Congress kills funding for Obama's high-speed rail

The House and Senate voted today to eliminate most of the $8 billion that President Obama sought next year for his vision of nationwide high-speed rail.

Republicans trumpeted what they said was the death of the president's six-year, $53 billion plan, saying the future of fast trains lies along the Northeast Corridor, The Hill writes. The funding was eliminated in a deal with Democrats on a spending bill for the Transportation Department and other agencies. The measure cleared the House by 298-121 and the Senate by 70-30 on its way to Obama's desk.

"Today's vote marks the end to President Obama's misguided high-speed rail program, but it also represents a new beginning for true intercity high-speed passenger rail service in America," Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, said in a statement.

The Associated Press points out, however, that "billions of dollars still in the pipeline will ensure work will continue on some projects. And it's still possible money from another transportation grant program can be steered to high-speed trains."

California was hoping for several billion dollars to keep its plans on track for what could be the nation's first genuine bullet-train network, with trains reaching 220 mph. Construction on the first phase, between Fresno and Bakersfield, is expected to start next year and be finished in three to five years, the San Francisco Chronicle notes. The price tag is $6 billion: $3.3 billion from Washington and $2.7 billion in state bonds.

Source http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/11/congress-kills-funding-for-obamas-high-speed-rail-plan/1?csp=34news

Obama Campaign Borrows From Bush ‘04 Playbook

The last time an incumbent president faced re-election, George W. Bush exploited social and national security issues to offset his economic vulnerabilities.

Over the next year, President Obama will try the same thing.

Circumstances have changed drastically since 2004. America’s economic woes stand to dominate the 2012 dialogue no matter what — probably to Mr. Obama’s detriment.

Yet in important electoral battlegrounds, Mr. Obama’s strategists intend to use abortion, gay rights, the environment and successes in the fight against Al Qaeda to counter economic attacks and drive a wedge between Republicans and swing voters.

The Democratic shift from defense to offense on those issues stems from evolving public attitudes, intensifying Republican conservatism and the raid that killed

Osama bin Laden on Mr. Obama’s orders. The perilous state of the American economy undercuts the president’s assertions that he prevented something worse.

The result: over the weekend, Mr. Obama accused his Republican challengers of displaying a “kind of smallness” by not denouncing a debate audience that booed a gay soldier. He used the incident to question their readiness to become commander in chief.

Days earlier at a California fund-raiser, Mr. Obama cast his re-election bid as an appeal to “people of like mind, people who believe in a big and generous and a tolerant and ambitious and fact-based America.”

Those “people of like mind” include the affluent, college-educated residents of suburbs around Denver, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, Orlando, Boston and Washington — the epicenters of Mr. Obama’s fight for Colorado, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Virginia.

The ‘Monied’ Suburbs

In his 2008 victory, Mr. Obama broke through among several important voter groups. Exit polls showed that he carried suburbanites, college graduates and those earning more than $200,000.

Mr. Obama won handily in areas that the research organization Patchwork Nation calls “Monied ’Burbs.” Residents of these high-income suburbs, which add up to roughly a quarter of the United States population, tend to be less religious and more tolerant of homosexuality and abortion rights, said Dante Chinni, Patchwork Nation’s director.

They narrowly backed Republicans in the 2010 House elections. Their disappointment over the economy cloud Mr. Obama’s 2012 re-election prospects.

But their distance from the Republican right on social issues gives Mr. Obama a tool for fighting back.

“The question is whether it’s possible to pop those issues when the economy is this bad,” said Jim Jordan, a campaign manager for Senator John Kerry’s bid for the White House in 2004. “The answer is maybe.”

Recent evidence is mixed.

In Colorado, the incumbent Democratic senator, Michael Bennet, survived the 2010 Republican wave after he “shifted a chunk of the conversation off the economic and onto social issues,” said Laura Chapin, a Democratic strategist in Denver. Mr. Obama’s strategists view that victory as an object lesson.

It didn’t work in the 2009 race for governor of Virginia. Democrats tried to cast the Republican nominee, Bob McDonnell, as an extremist on social issues; Mr. McDonnell, now governor, focused relentlessly on the economy.

Truce Proposed

That’s why Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, a Republican, has called for “a truce” on social issues. With Mr. Obama faring so poorly on the economy, the topics that rallied the conservative base for Mr. Bush now carry more costs than benefits.

