| Obama to meet with House Republicans |
| The House GOP invited Obama this year to speak at its annual retreat, which will be held in Baltimore from Thursday to Saturday. Coming only two days after Obama’s State of the Union address, the session could herald better relations between the two sides in 2010 — or lift their tensions to an even higher level. |
| Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), the No. 3 in the House GOP leadership and the organizer of the retreat, said House Republicans wanted a stronger relationship with Obama and said the GOP’s goals of working with Obama and winning this fall’s elections are not in conflict. “We serve our party best when we serve our country,” he said. But he added that “the conversation with the president has to be a two-way street.”
Read more at www.washingtonpost.com |
| Obama presses Democrats on health-care bill |
| President Obama made a rare Sunday visit to the Capitol to urge a fractious Democratic caucus to pull together to pass landmark health-care legislation.
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| Obama made no mention of a government-run insurance plan, abortion or other key issues that lawmakers are attempting to resolve in closed-door meetings, including a Sunday evening gathering to address the public option.Read more at www.washingtonpost.com |
We cannot borrow and bail and spend our way back to economic prosperity. | Obama, lawmakers target bailout fund for jobs bill |
| President Barack Obama’s options for spurring job growth may be limited by out-of-control budget deficits, but he is warming to moves by his congressional allies for a jobs-boosting bill. |
| But, mindful of growing anxiety about federal deficits, Obama also said it is primarily up to the private sector to create large numbers of new jobs rather than embarking on a costly jobs creation program. |
| The appetite for debt-financed jobs legislation is far higher on Capitol Hill, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Congress will extend several items in February’s $787 billion economic stimulus measure. Pelosi wants more money for roads and bridges and to save the jobs of firefighters, teachers and other public employees. She also promised help for small businesses reeling from a credit crunch.Read more at www.google.com |
| Obama: More money needed to boost jobs |
| Seeking to reassure the country he’s fighting unemployment, President Obama on Thursday said the government will have to go deeper into debt to create jobs - but stopped short of committing the administration to any specific new spending programs.
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| At the daylong “jobs summit” he convened at the White House, Mr. Obama said the government can’t bring about an economic recovery, but he said it will need to spend more - on top of February’s $787 billion stimulus package - to spur job growth.
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| Critics of the White House event said it amounted to little more than a “photo-op” in the face of sky-high unemployment and widespread unease about the state of the economy.
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| However, Mr. Obama did not extend invitations to some of the best-known voices of the business community, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business.
Read more at washingtontimes.com |
| Both parties question Obama’s war plan |
| Lawmakers from both parties sharply questioned administration officials who came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to defend President Obama’s new Afghanistan war plan and his timeline to eventually end the U.S. military commitment there.
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| Many Republicans expressed support for the president’s plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in the coming months, but Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and others questioned Mr. Obama’s determination to begin withdrawing U.S. forces by July 2011.
Read more at washingtontimes.com |
| We support Mr. Obama’s decision, and this national effort, notwithstanding our concerns about the determination of the President and his party to see it through. Now that he’s committed, so is the country, and one of our abiding principles is that nations should never start (much less escalate) wars they don’t intend to win. |
| As in Iraq, the goal will be as much political as military: Strike and degrade the resurgent Taliban, while also protecting more of the Afghan population as a way to win their cooperation and allegiance for the Afghan government. |
| Mr. Obama could also help himself with Republicans on the war if he governed with less partisanship on domestic policy. Last night’s attempt to once again blame the Bush Administration for every Afghan setback hardly sends a bipartisan message. |
| Above all, as a war President, Mr. Obama will have to spend more of his own political capital persuading the American public that the Afghan campaign is worth the price.Read more at online.wsj.com |
| Dems balk at deployment plan |
| President Obama’s long-awaited decision on the course ahead in Afghanistan provoked a topsy-turvy world on Capitol Hill. |
| Democrats who are usually his most reliable allies expressed criticism, sometimes heatedly, over his failure to detail when the U.S. mission would end. |
| Several Democratic lawmakers who described themselves as supporters of the president called a news conference to denounce his decision.Read more at www.usatoday.com |
| Much of the most favorable reaction to the president’s decision came from Republicans. Dan Senor, who was a top adviser to President George W. Bush, said in a call with reporters that was organized by the Republican National Committee that he applauded the president’s decision — even if it took four months to reach.
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Where Mr. Obama faced the most immediate and vocal resistance to his plan Tuesday was within the left flank of his own party.
Democrats in the House, in particular, said they were wary of voting to send more troops into a war that has become increasingly unpopular and expensive. Rep. Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat, said he expects a movement among some within his party to block funding for the escalation.
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| Obama pledges to avoid repeat of Vietnam |
| Democrats attack Obama for Afghan strategy |
| President Obama gave the orders to begin his new strategy for victory in Afghanistan and spent Monday preparing to sell that plan to the American people in a prime-time address, even as members of his own party emerged as the most persistent skeptics about the wisdom of sinking more money and lives into the 8-year-old conflict.
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| On Capitol Hill, Democratic members of a key House budget subcommittee submitted legislation to create a “war tax” out of concern that a plan to ramp up troops would be prohibitively expensive. Members of the Progressive Caucus sent Mr. Obama a letter advocating a firm timeline.
Read more at www.washingtontimes.com |
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