Obama, GOP Leaders Test Their Will For Compromise

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's Washington's billion-dollar question: whether President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans can really make nice and forestall ever-greater dysfunction under divided government.

The first clues will come when the president breaks bread with leaders from both parties at the White House.

Three days after an election in which Republicans captured the Senate and padded their House majority, Obama is inviting 16 top-ranking lawmakers to search for areas where they can compromise. On the agenda Friday is a host of unfinished business that Congress must wrap up this year before Republicans fully take over in January.

Both Obama and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have spoken optimistically about the potential for common ground.

But thorny issues like immigration and Obama's health care law are emerging as likely points of conflict.