BUDGET 2011: CUTTING THE DEFICIT WITHOUT REALLY CUTTING

Parsing Rhetoric on Government Spending, Savings from Budget Deal Will the bipartisan deal with the intention of shaved $38.5 billion as of the central budget for 2011 immediately affect the soaring deficit so many Americans say they're worried about.

The answer is not really, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a group of accountants along with analysts who study the plans. The agency says the much-touted deal, approved Thursday, will only set aside $352 million through the end of the fiscal year a tiny division of the $1.4 trillion the U.S. has spent beyond its means.

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OBAMA SAYS HE WANTS OIL PRODUCERS TO BOOST OUTPUT

As the high cost of gasoline takes a toll on politics and pocket books, President Barack Obama said Tuesday he be calling on major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia to increase their oil supplies to help stabilize prices, warning starkly that lack of relief would harm the global economy.

"We are in a lot of conversations with the major oil producers like Saudi Arabia to let them know that it's not going to be good for them if our economy is hobbled because of high oil prices," Obama told a Detroit TV station. His annotations signaled a broad new appeal in the face of skyrocket gasoline prices in the United States and they came as he reiterated a call for Congress to repeal oil industry tax breaks.

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2012 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: OBAMA STRUGGLES, DITTO FOR GOP LINEUP

President Obama has gotten no bounce from his reelection campaign announcement, with his job approval rating dropping by 7 entitlement points since January, his personal popularity at a career low along with 57 percent of Americans censorious of his handling of the economy. Yet he leads the potential GOP field.

There are chances for the Republicans in next year's elections, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, in particular, nipping close to Obama in the latest News-Washington Post poll. Economic pessimism, its highest in two years amid high-ceilinged gab prices, raises serious political peril for the head. But he benefits from two factors: personal approval that, while down, still exceeds his job rating, and considerable doubts about the opposing party's lineup.

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OBAMA: CONGRESS MUST AND WILL RAISE DEBT LIMIT

President Barack Obama confidently predict Friday that a divided Congress would raise the nation borrow limit to cover the staggering federal debt rather than risk triggering a worldwide recession, but he accepted for the first time he would have to offer more spending cuts to Republicans to acquire a deal.

Pushed to the brink, Obama said, the two parties would find "a smart compromise."In an interview with The Associated bear down on, Obama also took pains to promote his long-term plan to cuts trillions of dollars from federal deficits as a fairer, more concerned alternative to a Republican plan with the intent of surged to party-line passage Friday afternoon in the House.

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TIME'S UP: OBAMA AND GOP SCRAMBLE TO HALT SHUTDOWN

Nearing a shutdown that would affect millions, Obama and GOP scramble to reach budget deal uncomfortably close to a deadline, President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders have no more than hours to avert a Friday midnight government shutdown that all sides say would difficulty millions of people and damage a still fragile economy.

Obama said he still hoped to announce an agreement on Friday but did not have "wild optimism."In revealing nothing about what still divides them, Obama and the lawmakers, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and committee Majority organizer Harry Reid, D-Nev., all said another belatedly night of talks in the Oval administrative center had narrowed their differences over cutting federal spending and other matters.

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LIBYA SPEECH: OBAMA MAKES HIS CASE FOR INTERVENTION

President Obama reasserted America's accountability as a world leader to prevent atrocities Monday as he defended interference in Libya amid critic concerned with the cost of military action and involvement in another war.

"To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and – more profoundly – our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nation may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The united States of America is different. And as president, I refuse to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves ahead of taking action," he said during a speech at the National protection University in Washington D.C.

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BARAK OBAMA URGES HOSNI MUBARAK'S DEPARTURE, CALLS EGYPTIAN PROTESTORS 'INSPIRATION'

Crowds Gathered for Largest protest Yet Demand Mubarak's in need of attention Removal President Obama today told embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that relinquishing power was the correct decision, but the transition to a new government "must begin now."

The remarks were a straight response to Mubarak's announcement that he would not seek another term in office when elections are held in September. Though the White House had carefully avoided a firm position on the protests in Egypt for the first several days of demonstration, today it the president stated openly that he supports a new regime in Egypt.