Nor can Republicans capitalize on national security as they did in 2004. No leading Republican candidate has foreign policy experience. Mr. Obama’s successes in targeting Al Qaeda, from the Bin Laden raid to the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki on Friday, give him potent tools for defusing a traditional Democratic vulnerability.

Mr. Obama’s success in using social issues to attract affluent suburbanites will depend significantly on the outcome of Republican primaries. Former Gov.

Mitt Romney of Massachusetts now opposes abortion rights and backs a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

But Mr. Romney, a former finance executive, has focused overwhelmingly on the economy. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who is reconsidering whether to join the race, has defined himself politically through his drive to cut government spending.

The emphatic social conservatism of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who opened his campaign soon after addressing a “Call to Prayer” Christian gathering in Houston, would provide a bigger target. “You can’t have a big religious rally and not scare the hell out of suburban Philadelphia,” said Kim Alfano, a Republican consultant who advises Mr. Daniels.

Mr. Perry’s insistence that man-made climate change remains unproved, mocked by Mr. Obama at that California fund-raiser, provides another opening among college-educated swing voters. Jill Hanauer, who directs the Democratic consultancy Project New West, said the issue could weaken Republicans’ economic message by making the party appear to be “looking backwards” in an era of global competition.

Republicans have their own strong economic arguments for upscale suburbanites, including Mr. Obama’s proposals to raise taxes on households earning more than $250,000. Those will echo Democrats’ 2004 warnings to working-class voters — that social issues obscured how Mr. Bush had hurt their pocketbooks.

Source  http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/obama-campaign-borrows-from-bush-04-playbook/

Obama talks '12, debt and Cordray

Sitting for another round of interviews with local television news stations Wednesday, President Barack Obama said the debt and deficit talks have "been taking up all the oxygen in the room," preventing the federal government from tackling job creation.

"What we have to do is we have to continue with some of the tax breaks that we provided in December: The payroll tax cut that has put $1000 in the pockets of the average family," Obama told Lara Moritz, news anchor for ABC's Kansas City station. "That creates more demand and more business for folks, because that money gets spent and that means small businesses and large businesses have more customers and they hire more people to service those customers," he added.

Moritz followed up by asking the president which Republican candidate could beat him in 2012, but Obama didn't bite.

"Well I have to tell you, I am so occupied with doing the people's business that I'm just not spending a lot of time right now worrying about the Republican field," he replied. "Ultimately I will be judged based on the American people believing that I'm fighting for them."

Jerry Revish of 10TV News in Columbus, Ohio, asked how the president intends to convince Ohioans to vote to reelect him next year.

Ticking off a list of his administration's goals -- from clean energy investments to rebuilding the national infrastructure -- Obama said it will all come down to whether the "economy is growing." If it is, he said, "the politics will take care of itself."

Asked by Revish about his nomination of Richard Cordray to direct the new Consumer Financial Protection Board, the president defended the new agency from Republican critics.

"We are going to, for the first time, have a consolidated agency whose only job is to make sure that consumers aren't getting ripped off," Obama said.

The president said Ohio Republicans have complimented Cordray's public service in the past. Cordray was state attorney general from 2008 to 2010.

Back on the debt issue, Obama laid out for KABC-Los Angeles anchor David Ono what's at stake:

"The full faith and credit of the United States of America is at stake," Obama said. "We've always been an AAA-rated nation. The dollar is the reserve currency of the world. If we do not solve this problem in a serious way, you can potentially see a downgrading of U.S. credit, which would mean potential interest rate hikes for everyone, whether you are trying to get a car loan or your credit card. It also would add interest costs that would actually worsen the deficit. It doesn't make sense for us not to do it. We intend to get this done. I'm going to keep members of Congress here for as long as it takes to get it done."

Source http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0711/meet_the_locals_a92adb0a-4a5d-45de-bc9b-04494391ec4c.html

Obama pressures Republicans on federal debt ceiling

He depicts GOP leaders as supporting tax breaks for jet-setting corporate executives at others' expense, and chides lawmakers for taking frequent recesses instead of staying in Washington to finish the job.

President Obama is sharply intensifying pressure on congressional Republicans in negotiations over the federal debt, depicting GOP leaders as supporting tax breaks for jet-setting corporate executives at the expense of college scholarships or medical research.

