* Daily Herald…

The jovial nature of previous banter between two former General Assembly colleagues was gone Wednesday as House GOP Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam told President Barack Obama that Congress fears he’s leading the country to the same financial bankruptcy as the state they both hail from.

Roskam, of Wheaton, told the Daily Herald he tried to “teasingly translate” the “reluctance” heard in House Republicans’ voices in dealings with the White House during the closed-door meeting, where even a limited number of staff members were allowed to attend.

“When they hear the president talking about how he approaches the economy, they fear he’s leading in the same direction Illinois is now,” Roskam said he told the president during the meeting in the Capitol basement with 232 Republican members. “Pursuing revenues, not dealing with the underlying spending problems. Higher than average unemployment. What they hear is avoidance behavior.”

The meeting is part of the president’s aggressive outreach effort to Congress over the deficit, which has been nicknamed his “charm offensive.”