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OBAMA SEEKS TO HIGHLIGHT ECONOMIC SUCCESSES

President Barack Obama needs to cast some light on economic victory stories in the shadows of a slow recovery. And he is looking to find some more.

On Friday, the president movements to Schenectady, N.Y., birthplace of the General Electric Co., to showcase a new GE deal through India and announce a restructured presidential advisory board to focal point on increasing employment and competitiveness.Obama is naming GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt as the head of a commission on Jobs and Competitiveness.The panel replaces Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which had been chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Obama announced late Thursday that Volcker, as expected, was ending his occupancy on the panel.

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WITH OBAMA, HU CONCEDES CHINA'S RIGHTS NEED HELP

In a rare concession on a highly responsive issue, Chinese President Hu Jintao used his White House appointment on Wednesday to acknowledge "a lot still needs to be done" to improve human rights in his population accused of repressing its people. President Barack Obama pushed China to adopt fundamental freedoms but assured Hu the U.S. considers the communist nation a friend and imperative economic partner

Hu's comments met with in need of attention skepticism from human rights advocates, who dismissed them as words backed by thumbs down real history of action. Hu contended his country has "made enormous progress" but provided no specifics.

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OBAMA APPROVAL MOVES AHEAD THOUGH CHALLENGES REMAIN

Obama's Job Approval Has Matched his uppermost in More Than a Year Aided by his response to the Tucson shootings, popular lame-duck legislation and a hint of economic relief, Barack Obama has corresponding his highest job approval rating in more than a year in the latest Post poll, with his ratings for empathy likewise rebounding.

 

It's a remarkable turnaround for a leader so recently hammered in the 2010 midterm elections. Yet the public's mood remainder glum, with attendant, continuing hazards for the president and Congress alike.

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OBAMA CALLS FOR UNITY TO PREVAIL OVER DIVISIVE RHETORIC

Friends of the accused killer, Jared Lee Loughner, stay using the same words to guess at his reasons for gunning downward a congresswoman, several retirees and a nine-year-old girl in a Safeway parking lot. "He loves causing chaos," a former target-shooting buddy told one reporter. "Mainly to just encourage chaos," echoed another high school pal.

On Wednesday night President Obama addressed Loughner's alleged misdeed previous to a crowd of 14,000 in Tucson, Arizona. The speech was watched by millions of Americans, whose primetime network reality dramas had been preempted by a jarring certainty far more consequential. In the living rooms of the nation, the president's message boiled down to this: Loughner had failed.

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AP-GFK POLL: OBAMA, GOP IMPROVE THEIR STANDING

Americans give higher inscription to President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans after a public holiday season of compromise paid dividends for both, according to the latest Associated Press-GfK poll.

At the start of the divided government era, the inspection found that 53 percent of Americans commend of how Obama is doing his job, his best numbers since the divisive health care vote 10 months ago.And, compare with just after the November elections, more now express confidence with the intention of Obama and the new Republican-controlled House can work together to solve the country's most urgent problems, chief among them the struggling economy.

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HOUSE GOP CHALLENGES OBAMA TO JOIN THEM

On the brink of power, House Republicans challenge President Barack Obama on Tuesday to join them in a constrain to cut federal spending, ban earmark for favored projects and overhaul the nation's tax code.

At the same time, incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., conceded the new GOP majority intends to get around its own new rules when it votes next week to wipe out the health care commandment approved by Democrats in 2010."We just need to repeal it," Cantor said of the effort to fulfill one of the party's main promotion promises from last fall.

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OBAMA CONSIDERS J.P. MORGAN'S DALEY AS SENIOR AIDE

President Barack Obama is considering tapping J.P. Morgan Chase executive William Daley for a senior role in the White House, probably chief of staff, a person familiar with the material said on Monday.

Daley is also a former commerce escritoire If he were chosen, the move would help satisfy a clamor in the business community to have greater demonstration for private industry within the administration. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cautioned that no decision has been made. Obama, on the last leg of his Hawaiian vacation, has been considering an array of conscription decisions during his break.

