How many time has Obama met with Republicans on fiscal cliff and sequester?

Answer 1

First, it is very common political rhetoric for one side (in this case, Republicans) to go before the cameras and blame the other side, or to say the president never met with them. But newspaper reports tell a different story. According to various newspapers, President Obama has been meeting with certain key Republicans all along. It is difficult to say how many meetings were held, but they did occur, and there is documentation of that. On the other hand, during the Fiscal Cliff talks, there was a separate bipartisan committee meeting in the Senate, also trying to come up with a deal. And during the sequester talks, there is a similar process, where a group of senators are meeting, while President Obama has also held talks with Republican leaders.

But that has not stopped certain Republican members from complaining there have not been enough meetings with the president. The Republicans object to the president holding what they say are "campaign style" events to rally public support to his plan for solving the fiscal crisis. This aspect of presidential politics is always annoying to the party that is not in power, and understandably so. But there is still considerable evidence that the president, in addition to holding political events, has also met with Republicans to discuss possible solutions.