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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is announcing Treasury secretary nominee Jack Lew, pointing to his past work of balancing budgets during the Clinton administration. The president says he feels "bittersweet" about losing Lew as his White House chief of staff but says "my loss will be the nation's gain." He notes that Lew was budget director during the Clinton administration, when the budget ran a surplus for three years. Lew is taking over Treasury as the administration prepares for a new fight with congressional R... Full story
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is announcing Treasury secretary nominee Jack Lew, pointing to his past work of balancing budgets during the Clinton administration. The president says he feels "bittersweet" about losing Lew as his White House chief of staff but says "my loss will be the nation's gain." He notes that Lew was budget director during the Clinton administration, when the budget ran a surplus for three years. Lew is taking over Treasury as the administration prepares for a new fight with congressional R...
WASHINGTON — Whether negotiated in a rush before the new year or left for early January, the fiscal deal President Barack Obama and Congress cobble together will be far smaller than what they initially envisioned as an alternative to purposefully distasteful tax increases and spending cuts. Instead, their deal, if a deal they indeed cut, will put off some big decisions about tax and entitlement changes and leave other deadlines in place that will likely lead to similar moments of brinkmanship, some in just a matter of w...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The end game at hand, the White House and Senate leaders launched a final attempt at compromise Friday night in hopes of preventing a toxic blend of middle-class tax increases and spending cuts from taking effect at the turn of the new year. "I am hopeful and optimistic" of reaching an agreement after months of gridlock, the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said after a meeting with President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders at the White House. AP Photo/ Evan Vucci Senate M...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama was preparing to present a limited fiscal proposal to congressional leaders at a White House meeting Friday, a make-or-break moment for negotiations to avoid across-the-board tax increases and deep spending cuts at the first of the year. Lawmakers and White House officials held out a slim hope for a deal before the new year, but it remained unclear whether congressional passage of legislation palatable to both sides was even possible. The Friday afternoon meeting among congressional l...
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Heading into the campaign's final weeks, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is upping his criticism of President Barack Obama's plans for a second term, accusing the Democrat of failing to tell Americans what he would do with four more years. The Obama campaign is aggressively disputing the notion, claiming it's Romney who hasn't provided specific details to voters. AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, applauds as he i...
TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — Showing no signs of letting up, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are doubling down on claims the other would threaten seniors' golden years. Both campaigns sharpened their critique of the other's Medicare policies in recent days and planned to intensify them yet again on Sunday, as the already acrimonious race for the White House reached a new level. Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, on Saturday told seniors here on Florida's western coast that he sees parallels with Europe's debt c... Full story
CHICAGO — His confidence surging, Mitt Romney pointedly ignored his Republican rivals on the eve of Tuesday's high-stakes primary election in Illinois and turned his fire instead on the Democrat he hopes to oust in the fall. Romney pushed into President Barack Obama's home territory, assailing Obama's economic credentials on the Chicago campus where the president taught for more than a decade. At the same time, GOP contender Rick Santorum struggled to explain why the nation's unemployment rate is not his top concern and w... Full story
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner pushed ahead on negotiating a broad deal to avert the "fiscal cliff," even as the GOP leader readied a backup plan Tuesday to pressure the White House with little time left to avoid a double hit on the economy. With exactly two weeks to automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, Boehner offered a measure, dubbed "plan B," that would cancel tax increases due to take effect Jan. 1 on everyone earning $1 million or less, while allowing tax increases on those e...
NEWTOWN, Conn. — A mournful President Barack Obama said Sunday that the nation is failing to keep its children safe, pledging that change must come after an elementary-school massacre left 20 children dead. AP photo President Obama speaks at a memorial service in Newtown, Conn. Sunday night. "What choice do we have?" Obama said. "Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?" In a vigil for the fallen, in a moment of grief that spread around the world, Obama c...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday condemned attacks on a U.S. consulate in eastern Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador and three American members of his staff. He ordered increased security at U.S. diplomatic posts around the world. In a White House statement, Obama said he had ordered "all necessary resources to support the security of our personnel in Libya, and to increase security at our diplomatic posts around the globe." The attacks occurred Tuesday night in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters a... Full story
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday the United States would "work with the Libyan government to bring to justice" those who killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi. "Make no mistake. Justice will be done," he said in a Rose Garden appearance at the White House. Obama, who ordered an increase in security at U.S. facilities overseas, said he "condemns in the strongest possible terms the outrageous and shocking" attack. He spoke after Republican p... Full story
SEMINOLE, Fla. (AP) — President Barack Obama on Saturday pronounced Republicans "dead wrong" in calling America a country in decline, offering a rebuttal to the "naysayers" who drew attention to the nation's staggering debt and anemic job growth. Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney clawed for advantage in a post-convention push through some of the most closely contested states that marked the opening of the homestretch of the tight race. AP Photo/Chris O'Meara President Obama urges supporters to knock on doors to get p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says his goal of defeating al-Qaida is within reach and that it's time to turn the country's attention to domestic concerns. Just four days after his trip to Afghanistan, Obama said that money saved from ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should help pay down the national debt and go to health care, education and infrastructure. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster President Barack Obama speaks during a ceremony to welcome the University of Kentucky men's college basketball team to the East Room o...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says oil companies are profiting from rising pump prices and he wants Congress to end $4 billion in annual tax breaks for the oil and gas industry. "These tax giveaways aren't right," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. "They aren't smart. And we need to end them." Drivers in 22 states are paying more than the national average of $3.91 per gallon. In Alaska, California and Connecticut, it's $4.20 or more. The price jump has slowed economic growth and hurt O...
