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Republicans and Democrats don’t see eye-to-eye on most economic issues, but those with a keen ear on Monday may have heard an unusual instance of leaders of both parties echoing each other’s rhetoric.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who was giving a speech at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution billed as an unveiling of House Republicans’ “pro-growth economic plan,” pushed for the need to encourage American innovation – a point frequently emphasized by congressional Democrats and the White House.

“Americans will out-work, out-hustle and, yes, out-innovate the rest of the world,” Cantor said. (Senate Democrats last month held a press conference in which they, too, called for America to “out-innovate” its competitors.)

But the similarities didn’t stop there. Cantor went on to talk about “winning the future” – employing a signature phrase from President Obama’s State of the Union address earlier this year.

“Winning the future will only be hard if we lose out to the bureaucrats, technocrats and would-be autocrats punishing our progress,” Cantor said. “Fifty years from now, people will look at 2011 as the year we began our comeback or the year that we continued our fallback. Let us resolve to work together to make sure that the future belongs to us.”

New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, meanwhile, issued a pre-buttal of Cantor’s speech in which he slammed Republicans on jobs but interestingly touched on the matter of federal regulation – an issue House Republicans have focused on as part of their “cut-and-grow” agenda.

“Since taking over the House, Republicans have been too busy jamming a far-right social agenda onto the federal budget to bring up a single jobs bill for a vote in the House,” Schumer said in a statement. “They have voted to raise taxes on small businesses and end loan guarantees that provide important access to capital. Each day, House Republicans are proving that too much ideology in government is a burden for U.S. businesses just like too much regulation is.”

As he has previously, Cantor on Monday emphasized the need to promote the success of the private sector by cutting spending and regulation, particularly with regard to so-called “gazelles,” or innovation-based start-ups. He also announced that Republicans will bring to the floor a bill that would reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from its current level of 35 percent, a plan House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) previewed last week in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Democrats, meanwhile, have argued that government must invest in industry and education in order to promote innovation; they have also highlighted the benefits of regulation and noted that government rules are necessary to protect the public.

Those facts serve as a reminder that, when it comes to achieving the goal of innovation, just as on the issue of job-creation, both parties have markedly different ideas on how to progress – even if their rhetoric occasionally does overlap.

Asked Monday about the choice of “winning the future,” Cantor’s deputy chief of staff, John Murray responded, “Does Obama own that? I don’t think so.”

“Anyway, the president’s rhetoric doesn’t match up with his policies — period,” Murray continued. “Eric believes spending cuts combined with helping lower barriers for America’s innovation-based start-ups — those gazelles — is the central prescription for getting our economy back on track and grow it over the long-term. We’ve got tough choices to make if we’re going to preserve people’s fair shot at earned success.”

Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that the idea that government over-regulation can be a burden on business is not an exclusively Republican idea, either; Obama himself called for a review of existing federal regulations earlier this year.

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With a debate over government spending raging on the House floor, Democrats late Friday night proposed a temporary extension of the stopgap measure now financing the government that would maintain expenditures generally at 2010 levels through March 31 and avert a federal shutdown.

The current stopgap measure expires on March 4. House Republicans are nearing approval of a package of steep reductions, but Senate Democrats oppose it and the White House has issued a veto threat.

The House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, has said he will not accept a temporary extension without additional cuts. Party leaders concede that there is not enough time for an overall deal on spending given that Congress is in recess next week.

The temporary extension was proposed by the House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California. Democrats, however, do not have the votes to approve it without Republican support.

“This legislation will allow Congress to complete work” on appropriations for the 2011 fiscal year “without punishing the American people by denying them vital services,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement.

“In order to give Congress time to finish the legislation and avoid the calamitous effect of a government shutdown on the American people, I am hopeful Republican leaders will agree to a short-term extension of the freeze as we work to pass a bill the president can sign into law for the remainder of 2011,” she said.

Republicans said Democrats were not willing to cut spending as aggressively as is needed.

“While Republicans in the House of Representatives are making a genuine effort to cut spending and debt, Democrats continue to line up behind the president’s timid proposal for locking in the massive spending levels that Americans rejected just three months ago,” the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a statement. “In other words, Democrat leaders in Congress intend to join the president in resigning themselves to a future of higher unemployment and spiraling debt at a time when Americans are demanding smaller government instead. Americans have been clear: freezing in place the current unsustainable spending levels is simply unacceptable.”

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When House Republicans suffered an embarrassing defeat Tuesday in trying to pass an extension of the Patriot Act, they pointed a finger not at defiant members of their own party, but at Democrats who didn’t play along as expected.