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OBAMA SIGNS SEPT. 11 FIRST RESPONDERS BILL

President Barack Obama said Sunday he was grateful to sign a bill to provide aid to survivors of the Sept. 11 attacks and first responders who became ill operational in the ruins at the World Trade Center.

"We will never forget the selfless courage established by the firefighters, police officers and first responders who risk their lives to save others," Obama said in a statement. "I believe this is a critical step for those who keep on to bear the physical scars of those attacks." The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and reimbursement Act was named after a police officer who died of a respiratory disease he slender during the 9/11 rescue operations. The bill was one of the last procedures Congress passed before adjourning in December

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OBAMA LOBBIES GOP SENATORS TO BACK ARMS PACT

President Barack Obama tried to sway reluctant Republican senators on Monday to back a new arms control treaty with Russia as GOP aversion to giving a politically damaged president another victory intruded on his national security agenda.

 

The White House and senior Democrats expressed confidence that they had the votes for the accord that was signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April. The two countries negotiated the New START pact to cap nuclear weapons and restart weapons inspections in the spirit of U.S. efforts to reset the relationship between the former Cold War foes.

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OBAMA SALUTES SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE, SIGNS TAX BILL

President Barack Obama signed into law a huge, holiday-season tax bill extending cuts for all Americans on Friday, saluting a new spirit of political compromise as Republicans applauded and liberals seethed. The benefits range from tax cuts for millionaires and the middle class to longer-term help for the jobless.

The most significant tax legislation in nearly a decade will avert big increases that would have hit millions of people starting in two weeks on New Year's Day. Declared Obama: "We are here with some good news for the American people this holiday season."This is progress and that's what they sent us here to achieve, Obama said as a rare bipartisan assembly of lawmakers looked on at the White House.

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HOUSE PASSES TAX CUTS EXTENSION; BILL HEADED FOR OBAMA'S DESK

Bill Was Passed by a Bipartisan Vote With More Democrats Actually Voting in Favor of the Deal than Republicans After months of heated debate, backroom arm-twisting and White House negotiations, just before midnight the House of Representatives finally passed a $858 billion tax cuts package, including a two-year extension on all of the Bush-era Tax Cuts a 13-month extension for unemployment insurance benefits, and approval of the controversial estate tax break that gives 6600 families a break worth $23 billion.

The compromise that President Obama negotiated with GOP leaders in Congress to avoid a tax-increase on Jan. 1 passed by a healthy, bipartisan vote  277-148, with more Democrats (139) actually voting in favor of the deal than Republicans (138).The bill now heads to the White House for President Obama's signature.

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BIG LEGAL SETBACK FOR OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL

President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul hit its first major legal roadblock Monday, thrown into doubt by a federal judge's declaration that the heart of the sweeping legislation is unconstitutional. The decision handed Republican foes ammunition for their repeal effort next year as the law heads for almost certain eventual judgment by the U.S.

 

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, a Republican appointee in Richmond, Va., marked the first successful court challenge to any portion of the new law, following two earlier rulings in its favor by Democratic-appointed judges."An individual's personal decision to purchase or decline to purchase health insurance from a private provider is beyond the historical reach of the Commerce Clause," said Hudson, a 2002 appointee of President George W. Bush.

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WHY THE TAX DEAL COULD BE OBAMA'S SALVATION

The "tax compromise" reached by President Obama and Congressional Republicans has left liberal Democrats feeling gypped. But it could end up being a stealth consolation prize for the Democrats after the drubbing they took in the 2010 midterms—and might even pave the way for Obama's reelection in 2012.

Many Democrats are outraged that Obama agreed to an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for America's wealthiest earners, which is a top Republican priority. And opposition to the top-tier tax cut could still scuttle the deal in Congress, where lawmakers have to turn the broad framework into a set of laws able to get enough votes to pass the House and Senate. But by blinking on the tax cut, Obama got a long list of concessions from Republicans on other White House priorities, securing an economic "stimulus" program far bigger than most analysts thought possible in Washington's vitriolic climate.

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