I just had a good and constructive discussion here at the White House with Senate and House leadership about how to prevent this tax hike on the middle class. And I’m optimistic we may still be able to reach an agreement that could pass both houses (of Congress) on time; Senators Reid and Connell are working on such an agreement as we speak. But if an agreement isn’t reached in time between Senator Reid and Senator McConnell, then I will urge Senator Reid to bring, to the floor, a basic package for an up-or-down vote — one that protects the middle class from an income tax hike; extends the vital lifeline of unemployment insurance to two million Americans looking for a job; and lays the groundwork for future cooperation on more economic growth and deficit reduction.PRESIDENT OBAMA, updating the nation on the fiscal cliff talks. (via inothernews)
A White House official said on Tuesday that the president could depart as early as Wednesday.
Meanwhile, both chambers of Congress will come back from their holiday hiatus on Thursday and return to work. While there are growing signs that some members of both parties are prepared to accept a deal that raises taxes on people at the highest income levels, there is considerable distance between Republicans and Democrats and no guarantee that an agreement could pass.
Someone, somewhere, is probably gritting their teeth at the thought that the president took a vacation at all. To which we say, telecommuting.
“He’s played a role in nearly every major foreign policy debate in the last 30 years,” Obama said at a brief ceremony formalizing Kerry’s nomination. The former presidential candidate is expected to sail through the nominating process, as he’s generally well-liked amongst Democrats and Republicans alike.
We just have to do the right thing. So call me a hopeless optimist, but I actually still think we can get this done.President Obama • Discussing the current state of the fiscal cliff negotiations ahead of the Christmas holiday. Obama is headed to Hawaii for Christmas, and members of Congress are headed home. ”I met them halfway on taxes and I met them more than have way on spending. In terms of actual dollar amounts, we’re not that far apart,” the president said regarding the deal. House Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” tax plan fell on deaf ears earlier this week, adding to the uncertainty of whether or not there will be a deal. If the two sides can’t come up with a deal by the end of the year, a set of automatic spending cuts commonly referred to as the “fiscal cliff” will take effect.
Love at first blight: Let’s say you’re a fun-loving young single person, and you use the internet to help set up dates with men or women of your choosing. You might expect a few awkward dates here or there, garnished lovingly with some spam email. What you probably wouldn’t expect, however, is for such an email (from the service OKCupid) to contain this weird, apocalyptic anti-Obama image. The body text conspicuously didn’t mention it, but rather played up the 2012 doomsday paranoia (“We’re screwed. You should be too!”) — so, um, who exactly put this image together, or green-lit it?
“President Barack Obama issued a video response Friday to a petition on the White House website calling for the stricter gun control measures in the wake of last week’s mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
“Like the majority of Americans, I believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms,” Obama said in the video. “It’s encouraging that many gun owners have stepped up this week to say there are steps we can take to prevent more tragedies like the one in Newtown.”
Obama continued: “Here’s what I think we should do. This week I called on Congress to take up and pass common-sense legislation that has the support of the majority of the American people, including banning the sale of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, and making sure criminals can’t take advantage of legal loopholes to get their hands on a gun.”
The gun control petition, which had close to 200,000 signatures as of Friday morning, is the most popular effort ever championed on the White House’s “We The People” platform.”
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Way to go to tumblr! This never would have happened without everyone pitching in.
Heed the President’s words though: “If we’re going to succeed, it’s going to take a sustained effort from mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, law enforcement, and responsible gun owners. Organizing, speaking up, calling their members of congress as many times as it takes, standing up and saying enough on behalf of all our kids. That’s how change happens.”
Major props to perzadook for the petition, and bringing the issue to the forefront in a way where Obama responded directly.
Here’s Obama’s response to the gun control petition launched by Perzadook.
“The fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing:” This morning, President Obama announced the formation of what’s essentially a gun control task force—a policy team tasked with crafting concrete proposals to reduce gun violence. The group will be headed by Vice President Biden, and its proposals will be due on the President’s desk “no later than January.” Obama emphatically rejected the notion that the team is a “commission;” he insisted that it will not “be studying the issue for six months and publishing a report that gets read and then pushed aside.” He also pledged to speak of the proposals, whatever they may be, in his State of the Union address next year.
In her last days, my mother occasionally became confused....
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I can’t add much to what’s already been (and will be) ...
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#FMMDI (at 30 Rockefeller Plaza)
TIME Person of the Year: President Obama
(Photo: TIME)
In addition to President Obama, the short list for Person of the Year included Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!; Mohammed Morsi, president of Egypt; Undocumented Americans; Bill and Hillary Clinton; Malala Yousafzai, the student activist from Pakistan who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban; Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple; and the Higgs Boson and Italian physicist Fabiola Giannati.
He won a second term. His signature piece of legislation passed judicial muster. He still has weaknesses (see: drones), but ultimately he’s looking a lot stronger in 2012 than he was in 2011. Seems like an obvious one. Side note: Based on the Flickr iOS app alone — a clear sign that things are turning around at Yahoo — Marissa Mayer would have been an awesome choice.
As a country, we have been through this too many times…we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.President Obama, in a statement on the Sandy Hook shooting. While we don’t mean to be crass at a moment like this, the phrasing of this could suggest an increased focus on gun control within the administration, which would be a major development.
(Source: youtube.com)
We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learn the news I react not as a president but as anybody else would—as a parent. And that was especially true today. I know there’s not a parent in America who doesn’t feel the same overwhelming grief that I do…This evening, Michelle and I will do what every parent in America will do, which is hug our children a little tighter, and we’ll tell them that we love them, and we’ll remind each other how deeply we love one another. But there are families in Connecticut who cannot do that tonight, and they need all of us right now. In the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as Americans, and I will do everything in my power as President to help.President Obama, in a statement on the shooting at Sandy Creek Elementary School (thanks Matt Keys for grabbing the audio).
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