Thirty-four Democrats who had supported past extensions of the Patriot Act voted against another extension on Tuesday, breaking with President Obama and surprising Republicans, who had expected an easy win.

Republican leaders were quick to accuse Democrats of trying to make the new majority look foolish.

“If the same Democrats who voted for those provisions last year, would have voted for them this year, it would have passed,” Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday morning, as his party braced for another bruising day on the floor.

Representative Robert E. Andrews, a New Jersey Democrat who supported an extension of the Patriot Act in 2005, said on Wednesday that politics had nothing to do with his vote. Rather, he said, Republicans made a mistake in rushing the bill to the floor without hearings or amendments. The vote was taken under a suspension of the rules, which required a two-thirds margin for passage.

“In 2005 I think there was a degree of care and deliberation; I don’t think there was this time,” he said “I don’t think there was this time.”

Mr. Andrews is in favor of extending two of the counterterrorism act’s provisions, but has reservations about the so-called “lone wolf” provision, which allows surveillance of someone who is deemed suspicious but who has no known ties to an organized terrorist group.

In the last Congress, the Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would have allowed that provision to expire, while tightening oversight restrictions. That bill never made it to the floor.

“Most members had not thought much about this before yesterday afternoon,” Mr. Andrews said, adding that he talked to Representative John Conyers, the former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, on the House floor just before Tuesday’s vote. “Mr. Conyers persuaded a lot of people that this had been a rushed process here.”

In addition to those Democrats, 26 Republicans voted against the bill, which would have extended for nine months the government’s ability to conduct roving wiretaps of terror suspects, as well as the “lone wolf” provision and a provision easing access to business records. Without an extension all three will expire on Feb. 28.

Democrats have said the defeat is a sign that Republican leaders cannot handle the competing pressures of governing and have already lost control of their caucus. The tally, 277 to 148, fell short of the two-thirds majority needed by 13 votes.

“They didn’t do the basic job of Congressional leadership, which is count votes,” Mr. Andrews said.

Mr. Boehner said Republicans were determined to push the extension through and Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday that he hoped to bring up the legislation again soon under rules allowing passage by a simple majority.

Asked on Wednesday why the initial vote was scheduled so quickly, by the fast track method that avoids the amendment and rule-making process, Mr. Boehner responded simply: “It was.”

Besides Mr. Andrews and Mr. Conyers, the Democrats who changed their positions were Robert Brady of Pennsylvania; Corrine Brown of Florida; André Carson of Indiana; William L. Clay of Missouri; James E. Clyburn of South Carolina; Danny K. Davis of Illinois; Diana DeGette of Colorado; Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut; Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and Anna Eshoo of California.
Also, Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania; John Garamendi of California; Charlie Gonzalez of Texas; Gene Green of Texas; Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois; Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas; Eddie Johnson of Texas; Marcy Kaptur of Ohio; Zoe Lofgren of California; James Moran of Virginia; Bill Owens of New York; Charles B. Rangel of New York; Lucille Roybal-Allard of California; Bobby L. Rush of Illinois; Kurt Schrader of Oregon; Louise Slaughter of New York; Betty Sutton of Ohio; Bennie Thompson of Mississippi; Paul Tonko of New York; Tim Walz of Minnesota; Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, and Anthony Weiner of New York.

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The Senate went dark for a few days on Tuesday as Democrats headed for a policy and political brainstorming session in Charlottesville, Va.

Democrats said the meetings with political strategists and White House officials outside the confines of Capitol Hill will allow them to engage in long-term strategic planning for the year ahead and the tough election landscape in 2012.

“We are finalizing the specific proposals we will push in the Senate to help create jobs and stretch middle-class paychecks,” Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Senate Democrat, said in a statement. “The president gave us a framework in the State of the Union, and we are filling in the details.”

Democrats are due back Thursday and may release a policy agenda for the coming months but no votes are expected again in the Senate until next week.

Some Republicans leaped on the location of the retreat, chiding Democrats for heading to an upscale lodge instead of using nearby facilities as they have in the past.

“No word from Senate Democrats on why they’re holding this retreat at the posh Boars Head Inn outside Charlottesville, instead of across the street at the Library of Congress – where Senate Republicans held their meeting last month,” said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Or at the $621 million Capitol Visitors Center which included
170,000 square feet of new meeting space reserved for members of Congress.”

But Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, was not about to be drawn into any direct criticism of Senate Democrats.

“I think where they choose to hold their retreat is up to them,” Mr. McConnell said.

Both parties in the House typically travel to resorts and large hotels outside Washington for bi-annual policy retreats. Members of the Senate have in recent years conducted much shorter sessions nearby.