President Barack Obama chats with invited guests at Albany International Airport in Albany, N.Y., Friday. AP Photo/Tim Roske SCHENECTADY, New York (AP) — President Barack Obama said Friday that "putting the economy into overdrive" is a top priority, even as a new poll showed the public giving him poor marks in this area. The Associated Press-GfK poll underscored the selling job that confronts the president as he prepares to seek a second term: People like Obama personally, but just 35 percent say the economy's gotten better d...
President Barack Obama chats with invited guests at Albany International Airport in Albany, N.Y., Friday. AP Photo/Tim Roske Obama seeks to highlight nation's econ potential JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press SCHENECTADY, New York (AP) — President Barack Obama said Friday that "putting the economy into overdrive" is a top priority, even as a new poll showed the public giving him poor marks in this area. The Associated Press-GfK poll underscored the selling job that confronts the president as he prepares to seek a second term: P...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday challenged Congress to compromise and "do something big" to reduce long-term deficits, insisting he was willing to make his own tough choices including trimming benefits for wealthy Medicare recipients. Facing a critical Aug. 2 deadline to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama said the public was on his side but "we're running out of time." Obama urged Republican lawmakers to make tough calls, too. He attempted to turn their opposition to any tax increases back against them, w...
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — President Barack Obama told Puerto Ricans Tuesday that he's committed to the success and self-determination of the U.S. island territory, welcome words that could help him with Puerto Rican voters back home as the 2012 presidential election approaches. AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo Activists hang banners that reads in Spanish "Freedom, political and war prisoners," right, and the names of federally imprisoned Puerto Rican nationalists belonging to the militant group Los Macheteros, a day before the a...
WASHINGTON — Challenging Republican budget plans, President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed lowering the nation's future deficits by $4 trillion over a dozen years through a blend of specific measures and vague objectives designed to lower spending in politically sensitive health care programs while also increasing taxes. The president proposed reductions in the growth of Medicare spending, cuts in defense, an overhaul of the tax system to eliminate many loopholes enjoyed by individuals and corporations, and an end to B...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Sunday that "we need to" work out a debt deal within the next 10 days as he convened a meeting with congressional leaders, aiming to fashion a deficit reduction package for the next 10 years. Obama and the eight top House and Senate leaders assembled in the White House Cabinet Room for a rare Sunday session, less than 24 hours after House Speaker John Boehner abandoned plans to negotiate a massive $4 trillion deal for reducing the debt. As the meeting opened, Obama and the l... Full story
WASHINGTON (AP) — A last-minute budget deal forged amid bluster and tough bargaining averted an embarrassing federal shutdown, cut billions in spending and provided the first major test of the divided government that voters ushered in five months ago. Working late into Friday night, congressional and White House negotiators finally agreed on a plan to pay for government operations through the end of September while trimming $38.5 billion in spending. Lawmakers then approved a measure to keep the government running through nex...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama described a debt-crisis session Thursday with congressional leaders as "very constructive" but said the parties were still far apart on deficit reduction proposals. He said he would reconvene the negotiators on Sunday. Thursday's meeting came amid signals that the White House was willing to reduce costs for major benefit programs including Social Security and Medicare, while Republicans indicated they might consider new steps to raise government revenue. "People were frank," Obama said, j...
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — Brimming with pride, President Barack Obama embraced the U.S. commandos he sent after terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, saluting them Friday on behalf of America and people all over the world. "Job well done," he declared. Speaking to a hangar full of cheering soldiers, Obama said: "Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals — intelligence, military over many years — the terrorist leader that struck our nation 9/11 will never threaten America again." AP Photo/Charles Dhara... Full story
Reveling in victory, President Barack Obama this morning signed into law the most sweeping reform of financial regulations since the Great Depression, a package that aims to protect consumers and ensure economic stability from Main Street to Wall Street. The law, pushed through mainly by Democrat s i n Washington's deeply partisan environment, comes almost two years after the infamous near financial meltdown in 2008 in the United States that was felt around the globe. The legislation gives the government new powers to break... Full story
