GOP making life harder for the jobless

President Barack Obama Saturday pinned blame on the Republicans to make life harder for the unemployed and those who might lose their jobs without interference from the federal government new. He did just as he sought to distance himself from politics "sad and familiar" Washington.
Capping a week that the administration won a victory - a fund of 20 billion dollars to be paid by BP for the victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill - Obama has reserved his radio and the internet address to concentrate on work that has not been obtained.
His main concern was the rejection of a bill in the Senate that would have provided more money for long-term unemployed, assistance to state governments short and renewal of popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals.
"If the obstruction continues, Americans will see their unemployment benefits stop, Obama said." Teachers and firefighters will lose their jobs. Families will pay more for their first home. All we ask, that is a simple up or down vote. This is what the American people deserve. "
The bill failed Thursday when general economic Democrats could not gather the 60 votes needed to end debate. The vote fell four shy of the 56-40 total needed to break the GOP filibuster. Many Republicans support policies in the legislation, but require changes to reduce its toll on the deficit.
"Americans want us to show we are serious about debt reduction, so the president and his allies in Congress have a choice: they can either vote to cut the deficit, or they can lock arms and digging a hole deeper in debt, "said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Stalemate again revealed the gaps between the Democratic president and Republican leaders of Congress on how to solve the problems of the nation.
Obama was at the same time the image of the opposition party that the obstruction while seeking a better standard of debate in his own party and the Republicans.
"We have an obligation to care for the next generation," Obama said. "I hope that when Congress returns next week, they do so with a greater spirit of compromise and cooperation. America will be watching."
In his speech, Obama also criticized the blocking of a separate measure that would allow a maximum of $ 75 million on the responsibility of economic damage to companies such as BP during disasters like the oil spill in the Gulf. The Senate considers a bill to increase this ceiling to 10 billion dollars.
And Obama also said Republicans are to blame those to prevent votes on its candidates to key positions in government. Former President George W. Bush often have the same complaint about Democratic lawmakers.
Republicans have used their weekly address to claim that the president was too slow to react to threats posed by the oil spill in the Gulf and that certain measures taken by his administration will do more harm than good.
"I'm glad President Obama is finally put this disaster on top of his agenda, but its response was too slow," Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi said. Wicker has criticized Obama for pushing an energy bill and the rising costs of oil cleanup and call for a moratorium on drilling in deep water, which he said would cost jobs and increase energy prices .
Wicker said Obama should have made the point in his speech Tuesday that many beaches of the Gulf Coast are clean and would welcome tourists. But he acknowledged that Obama has made this point at a news conference Monday along the Gulf.

inauguration 2009

Obama disappointment at Copenhagen justified

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that disappointment over the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change summit was justified, hardening a widespread verdict that the conference had been a failure.
"I think that people are justified in being disappointed about the outcome in Copenhagen," he said in an interview with PBS Newshour.
"What I said was essentially that rather than see a complete collapse in Copenhagen, in which nothing at all got done and would have been a huge backward step, at least we kind of held ground and there wasn't too much backsliding from where we were."
Sweden has labeled the accord Obama helped broker a disaster for the environment, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the summit was "at best flawed and at worst chaotic," and climate change advocates have been even more scathing in their criticism.
The talks secured bare-minimum agreements that fell well short of original goals to reduce carbon emissions and stem global warming, after lengthy negotiations failed to paper over differences between rich nations and developing economies. Some singled out China for special blame.
British Environment Minister Ed Miliband wrote in the Guardian newspaper on Monday China had "hijacked" efforts to agree to significant reductions in global emissions. Beijing denied the claim and said London was scheming to divide developing countries on the climate change issue.
Obama did not point any fingers, but did say the Chinese delegation was "skipping negotiations" before his personal intervention.
"At a point where there was about to be complete breakdown, and the prime minister of India was heading to the airport and the Chinese representatives were essentially skipping negotiations, and everybody's screaming, what did happen was, cooler heads prevailed," Obama said.
Obama forged an accord with China, India, Brazil and South Africa in the conference's final hours after personally securing a bilateral meeting with the four nations' leaders.
"We were able to at least agree on non-legally binding targets for all countries -- not just the United States, not just Europe, but also for China and India, which, projecting forward, are going to be the world's largest emitters," he said.

