Stymied by a GOP House, Obama looks ahead to 2014 to cement his legacy

President Obama, now facing the consequences of automatic spending cuts and the complications they raise for his broader domestic agenda, is taking the most specific steps of his administration in an attempt to ensure the election of a Democratic-controlled Congress in two years. “What I can’t do is force Congress to do the right thing,” Obama told reporters at the White House Friday after...

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CAP releases, retracts statement on McCarthy nomination at EPA

Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator with the Environmental Protection Agency. (Alex Brandon - AP) Looks like someone at the Center for American Progress has an itchy trigger finger. The think tank on Wednesday released a statement congratulating Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for air and radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency, on her nomination to lead the...

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Supreme Court lets ban stand on direct corporate campaign donations

The Supreme Court on Monday decided against reviewing the century-old ban on corporations making direct contributions to federal candidates. The court without comment declined to hear an appeal from two men who said the court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts on elections, must also nullify...

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Obama’s legacy likely to be determined by upcoming battles

President Obama’s legacy ultimately could be determined over the next few months by a series of showdowns — both with Republicans, and, potentially, with fellow Democrats — slated to take place. Guns. Immigration. Climate change. Debt and spending. The matters that Obama is either moving on or has promised to move on are the sorts of big issues that the two parties (and their presidents)...

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Governors express frustration with Washington gridlock, sequestration

The nation’s governors had a message Saturday for Americans frustrated that Washington’s persistent partisan gridlock appears likely to trigger an across-the-board budget cut March 1 that could delay airline travel and result in hundreds of thousands of layoffs: They’re frustrated too. Meeting in Washington for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, state chief executives...

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Group releases list of 90 medical ‘don’ts’

Don’t use feeding tubes in patients with advanced dementia. Don’t use drugs to aggressively treat diabetes in those older than 65. Don’t automati­cally use imaging technology for minor head injuries in children and headaches in adults. And don’t give antacids to babies with reflux. Those are among the 90 medical “don’ts” on a list being released Thursday by a coalition of doctor and consumer...

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Kerry makes case for robust foreign aid

CHARLOTTESVILLE — America’s duties and ambitions overseas are too important to shortchange, even in a time of tight budgets, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Wednesday. “In today’s global world, there is no longer anything foreign about foreign policy,” Kerry said in an unusual first address for a U.S. secretary of state. Politicians too easily make a bogeyman of American foreign...

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Supreme Court to consider limits on individual political contributions

The Supreme Court reentered the controversial field of campaign finance Tuesday, agreeing to consider a Republican challenge to decades-old limits on the total amount a person can contribute to candidates, political parties and political action committees. It is the court’s first major campaign finance case since its 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which...

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Giffords advocates for gun control in Congress where she once served

For hours, Gabrielle Giffords had been working the halls of Congress, walking with difficulty or being pushed in her wheelchair. She and her husband, Mark Kelly, zigzagged through the marble corridors the day after the president’s State of the Union speech, visiting top lawmakers to try to sway them in the nation’s raging debate over gun violence. Leaving the office of Senate Majority...

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Postmaster takes case for five-day mail delivery to skeptical senators

Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe took his controversial plan for five-day mail delivery before a congressional hearing Wednesday, where he told senators that the Postal Service “needs your help.” Donahoe’s refrain was familiar. ●The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is losing $25 million a day.●Last year, the Postal Service lost $15.9 billion.●It defaulted on $11.1 billion...

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Obama urges a move away from narrow focus on politics of austerity

Just about every argument in Washington since the 2010 midterm elections, which returned control of the House to Republicans, has centered on reducing the federal deficit. On Tuesday night, President Obama leaned into his second term by declaring that a single-minded focus on deficit reduction would jeopardize the nation’s future. And he sounded an urgent call to rebuild. Reelected by...

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Obama should focus on deficit in State of the Union

President Obama is preparing to deliver his fourth State of the Union address on Tuesday at — or close to— the height of his political power. He has been reelected convincingly, won legislative showdowns with Republicans on debt and spending issues, and is basking in some of his highest approval ratings in years. Of course, modern political history has shown that political momentum can...

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Michelle Obama mourns slain teenager at Chicago funeral

CHICAGO — First lady Michelle Obama attended the funeral here Saturday of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, who went to school only a mile from the Obama family home and was gunned down a few days after visiting Washington for President Obama’s second inauguration. Obama did not know Pendleton, nor did scores of other political dignitaries who filed into the Greater Harvest Baptist Church...

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Obama pays tribute to Leon Panetta at the Pentagon chief’s farewell ceremony

President Obama paid tribute Friday to outgoing Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, hailing him for presiding over victories against terrorists and the expansion of opportunity in the U.S. armed forces. In a speech at Fort Myer, Va., for the “Armed Forces Farewell Tribute” to Panetta, the president called the Pentagon chief “a man who hasn’t simply lived up to the American dream but has...

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Strengthening security at the nation’s airports

Most people think of airport security as their walk through the metal detector and the eyeballing by transportation security officers (TSOs). Dan Liddell, whose job it is to protect the flying public at seven airports in central New York, instead sees 17 zones of worker responsibility and hundreds of different tasks. In pursuit of safeguarding the public, Liddell, a federal security director...

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Issa presses for USAID documents

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has threatened to subpoena the nation’s foreign aid agency if it doesn’t hand over documents and information relating to alleged wrongdoing by top agency officials. Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told administrator Rajiv Shah of the U.S. Agency for International Aid that the documents had to be produced by Monday evening. The...

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In immigration debate, same-sex marriage comes to the fore

In his final legislative act as a senator, Secretary of State John F. Kerry sought to resolve an international dilemma. He filed Senate Bill 48, seeking “permanent resident status for Genesio Januario Oliveira,” a gay Brazilian national facing deportation because he does not qualify for a spousal visa. Now, President Obama is aiming to grant same-sex couples like Oliveira and his American...

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VA study finds more veterans committing suicide

Every day about 22 veterans in the United States kill themselves, a rate that is about 20 percent higher than the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 2007 estimate, according to a two-year study by a VA researcher. The VA study indicates that more than two-thirds of the veterans who commit suicide are 50 or older, suggesting that the increase in veterans’ suicides is not primarily driven by...

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Bipartisan group of senators to unveil framework for immigration overhaul

A key group of senators from both parties will unveil on Monday the framework of a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, including a pathway to citizenship for more than 11 million illegal immigrants. The detailed, four-page statement of principles will carry the signatures of four Republicans and four Democrats, a bipartisan push that would have been unimaginable just...

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Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) won’t seek reelection

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a five-term senator and one of his party’s most outspoken liberals, will not seek reelection in 2014, presenting Democrats and Republicans with key tests of their midterm electoral strategies. Harkin’s surprise announcement Saturday makes him the third senator up for reelection this cycle to announce his retirement. Sens. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and Saxby...

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