Obama chastised Republican leaders in an hourlong televised news conference Wednesday, moving the debt talks out of the realm of closed-door Washington meetings and into full public view, and setting off a high-stakes effort to mobilize public opinion.

Obama and Republicans have been locked for more than a month in a confrontation over raising the nation's borrowing limit. Republicans have insisted they will not approve the increase unless Obama and congressional Democrats agree to reduce the debt in the long term — though the GOP spending plan would also require raising the debt ceiling. Last week, top Republicans pulled out of discussions with Vice President Joe Biden, objecting to a White House demand that any deal include additional revenue as well as spending cuts.

The news conference represented a rare instance of Obama using the presidential megaphone to defend his position. In the past, the president has been prone to delivering lengthy answers in a professorial tone, relying on abstract ideas. By contrast, Obama on Wednesday laid out his arguments in simple, everyday terms, echoing an ex-president that he has been studying: Ronald Reagan.

"These are bills that Congress ran up," Obama said, in explaining why the U.S. must not default on its debt obligations. "They took the vacation. They bought the car. Now they're saying, 'Maybe we don't have to pay.'"

Obama also chided lawmakers for taking frequent recesses instead of staying in Washington to finish work on the debt question. He added that his two young daughters exhibited more diligence in doing their homework than Congress had shown.

"They don't wait until the night before," he said. "They're not pulling all-nighters. Congress can do the same thing."

Reacting to the criticism, senators considered abandoning a weeklong July 4 recess, and House leaders said they would stay in session until negotiations were finished.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said the chances of the Senate being in session next week were "pretty good."

But Republican leaders offered scant hope of a shift on the issue of tax revenues. "The president is sorely mistaken if he believes a bill to raise the debt ceiling and raise taxes would pass the House," said House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).

Some of the GOP rank and file, however, indicated they would consider new revenue sources, posing a potential challenge to party unity. "I'm not too sympathetic to all these jets myself, so I'd be willing to consider that," said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Budget Committee.

Others said it would depend on which loophole was being eliminated. "I'm willing to take a look at the special deals," said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). "I would love to do away with special tax breaks, but not legitimate business deductions."

Obama cited the high-profile tax break offered to owners of corporate jets several times in the news conference, even though it would bring in only an estimated $3 billion over 10 years. Other Democratic proposals would tighten oil and gas tax credits, netting $41 billion over 10 years, and eliminate credits for hedge fund managers, netting $21 billion.

The largest Democratic tax proposal would limit the deductions that may be claimed by those earning more than $500,000 a year. The White House said earlier this year that in all, it wants $760 billion in new revenue over 10 years.

With the Fourth of July weekend coming up, the Obama administration will send top officials to appear on television to echo the president's message and build a consensus behind what he calls a "balanced" approach to deficit reduction. Gene Sperling, the president's top economic advisor, will be one of those leading the push.

The government reached the limit of its borrowing ability in May, and federal officials warn that maneuvers to continue paying the nation's bills will be exhausted by Aug. 2, risking a default on federal obligations.

Underscoring the concerns, the International Monetary Fund warned in a report Wednesday that failure by Congress to raise the borrowing limit could result in "a severe shock to the economy and world financial markets."

Nonetheless, many Republicans regard the administration's warnings as a scare tactic and refuse to raise the debt ceiling without major reductions in the nation's deficit, chiefly through spending cuts. They oppose new revenue from any source, even unpopular credits and loopholes.

"The corporate plane tax hike that the president now wants would bring in about $3 billion in new taxes," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "The president wants hundreds of billions in new taxes. Where would they get the rest?''

Democrats have countered that its significance is symbolic, showing that Republicans refuse to consider even such obvious measures.

The president painted a stark image of the winners and losers under the debt deal favored by Republicans. Oil companies that are already making money "hand over fist," he said, would continue to receive taxpayer subsidies, at the expense of "a bunch of kids out there who are not getting college scholarships."

Medical research would be undermined and food inspection would be weakened if the Republicans pursued their "maximalist position," the president said.

"If you're a wealthy CEO or a hedge fund manager in America right now, your taxes are lower than they have ever been," he said. "You'll still be able to ride on your corporate jet; you're just going to have to pay a little more."

