House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Thursday that he hopes President Obama's recent outreach efforts to Republican lawmakers are sincere.
Cantor's comments come a day after the second-highest House Republican and a number of his GOP colleagues sat down with Obama in a closed-door meeting. The lawmakers questioned Obama on the federal budget, White House tours and the Keystone XL oil pipeline project.
"I hope that he is sincere in wanting to work together. Because the fact is, there are a lot of things that we do agree on. We know we've got to balance the budget. We know that there are things in common within his proposals and in ours," Cantor said in an interview with CNN.
Obama's sit-down is part of a series of meetings he held with Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate. On Thursday Obama finished the meetings with closed-door sessions with Senate Republicans and House Democrats. Obama met with Senate Democrats on Tuesday.
A week earlier Obama also hosted a private dinner with a dozen Republican lawmakers.
Cantor described the tone of the Wednesday meeting as "appropriate."
Everyone wants to "do right by the people that elect us," Cantor added.
"There's a lot of disaffected Americans out there, working families, who just want to see their life work again," Cantor continued. "And I believe that all of us want to see folks who are in failing schools to have parents have the ability to give their children an opportunity to a quality education."
