--- title: Here's One Thing that Boehner and Obama Agree On description: Speaker John Boehner and President Obama have both said they can "agree without being disagreeable." But can they act on it? canonical: https://time.com/3660420/obama-boehner-agree-disagreeable/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-08T21:04:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:25:12.673Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's One Thing that Boehner and Obama Agree On og:description: You can disagree without being disagreeable. og:url: https://time.com/3660420/obama-boehner-agree-disagreeable/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e227a8f01a4e30f/6986a2cacd804d70b7cccb23/boehner-obama-isis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5000 og:image:height: 2813 og:image:alt: Barack Obama John Boehner og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's One Thing that Boehner and Obama Agree On twitter:description: You can disagree without being disagreeable. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e227a8f01a4e30f/6986a2cacd804d70b7cccb23/boehner-obama-isis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's One Thing that Boehner and Obama Agree On by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Jan 8, 2015 9:04 PM UTC  US President Barack Obama (R) talks with Speaker of the House, John Boehner, R-Ohio, during a meeting with the bipartisan, bicameral leadership of Congress in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Sept. 9, 2014. US President Barack Obama (R) talks with Speaker of the House, John Boehner, R-Ohio, during a meeting with the bipartisan, bicameral leadership of Congress in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Sept. 9, 2014.Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Jan 8, 2015 9:04 PM UTC As he started his third term as Speaker of the House Tuesday, John Boehner noted that he hoped [to find common ground](http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/06/politics/house-speaker-boehner-vote/) with his fellow lawmakers. “All I ask is that we disagree without being disagreeable,” he said. It was a quietly ironic moment, given that Boehner had just beaten back a conservative uprising from his own side of the aisle. But it was also perhaps a subtle olive branch to the White House. After all, Obama gave nearly the exact same quote back in 2007 when he launched his presidential campaign, while talking about his time as a state legislator. “It was here we learned to disagree without being disagreeable — that it’s possible to compromise so long as you know those principles that can never be compromised; and that so long as we’re willing to listen to each other, we can assume the best in people instead of the worst,” [he said](http://chicago.about.com/od/chicagopeople/a/ObamaRunSpeech.htm). Or maybe Obama, who has a particular love of [quoting President Reagan](http://www.denverpost.com/politics-national/2013/01/six-times-president-obama-has-quoted-reagan/), was just borrowing a phrase from the Great Communicator. After all, Reagan said the same thing in 1981 while talking about his time as governor. “Yes, we had disagreements over such things as welfare reform and budget allocation, but we followed the advice of a one-time mayor of Boston who said, ‘We can disagree without being disagreeable,'” [he said](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=44193). Or maybe this is just one of those Washington clichés that never goes away. You can find politicians as diverse as former [Sen. Bob Kerrey](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24513753/ns/politics-the%5Fnew%5Fyork%5Ftimes/t/dems-eye-possible-changing-guard/#.VK7ib1r%5FQ1c) and [Sen. John McCain](http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/speeches?ID=35e7c143-bd51-4217-a074-d458928ce0cc) using the phrase, which litters the Congressional Record, especially when senators are heaping praise on a retiring lawmaker. According to [The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs](https://books.google.com/books?id=LPZfi4ADcusC&pg=PA56&dq=%22disagree+without+being+disagreeable%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8uWuVO3PLMXCsATsyYCAAw&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22disagree%20without%20being%20disagreeable%22&f=false), one of the earliest uses of the phrase was an anonymous person quoted in the Youngstown (Ohio) _Vindicator_ in 1927\. But while everyone in Washington seems to agree that it’s a good phrase to use, the broader question is whether they can act on it. _Read next:_ [_Jeb’s Shock and Awe Catch-Up Campaign_](http://time.com/3659442/jeb-bush-presidential-campaign-pac/?xid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3660420/obama-boehner-agree-disagreeable/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3660420/obama-boehner-agree-disagreeable/"},"headline":"Here's One Thing that Boehner and Obama Agree On","datePublished":"2015-01-08T21:04:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:25:12.673Z","description":"Speaker John Boehner and President Obama have both said they can \"agree without being disagreeable.\" But can they act on it?","url":"https://time.com/3660420/obama-boehner-agree-disagreeable/","keywords":["Congress","Barack Obama","White House","John Boehner","Ronald Reagan","John McCain"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e227a8f01a4e30f/6986a2cacd804d70b7cccb23/boehner-obama-isis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e227a8f01a4e30f/6986a2cacd804d70b7cccb23/boehner-obama-isis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barack Obama John Boehner","caption":"Barack Obama John Boehner","creditText":"Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3660420/obama-boehner-agree-disagreeable/","name":"Here's One Thing that Boehner and Obama Agree On"}}]}] ```