He added: "It would be nice if we could keep every tax break there is. But we've got to make some tough choices here if we want to reduce our deficit."

Source http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-20110630,0,4151868.story

Michelle Obama helps build DC school playground

First Lady Michelle Obama mixed and poured concrete, attached swings to a swing set and raked mulch for an hour Wednesday at a charter school in a low-income Southeast Washington neighborhood. By the time she and hundreds of other volunteers were finished, the school had a new playground on what previously was barren land.

The first lady was the guest of honor as KaBOOM!, a nonprofit that gives children opportunities for unstructured outdoor play, constructed the 2,000th playground in its 15-year history.

"This is a very cool experience," Obama said. "It really is a source of pride to be here today to celebrate the 2,000th build."

The first lady is an advocate for exercise and healthy eating and worked with KaBOOM! before President Barack Obama was elected. It was the second time she has joined the group to build a playground.

KaBOOM! advocates for play as a critical part of children's physical, intellectual and emotional development. The group works primarily in low-income neighborhoods that lack playgrounds within walking distance, and community members are asked to raise some money for the project and participate in the construction. The playgrounds are built in a single day.

"Play is on the decline in the United States," KaBOOM! founder Darell Hammond said. "Kids are getting less and less of it, both in recess and at parks and playgrounds."

Imagine Southeast Public Charter School was chosen in part because the group wanted to celebrate its 2,000th project in Washington, where it is headquartered, said Karen Duncan, an adviser to KaBOOM! and the wife of Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

The group gets about 14,000 requests a year for new playgrounds, and Imagine Southeast stood out because its principal and parents were so enthusiastic about the project, Karen Duncan said.

The 4,000-square-foot playground cost $195,000 and was funded by the Knight Foundation, a charitable entity founded by the former owners of the Knight Ridder media company.

The Duncans also helped out with the construction, along with NBA veteran Antawn Jamison, a former Washington Wizard who's now with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jamison traveled to Washington from his offseason home in Charlotte, N.C., to volunteer his time. It was the fifth time he had worked with KaBOOM!

"You see the gratification when you see the smiles on the kids' faces," Jamison said. "I'll be able to sleep good tonight, knowing that I made a difference."

Jamison said he doesn't often get starstruck but was thrilled to meet the first lady.

"I was surprised by how tall she was," the 6-foot-9 power forward said.

Source http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jf4c7ID10ieCsbnaRNluJIn5SN4A?docId=f8309a5ad67843f49ebda7e109a7fc06

GOP questions federal rules on healthier eating

House Republicans are pushing back against Obama administration efforts to promote healthier lunches, saying the Agriculture Department should rewrite rules it issued in January meant to make school meals healthier. They say the new rules are too costly.

The bill, approved by the House Appropriations Committee late Tuesday, also questions a government proposal to curb marketing of unhealthy foods to children and urges the Food and Drug Administration to limit rules requiring calorie counts be posted on menus.

The overall spending bill would cut billions from USDA and FDA budgets, including for domestic feeding programs and international food aid. The panel also cut some farm subsidies to cut spending.

Republicans are concerned about the cost of many of the Obama administration proposals, which they regard as overregulation, said Chris Crawford, a spokesman for the chairman of the Appropriations Committee's agriculture subcommittee, Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga.

Crawford said the marketing guidelines, released last month, are "classic nanny-state overreach." Though the guidelines, which would restrict which foods could be marketed to children, are voluntary, many companies are concerned that they will be penalized if they don't follow them. The bill questions whether the Agriculture Department should spend money to be part of the marketing effort.

"Our concern is those voluntary guidelines are back-door regulation," he said, deploring the fact that kids can watch shows that depict sex and drugs on MTV, but "you cannot see an advertisement for Tony the Tiger during the commercial break."

The school lunch guidelines are the first major nutritional overhaul of students' meals in 15 years. Under the guidelines, schools would have to cut sodium in subsidized meals by more than half, use more whole grains and serve low-fat milk. They also would limit kids to only one cup of starchy vegetables a week, so schools couldn't offer french fries every day.

The starchy vegetable proposal has been criticized by conservatives who think it goes too far and members of Congress who represent potato-growers. They say potatoes are a low-cost food that provides fiber and other nutrients.

The Republican spending bill also encourages the FDA to limit new guidelines that require calories to be posted on menus to restaurants, asking that grocery stores, convenience stores and other places whose primary purpose is not to sell food be excluded from the rules.