Obama to Republicans

Obama to GOP: 'Stop trying to frighten the American people'
President Barack Obama told House Republican leaders to "stop trying to frighten the American people" even as he and Democrats said they see a possibility for bipartisan cooperation on job creation legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters that Obama made the admonition during a bipartisan meeting at the White House on Wednesday, producing a chart to show Republicans that "things are a lot better."
Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said there was broad agreement on their side of the aisle about how to create jobs by aiding small businesses and boosting infrastructure spending. Pelosi said she thinks on those issues, "it's possible for us to find some common, bipartisan ground."
But moments later, Republicans made it clear that they want to see a "spending freeze" and a "no-cost" jobs plan that consists largely of tax cuts.
"We can't keep spending money we don't have," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) pushed back on Obama's request for an end to Republicans' scare tactics by saying that Obama's policies have led to a hiring freeze, and the GOP is simply telling constituents what is happening.
"[E]mployers are sitting there and they're frozen because they don't know what's really going to happen here," Boehner said. "And the president wants to blame us for informing the American people about what's happening here and how it will affect them, but it's not what we're doing; it's the policies that they're promoting here in Washington. "The Republicans presented a letter to Obama detailing how they think he should approach job creation, including by way of tax cuts and trade expansion.For his part, Obama also expressed hope that Republicans would support him on his proposals, particularly on items like a one-year elimination of the capital gains tax that the GOP has supported in the past.
"It's appropriate that I met with leaders of both parties," Obama said after the meeting. "Spurring hiring and economic growth are not Democratic or Republican issues. They are American issues that affect every single one of our constituents."
The president noted Republican opposition to his $787 billion stimulus package, but he said he hopes that he will get some GOP support for his attempts at job creation.
"It's no secret that there's been less than full bipartisan support for the recovery act and some of the steps that have broken the free-fall of our economy," Obama said. "But my hope is that as we move forward we can do so together, recognizing that we have a shared responsibility to meet our economic challenges on behalf of all Americans: those who elected us to make sure that we're doing the people's business."
Despite the GOP opposition, Democratic leaders seemed optimistic they can move quickly on a jobs bill that contains much of what the president outlined in a speech Tuesday.
Reid declined to say when a jobs bill might come up in the Senate, but he said after Tuesday night's "breakthrough" on healthcare reform that he does think the Senate will pass a healthcare bill before lawmakers leave for Christmas.

Welcome to Egypt

President Obama in Egypt to deliver his promised address to the Muslim world, culminating a long and politically sensitive selection process by choosing as his venue an Arab nation governed by an autocratic U.S. ally who faces strong internal Islamic opposition. Those elements will present challenges to Obama as he delivers a speech his advisers described yesterday as the next step in his effort to dispel perceptions in the Muslim world that the United States is in conflict with Islam. Egypt "in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world" Despite "the issues of democracy and human rights which are on the president's mind as well, and there will be a chance to discuss those matters later as Egypt is gaining some Tangible progress in this issue, so today's speech is historical and putting some clear points on the letters, but we can obviously notice the tangible change in the American policy towards us which seems Optimistic in many ways, all we should notice that we are carrying our future in our hands regardless what the American look towards us if we started to free ourselves and our economy which is still a strange mix between the ugly socialism and capitalism due to many changes that happened during last 5 decades after the military coup in 1952, so i hope that Mubarak will release things in political and economical fields to save the country, and that is the only solution that can save Egypt and protect it against any danger from terrorists or socialism agitators who are still remaining although we became in 21st century, finally welcome to you Mr.president and peace upon us all.