'Neill worked together to pass legislation that benefited both sides and the two learned to become friends despite their differences, finding common ground to get legislation passed they could both live with.
Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich Bury the Hatchet in Contentious Relationship
Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich came together in 1996 when voters elected a Republican U.S. House of Representatives to work with Clinton. The election brought about the need for both parties to work together at the behest of the voters.
The two worked together through deep political differences and brought about a reduced deficit and eventually a surplus, eliminated wasteful spending and lowered taxes in one of the most prosperous periods in United States history.
The two learned to put to use their political savvy to give and take while getting what they wanted. Both sides learned they had to compromise and the eventual surplus in the federal budget is a direct result of the success of an executive branch working with the Congress to get things done.
LBJ Struggles After 1966 Election Sweeps in a Republican U.S. House of Representatives
In a short time period from the time Lyndon Baines Johnson took office to the midterm elections in 1966 he pushed through ground breaking legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Economic Opportunity Act.
He also passed the Voter's Rights Act of 1965. In 1966, voters disenchanted with the war in Vietnam and with his new government programs, voted in a Republican Congress and Johnson's sweeping changes came to an end according to the website Lone Star Internet.
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