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Subscribe to RSSObama has four trips to Capitol Hill this week, meeting with Republicans and Democrats. His meetings begin tomorrow with Senate Democrats. On Wednesday, he meets with House Republicans, then on Thursday with both Senate Republicans and House Democrats.
USA Today: “The Capitol trips the rest of the week are part of Obama's new outreach to Republicans, seeking an alternative to the sequestration cuts of $85 billion that began March 1.”
At the Gridiron Dinner Saturday, President Obama poked fun at himself, Bob Woodward, Marco Rubio, John McCain, Ted Cruz and even his Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. Here are Obama’s full remarks.
“President Barack Obama is close to naming Thomas Perez, a civil rights official in the Justice Department, as his choice to head the Department of Labor, two people familiar with the process say,” AP reports. “His nomination could come as early as Monday, the people familiar with the process said Saturday.”
The AP: “Three goals will dominate President Barack Obama’s coming visit to Israel, his first as president: Convincing Israel and its leadership he means what he says about stopping Iran from building a nuclear weapon, mending a deeply troubled relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, in return, enticing Israel back to negotiations with the Palestinians.”
Keeping secrets. “The U.S. government, led by the Pentagon and CIA, censored in the name of national security files that the public requested last year under the Freedom of Information Act more often than at any time since President Barack Obama took office, according to a new analysis by The Associated Press. Overall, the Obama administration last year answered its highest number of requests so far for copies of government documents, emails, photographs and more, and it slightly reduced its backlog of requests from previous years. But it more often cited legal provisions allowing the government to keep records or parts of its records secret, especially a rule intended to protect national security.”
USA Today wonders what’s next for First Lady Michelle Obama: “According to the White House, she and her staff are in the midst of strategizing how the next four years might differ, or might not, from her first term as FLOTUS, generally hailed as a rousing success with her clever blending of conventional and unconventional.”
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The jury is out on whether the "outreach" is a campaign stunt or whether the President gets the severity of the deficit. Bill Clinton got it after Newt helped take both Houses that he should put aside the liberal agenda and work with Congress to balance the budget.
We'll know soon. If the next bunch of inevitable speeches in front of a staged "audience" features a "plea" for Congress to get "reasonable" and use his "balanced" approach, it is same old, same old. I want to believe -- this is not about an election, it is about saving a country, and we only have one President for the next four years.
So you don't think congress should do anything. They've showed they're good at doing nothing.
Question is does congress get the severity of the deficit or are they just playing politics? The jury is still out on whether congress is serious (not) or just looking to the next election.
“The Capitol trips the rest of the week are part of Obama's new outreach to Republicans, seeking an alternative to the sequestration cuts of $85 billion that began March 1.”
A cynic might suggest that the REAL reason for the 'outreach' was that Obama's approval numbers dropped precipitously from about 52% to only about 47% after his "The Sky is Falling" campaign against the sequester cuts fell flat.
It remains to be seen if he's sincere, or whether it's just more of his typical empty rhetoric.
The sequester was ALWAYS about spending cuts - not new taxes, and since the Republicans already gave him his $650 Billion in tax increases on the 'rich', now Obama is stuck in the sequester 'web of his own making'.
The next 'logical' step is for the Democrats to propose cuts to 'entitlements' in return for the Republicans proposing 'tax reform' to close 'loopholes' in order to begin addressing the huge Deficit problems.
Will Obama REALLY propose cuts to 'entitlements'?
Time will tell, but my guess is NO because Obama never saw an expensive new program he didn't like to throw money at - just look at his new Obamacare entitlement, which was not supposed to cost even one dime extra - the CBO's current estimate of cost is now more than $2 TRILLION over 10 years.
Question is Roy will congress repeal their health care, pensions and take a ten percent pay cut. You see you tea people republicans want repeal and cuts, just not to what us tea people republicans rely on. Have you stopped the think how the cuts to Social Security and Medicare will affect you Roy? Or do you just like parroting the tea people's talking points?
President Obama took office during the worst financial crisis in America since the Great Depression. I think he gets the seriousness of the deficit, but doesn't want to slash government spending to fast at the risk of sending us backwards. Republicans seem to think the deficit is what slowed the recovery, when, in fact, it was government spending that got us out it.
As I understand it, the President wants to put the economy on firmer footing, so we don't swing from bubble to crash to bubble again. He wants to grow a stable middle class, instead of increasing the wealth of the 1%, while infrastructure and schools crumble and incomes stagnate. The economy is coming back, but will the recovery only benefit the wealthiest, as it did during the Bush years, or will we have a stronger country overall?
Amy brain-dead class warfare spam post #34, 567
Who are the "1%"? First of all, at least 1/4 of their numbers change each year...some come in, other drop down...it is not the same people!
Second, the wealthiest counties in the country surround Washington DC...so many 1% ers are liberal Democratic bureaucrats and Obama corporate cronies...
Under Bush, 27 million on food stamps...under Obama growing dramatically still..now up to 48 million! Government dependence is the Obama teams goal...
There's a record number of billionaires in 2012, 1,226 to be exact. As that number goes up the number of starving people go up too.
Here is the Obama outreach, to their elitist rich friends in Hollywood...
"Michelle Obama Entertains Senate Hopeful Ashley Judd, Now Playing the First Lady in a New Movie"
The peasant grade school children from the Midwest cant get a tour of the White House, they might touch the furniture...sequester penny pinching..
But who would have guessed, Hollywood liberals supporting Obama get a free tour and a free meal from Michelle, paid for by the riff raff who are not allowed in...
Did they serve low calorie lunches? Or lobster and caviar?
Movie star Angela Bassett just had lunch with First Lady Michelle Obama. In her new movie, Olympus Has Fallen, Bassett plays the tough head of the Secret Service. In real life, Bassett was a surrogate (meaning, an active supporter) last year for President Obama.
"The First Lady sat between me and Ashley Judd, running potentially for Congress," Bassett said. Judd plays the First Lady and since our interview declared her intention to run for the US Senate, from Kentucky, as a Democrat. (Gerard Butler is the president and the star of the film.) Bassett told Mrs. Obama that she and Ashley Judd, are in a movie together and its about the White House. We started talking about females in the secret service agency. [Guess since Judd plays the First Lady, no nude scenes...]
Guests at the luncheon, she said, included othersurrogates ( active supporters), including make up artist Bobbi Brown, Phylicia Rashad, Cynthia Nixon and , wow, as mentioned , Ashley Judd...
Ashley Judd may have suggested that instead of Barack and Michelle "summering" at Martha's Vineyard, they "winter in Scotland" like Ashley and her rich husband.....after all, it's paid for by the riff raff...
Oh, those uppity women socializing in our White House. Why, the nerve.
If you believe the government can spend the economy into stronger footing, you have less understanding than Obama. The government makes no profit, and they suck at every program under government control. It takes money away from the middle class and waste it on shovel ready jobs that turn out to be fake and invest it in green energy flops like solyndra. The rest is given to special interests groups like ACORN to buy votes. He isn't just avoiding big slashes to government spend, he has increased it faster than we can print the money.
Not a big fan of the U.S. military are you?
Your rant against President Obama isn't even remotely based on facts. The government has shrunk during Obama's administration, it hasn't grown. Yes, there are more food stamp recipients - we just came through a recession, Mr. Sane.