WASHINGTON — If President Obama meant his new budget proposal to be an olive branch to Republicans, he will have a chance to test their reaction in person on Wednesday night as he hosts a dozen senators from the opposition party for dinner at the White House.  Mr. Obama scheduled his second outreach dinner with Republican senators for just hours after the release of his nearly $3.8 trillion budget proposal, giving him a chance to talk through the thorny issues of taxes, entitlements and deficits embodied by the plan. But in a week also focused on guns and immigration, aides said, he expected to explore those issues as well.  “This will be, hopefully, in the president’s view, the same kind of constructive conversation that he had the first time with a different group of senators,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. “And he believes that there is a common-sense caucus in Washington that embraces the idea that compromise requires moving off of your absolutist positions, accepting that you don’t get everything you want.”  To organize the dinner, Mr. Obama turned to Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of Georgia, who put together the invitation list. Neither the White House nor Mr. Isakson has publicly announced who will attend, but aides said the dozen expected would not overlap with those at the first dinner last month. In addition to Mr. Isakson, those planning to attend, according to Congressional officials, include Senators John Boozman of Arkansas, Susan Collins of Maine, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Orrin Hatch of Utah and John Thune of South Dakota. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has been invited but may have a conflict.  Mr. Isakson praised the president for hosting the dinner and expressed optimism about its prospects. “I sold houses for 33 years for a living and I never made a deal without sitting down at the table and working things out,” he said on Fox News. “This is a good first step. Maybe we can find some common ground. We’ve got big problems. We need big solutions.”  Though the first dinner was held on neutral territory at a Washington hotel, this one will be held in the Old Family Dining Room at the White House starting at 6:30 p.m. Mr. Isakson’s office said the president’s aides decided the venue without explanation.  Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, goaded the White House about holding the first dinner at an expensive restaurant in a time of austerity and offered to pay for pizza at the second. “If we’re lucky, maybe the pizza will serve to illuminate an important economic point for President Obama,” he said in a statement. “Instead of redistributing the slices, the best way to make everyone happy is to make the pie bigger.”  Whether the outreach will actually produce compromise remains an open question. Mr. Obama has been frustrated by criticism that he does not spend enough time talking with lawmakers and may be using these sessions as a way of undercutting that line of attack. Republicans have argued that the substantive differences are deep and will require a more sustained effort to bridge than one or two meals.  “At the end of the day, this isn’t going to happen at dinners,” Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, one of the Republicans at last month’s dinner, said in an interview. “This is going to happen when the president sends somebody to the Hill and says, don’t come back until you’ve got a deal.”  Still, Mr. Burr and other Republicans who attended last month’s dinner said the sessions were worthwhile and described themselves as impressed by Mr. Obama’s candor and seriousness. That dinner lasted two and a half hours and started out with the president and each of the senators making informal opening statements, then evolved into a more open-ended conversation, according to participants.  “It was a better session than I anticipated,” said Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota.  Mr. Hoeven said he told Mr. Obama: “Mr. President, you’ve got to grind this out with us. You’ve got to stay involved with Congress until we come up with a grand bargain. It’s not easy but you’ve got to stay engaged with us.”  Mr. Hoeven said such serious talks would be more valuable than the president’s campaign-style travel. “It’s my feeling that if he breaks off and goes around the country just saying it’s up to Congress, then it’s not going to work,” he said.  Mr. Burr agreed and said Mr. Obama was willing to show his hand more in private. “He was open to things he publicly said he was against,” Mr. Burr said. “There were some areas where he said he was not personally sold on yet but over time felt that if the reasons were presented, he was open to it. And I think that shows progress.”  Taxes and spending were the marquee issues on the table, but White House aides said that at Wednesday’s dinner Mr. Obama also expected to bring up immigration and in particular gun control, which has been the subject of several speeches lately. “There’s not a script, so I can’t guarantee the direction of the conversation,” said Mr. Carney. But “it will certainly be something the president wants to discuss.”
President Obama has invited a new group of Republican senators to join him for a meal and conversation about spending, taxes and deficits.