But Democrats, with tough spending and deficit issues looming, said they believed they needed more time in an isolated setting for the sort of conversations necessary. Among administration scheduled to appear on Wednesday were the administration’s economic advisers Austan Goolsbee and Gene Sperling.

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The Democratic Party announced Tuesday that Charlotte, N.C., will be the site of its 2012 national convention, with the city winning out over St. Louis, Minneapolis and Cleveland as the place to formally kick off President Obama’s re-election bid.

Mr. Obama, who plans to accept the Democratic nomination at the convention, signed off on the choice after party officials made recommendations from four finalist cities that have been locked in an intense competition for months. The convention is set to begin Sept. 3, 2012.

The selection of Charlotte underscores the belief of Mr. Obama and his advisers that they can compete – and win – in a Southern state. In the 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama won the primary election and went on to become the first Democratic candidate since Jimmy Carter to carry North Carolina in the general election by building a coalition of black voters and many of the state’s new residents who have been drawn to North Carolina because of banking and high-tech jobs.

The announcement was formally made on Tuesday by the first lady, Michelle Obama, in an e-mail to members of Organizing for America, the network of supporters from the 2008 campaign.

“Charlotte is a city marked by its Southern charm, warm hospitality and an ‘up by the bootstraps’ mentality that has propelled the city forward as one of the fastest-growing in the South,” Mrs. Obama wrote. “Vibrant, diverse, and full of opportunity, the Queen City is home to innovative, hardworking folks with big hearts and open minds. And of course, great barbecue.”

The Republican Party announced last year that it would host its convention in Tampa, Fla., giving the influential battleground state of Florida a critical role in the presidential race. Mr. Obama also carried Florida in 2008, but Republicans swept key statewide elections in 2010, so the state’s electoral votes will be among the most coveted in the country.

The Democratic Party’s selection among the four top contenders was guided not only by which city had the best ability to host a major convention, party officials said, but also as a signal for where Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign will aggressively compete in 2012. In addition to narrowly winning North Carolina in 2008, the president also carried Minnesota and Ohio, but lost Missouri.

“We’re looking at an expanding map rather than shrinking back to husband our resources and play defense,” said Tim Kaine, the Democratic National Committee’s chairman. “We were very excited about winning North Carolina in 2008. Putting our convention there is very serious sign that we intend to compete there again.”

“We’re glad to be in the South,” Mr. Kaine said in an interview, adding that the proximity of Virginia, which Mr. Obama also carried in 2008, was an important factor in choosing North Carolina.

To win the convention, Charlotte coined the slogan “Reaching for Tomorrow,” which is intended to symbolize the changing face of the Southern city that is now the country’s second-largest banking center. Democratic officials in Washington debated whether that was the image they were seeking to begin the 2012 campaign, but the president’s surprise win in North Carolina in 2008 underscored the population shifts under way in the state.

North Carolina is a right-to-work state, and Charlotte has no union hotels, which was another point of contention among some Democratic constituencies.

While St. Louis has hosted four Democratic national conventions, and was recommended by Unite Here, the hotel workers’ union, for having the most unionized facilities, there were several other objections raised about the city.

Missouri, which once was considered a critical battleground state, has slipped out of the Democratic Party’s reach in recent presidential elections and it remains an open question whether Mr. Obama will heavily compete in the state in 2012.

One of the country’s most competitive United States Senate races is also taking place in Missouri, with Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, is being heavily focused on by Republicans as she seeks re-election to a second term.

Ms. McCaskill, one of the president’s closest friends in the Senate, took her concerns directly to the White House, according to party leaders familiar with the selection process. She argued that her re-election could be complicated if the convention was held in St. Louis, because the Democratic gathering will almost certainly attract protesters and compete for fund-raising.

The bid for Minneapolis was complicated by the collapse of the roof at the Metrodome late last year during a snowstorm, officials said, while Cleveland was always considered a long-shot because of the limited hotel rooms in the downtown area of the city.

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House Democrats said Friday that they had officially begun their bid to recapture the majority, calling it “Drive for 25,” referring to the 25 seats they need to regain control.

“We need 25 seats to take back the majority,” said Representative Steve Israel of New York, who is the new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “When we get back to the majority, we can help the middle class make it here. We can protect small businesses.”

At a news conference in Cambridge, Md., where the Democrats are holding an “issues retreat,” party leaders outlined a renewed focus on jobs and the economy, and they lambasted the Republicans for spending their first weeks in power trying to repeal the health care overhaul.

Democratic leaders also said they had met with officials from the Ford Motor Company on Friday morning to discuss efforts to promote American manufacturing.

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