(RTTNews) -  President Barack Obama Tuesday hosted a meeting with the House and Senate leaders from both parties to map a more bipartisan course for the future.

Obama said he called the meeting in an attempt to address the frustration of the American people at Congress' seeming inability to work together on key issues.

"Although the parties are not going to agree on every single item, there should be some areas where we can agree and we can get some things done even as we have vigorous debates on some of those issues that we don't agree on," Obama said.

He added, "A good place to start … is how we can move forward on a jobs package that encourages small business to hire, that is helping to create the kind of environment where now that we have economic growth people actually are starting to add to their payroll."

Obama said that both parties shared the opinion that lower taxes for small businesses to promote hiring could boost the struggling economic recovery.

"My hope is that both in the House and the Senate we'll see some packages moving over the next several weeks that can provide a jumpstart to hiring and start lowering the unemployment rate," he said.

Obama also noted that there is hope for bipartisan work to reduce the federal budget deficit and seek to get the ballooning national debt under control.
"I think both parties recognize that it's going to take a lot of work," he said. "I have put forward the idea of a fiscal commission and I'm going to be discussing both with my Democratic and Republican colleagues how we can get that moving as quickly as possible."

He added, "I think the American people want to see that concrete action."

On less far reaching topics, Obama said he would also address the question of presidential nominations, many of which have stalled in the Senate, but he also said he planned to spend some time listening to the priorities of the Congressional leaders.

"My hope is this is not going to be a rare situation," he said. "We're going to be doing these on a regular basis."

He added, "I'm confident that if we move forward in a spirit of keeping in mind what's best for the American people that we should be able to accomplish a lot."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., released a statement after the meeting, saying, "Today's meeting with the President was productive. I applaud his continued efforts to work on a bipartisan basis to strengthen our economy."

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