Obama administration

Stories 1441 - 1460 | << Prev   Next >>

Bank CEOs' Obama Meeting Spurs Talk of Togetherness

(Newser) - CEOs of the nation’s largest banks today assured President Obama they understand their institutions are vital to economic recovery and pledged to do all they can to help the government, Bloomberg reports. Following today’s White House meeting, Wells Fargo’s CEO said “the basic message” of the...

Liberal Groups' Attack Ads on Moderate Dems Not Helpful: Reid

MoveOn should back off, majority leader says

(Newser) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says left-wing groups shouldn’t run ads pressuring moderate Democrats into backing President Obama’s budget, Politico reports. “I think it’s very unwise and not helpful,” Reid said today of the efforts by Moveon.org and Americans United for Change to convert...

Obama Raises Fuel-Economy Standards

(Newser) - US fuel-economy standards are going up, an Obama administration official tells Bloomberg today. By 2011, new cars and light trucks will have to hit an average of 27.3 miles per gallon—30.2mpg for cars and 24.1 for light trucks and SUVs. Automakers have raised no objections—the...

Obama Rolls Out Afghan Plan: 'Al-Qaeda Must Be Stopped'

(Newser) - President Obama laid out the government's new strategy for Afghanistan today, declaring that the US must “disrupt, defeat, and dismantle” al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Obama will send another 4,000 troops to Afghanistan, on top of the 17,000 already approved. He also announced plans to work with regional...

Senate Panel Clears $3.6T Budget Plan

Spending blueprint leaves president's agenda mostly intact

(Newser) - President Obama's spending plans have passed a major hurdle in the Senate, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Senate Budget Committee passed a plan largely similar to Obama's  $3.6 trillion request in a 13-10 vote split along party lines. The House committee passed its version Wednesday, clearing the way...

Online Town Hall a Positive Step for Democracy
Online Town Hall a Positive Step for Democracy
analysis
Mar 26, 2009 4:41 PM CDT

Online Town Hall a Positive Step for Democracy

Format shows administration is serious about opening government

(Newser) - Sure, President Obama’s online town hall meeting today ended up being mostly like a normal press conference, writes Jose Antonio Vargas for the Washington Post, with Obama answering mostly “predictable” questions with “tried-and-tested policy responses.” What makes the event important is that the president was asked...

Budget Debate Devolves Into Verbal Slugfest

(Newser) - The White House today ridiculed a budget proposal laid out by House Republicans, but the GOP gave as good as it got, the Hill reports. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the GOP document included a “picture of a windmill” but no substantive numbers. “It took me several minutes to...

Nicaragua's Ortega to US: Now Bail Out Central America

(Newser) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega says the US should extend its zeal for bailouts south of the border, the Miami Herald reports. Ortega says Central America is reeling from the downturn as US manufacturing and textile plants shut down or downsize. It’s only fair, then, that the US offer a...

Obama on Weed Question: Dude, Chill

(Newser) - Pro-legalization activists stuffed the ballot box with questions about marijuana when the White House solicited questions for today’s online town-hall meeting, and President Obama went out of his way to address the issue, the Los Angeles Times reports. “I don’t know what this says about the online...

Obama Holds Online Town Hall
 Obama Holds Online Town Hall 
Mar 26, 2009 11:26 AM CDT

Obama Holds Online Town Hall

(Newser) - President Obama held a unique “online town-hall” today, answering questions submitted and voted on at WhiteHouse.gov. An aide acted as a moderator, calling it a “new experiment in getting questions from outside Washington.” The questions ran the gamut from education to the economy to health care,...

NRA Wins a Round on Gun Control
NRA Wins
a Round on
Gun Control
ANALYSIS
Mar 26, 2009 10:21 AM CDT

NRA Wins a Round on Gun Control

Holder backs off on assault-rifle ban despite Mexico pleas

(Newser) - Attorney General Eric Holder has backed off calls to once again ban assault weapons after a strong blowback from the gun lobby, Newsweek reports. Mexico is pressuring the US to reinstate such a ban, since US assault rifles make up 90% of drug-cartel arsenals. But when Holder floated the idea...

UN Meeting on Afghanistan Will Include Iran

Decision to attend may indicate US overtures to Tehran are working

(Newser) - Iran plans to attend a US-initiated UN conference on the situation in Afghanistan, Reuters reports. A foreign ministry rep said Tehran hasn't decided who to send; other attendees include Ban Ki-Moon and Hillary Clinton. “Iran will participate,” the spokesman said. “The level of participation is not clear....

Geithner Pitches Overhaul of Financial Oversight

(Newser) - Tim Geithner today proposed a major expansion of federal regulatory powers, reports the Washington Post. In testimony before Congress, the Treasury chief called for hedge funds, derivatives markets, private equity firms, and major insurers like AIG to be brought under strict federal supervision for the first time. His plan, which...

Clinton in Mexico: US Demand Fuels Drug Wars

Envoy frank on Mexico violence, promises more American help

(Newser) - America’s “insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” Hillary Clinton said in Mexico today, striking an unusually blunt tone in addressing the US role in that country’s disastrous drug-related violence. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to...

Obama to Announce New Cuba Travel Rules in Spring

Administration plans to allow more citizens to visit Communist island

(Newser) - President Obama will travel to Key West this spring to announce the softening of travel restrictions to Cuba, the Washington Times reports. New rules will tweak the decades-long embargo to allow more US citizens to visit. Currently, only individuals such as journalists or researchers with specific business can travel to...

Obama Will Meet With Top Bank Execs

(Newser) - Amid growing dissatisfaction with government restrictions on bailout funds, President Obama will meet with bank CEOs on Friday, Reuters reports. Several banks have indicated that they will repay their TARP loans to avoid new government rules. In the meeting with execs from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and others, Obama will urge...

Prez to Answer Questions Online Tomorrow

Obama to host first 'e-town hall' meeting since taking office

(Newser) - Barack Obama will host his first online town hall meeting as president tomorrow, the Atlantic reports. The White House "community-moderated online town hall" website invites Americans to submit questions on the economy and vote on other participants’ entries. The president will answer from among those voted most popular.

US-Mexican Tensions Escalate
 US-Mexican Tensions Escalate 
Mar 25, 2009 7:57 AM CDT

US-Mexican Tensions Escalate

(Newser) - With the US recession hammering Mexico, the Mexican drug war frightening the US, and a free-trade tiff in the works, relations between the countries have gotten a tad frosty of late, the New York Times reports. In an effort to head off a full-blown crisis, Hillary Clinton is heading to...

Obama Blanked Top Papers But Took Tough Questions
Obama Blanked Top Papers But Took Tough Questions
ANALYSIS
Mar 25, 2009 6:40 AM CDT

Obama Blanked Top Papers But Took Tough Questions

But president endured tougher questioning than last conference

(Newser) - President Obama bypassed reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other major papers last night, instead taking questions from Spanish-language TV station Univision and military newspaper Stars and Stripes. Yet the president faced tougher questions than at his first press conference, often in the form...

Dems Slash Obama's Budget

Congressional Dems scrap future plans to bail out financial sector

(Newser) - Democratic leaders trying to trim the federal deficit have taken a hatchet to President Obama's budget plan, reports the Washington Post. Congressional Democrats are expected to formally announce plans today to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from the budget over the next five years, and eliminate plans to steer...

Stories 1441 - 1460 | << Prev   Next >>