The effort would dial back many of first lady Michelle Obama's priorities in her "Let's Move" campaign to curb childhood obesity and hunger.

"This shows a very clear trend in trying to undermine some of the important gains in nutrition policy," said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The overall spending bill would cut billions from USDA and FDA budgets, including for domestic feeding programs and international food aid. Even after some of the money was restored Tuesday, the bill would still cut about $650 million — or 10 percent — from the Women, Infants and Children program that feeds and educates mothers and their children. It would cut almost 12 percent of the Food and Drug Administration's $2.5 billion budget, straining the agency's efforts to implement a new food safety law signed by the president early this year.

Source http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gOefI4izkqO3lc17TIbqkxbntnqA?docId=edc8d038877d45e982b9c88a31079960

Obama’s political momentum: A little or a lot?

President Barack Obama is destined to receive a bump in his poll numbers after the killing of Osama bin Laden.

But how long will it last?

That question vexed experts Monday, with most saying the bounce is unlikely to last long enough to help the president in his 2012 re-election campaign.

“This will give him some momentum and put him out of the danger category, at least for a little bit,” said pollster John Zogby.

The first national polls probably won’t be published until today or Wednesday, Zogby said. He predicted that Obama would receive a bump of about 10 points in his job approval rating. Last week, 46 percent of Americans approved of the job Obama is doing and 46 percent disapproved, according to a Gallup poll.

That 10-point bump would be far short of the 35-point boost that President George W. Bush received in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

The popular surge in the polls could last several weeks — or longer. Or it could dissipate within days should a new crisis emerge or if American weariness with the slow-to-rebound economy or high gasoline prices again sets in.

“It’s so hard to say,” Zogby said. “There are just so many variables.”

The next presidential election is 18 months away — an eternity in American politics. Rallies “dissipate fairly quickly,” noted Frank Newport, Gallup’s editor-in-chief.

Bush enjoyed a seven-point bump in the days after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003. But it was gone late the next month when his job approval dipped to 49 percent.

But there are exceptions. After the 9/11 attacks, Bush’s job approval numbers remained elevated for 105 weeks compared with what they were before the assaults. President Franklin Roosevelt’s job approval was up for 46 weeks after Pearl Harbor.

Obama could see some lasting value with that crucial bloc of independent voters who make up about one-third of the electorate and swing presidential elections to one party or the other.

“They’re looking for resolve, problem-solving, decisiveness,” Zogby said. “And this has all of that.”

All day Monday, politicians from both parties issued statements or stood before TV cameras to offer their reactions. Almost without fail, Democrats hailed the president by name, praising his courage for, as U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri put it, “one of the most significant achievements in our nation’s efforts to combat terrorism worldwide.”

Joan Wagnon, chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, noted that the U.S. has been chasing bin Laden for 10 years.

“Obama is the one who put focus on it, authorized it and got it done,” she said.

Some Republicans also praised the president, but some did so in a slightly different way, saying the attack on bin Laden’s compound Sunday showed that Obama had followed the Bush playbook on combating terrorism or that any accolades belonged to America’s military.

“This achievement is a great triumph for the U.S. military,” said Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican. “They deserve the credit. … The president deserves credit for letting the military do its job and not pulling them off course.”

Giving a president “credit or blame” is hard, Kobach said, because “most people recognize the individual successes of the American armed forces on the battlefield.”

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a potential 2012 presidential contender, said the victory is a “tribute to the patient endurance of American justice.” He commended both Bush, “who led the campaign against our enemies through seven long years,” and Obama, “who continued and intensified the campaign in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Alex Poulter with Political Chips, a Lenexa tea party organizing group, said that the credit goes to “the greatest military in the world” and that tea partiers are “very grateful and thankful that President Obama had the wherewithal and intestinal fortitude to go against his party and his campaign rhetoric to follow the path drawn up for him by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.”

The key for Obama will be to stack up several other accomplishments in the wake of bin Laden’s death, said Kansas State University political scientist Joe Aistrup.

“If he can back it up with some more positive news in a variety of areas, this will build,” Aistrup said. “If it’s a lone victory, he’s going to be hurting come election time.”

Source http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/02/2844714/obamas-political-momentum-a-little.html