President Barack Obama will meet with top congressional leaders on Friday to discuss the deep, automatic U.S. government spending cuts slated to go into effect that day, congressional and White House officials said on Wednesday.
Obama is set to meet with Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader.
The meeting would be the first between the leaders this year, despite weeks of haggling over whether and how Washington could avoid the cuts known as the “sequester,” which the White House has warned will cause damage to U.S. economic growth.
Considering he has yet to meet with Congressional leaders this year, and scheduled a post-sequester meeting two days before the cuts are triggered, does this seem like a gamble by the President to lay blame for the sequestration at the feet of Republicans to anybody else?
We have moved a bill in the House twice. We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something.
President Obama has said that unless he gets a second tax hike in eight weeks, he will be forced to let criminals loose on the streets, the meat at your grocery store won’t be inspected and emergency responders will be unable to do their jobs. These are false choices. We are faced with the negative effects of the sequester because Democrats have not been able to take even the smallest step towards controlling spending.Rep. Eric Cantor • Painting President Obama as the primary cause of the looming sequester, and resulting budget cuts, which will take effect if Congress doesn’t act by next week. While neither party is particularly popular at the moment, a recent Pew/USA Today poll shows that the GOP is currently eating much of the public blame for the sequester debate, which we don’t imagine sits well with the House Majority. source
Obama Weighs Stepping In On Gay Marriage Case
Facing heightened expectations from gay rights supporters, the Obama administration is considering urging the Supreme Court to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage - a move that could have a far-reaching impact on same-sex couples across the country.
The administration has one week to file a friend-of-the-court brief with the justices outlining its opinion on the California ban, known as Proposition 8. While an administration brief alone is unlikely to sway the high court, the government’s opinion does carry weight with the justices.
Opponents of the Proposition 8 ban believe the president signaled his intention to file a brief when he declared in last month’s inaugural address that gays and lesbians must be “treated like anyone else under the law.” An administration official said Obama - a former constitutional law professor - was not foreshadowing any legal action in his remarks and was simply restating his personal belief in the right of gays and lesbians to marry, though the official said the administration was considering filing a brief.
The Proposition 8 ballot initiative was approved by California voters in 2008 in response to a state Supreme Court decision that had allowed gay marriage. Twenty-nine other states have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, while nine states and Washington, D.C., recognize same-sex marriage.
Photo Credit: (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
If he were to step in on this, would it help or harm the case in front of the Supreme Court?
Washington Democrats’ newfound concern about the president’s sequester is appreciated, but words alone won’t avert it,” he said. “Replacing the president’s sequester will require a plan to cut spending that will put us on the path to a budget that is balanced in 10 years. To keep these first responders on the job, what other spending is the president willing to cut?Rep. John Boehner • Responding to a speech by President Obama this morning which blamed Republicans for
Speaking on behalf of the White House Correspondents Association, I can say a broad cross section of our members from print, radio, online and TV have today expressed extreme frustration to me about having absolutely no access to the President of the United States this entire weekend. There is a very simple but important principle we will continue to fight for today and in the days ahead: transparency.Fox News White House Correspondent Ed Henry • Speaking on behalf of the White House Press Corps, expressing the group’s frustration at being given limited access to President Obama before/during/after his weekend golf game with Tiger Woods. The White House has defended its handling of the press pool, saying that officials’ actions were consistent both with previous presidential golf games and what was promised to reporters who traveled to Florida last week. source
A look at some of the claims in his State of the Union speech, a glance at the Republican counterargument and how they fit with the facts:
OBAMA: “After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over 6 million new jobs.”
THE FACTS: That’s in the ballpark, as far as it goes. But Obama starts his count not when he took office, but from the point in his first term when job losses were the highest. In doing so, he ignores the 5 million or so jobs that were lost on his watch, up to that point.
The wire service also examined Sen. Marco Rubio’s televised response on behalf of the Republican Party, and takes both men to task for some less-than-accurate statements during the State of the Union and GOP response on Tuesday night.
Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote.President Obama, urging congress—more specifically, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, to put his gun control proposals to a vote.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor tweeting in support of Dream Act during State of the Union.
This seems rather significant, no?
[W]here necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to AmericansPresident Obama. Is this an oblique reference to drone strikes, or just a general pledge to continue fighting terrorism?
We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science, and act before it’s too late.President Obama on climate change
The greatest nation on Earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next.President Obama, saying what many in Washington have been yelling for the last year and a half. He got a huge applause for this one.
I am open to additional reforms from both parties, so long as they don’t violate the guarantee of a secure retirement. Our government shouldn’t make promises we cannot keep – but we must keep the promises we’ve already made.President Obama, rejecting the notion of cutting Social Security to balance the deficit
On Medicare, I’m prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission.President Obama, touting a balanced approach to deficit reduction
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
