Obama budget to offer program cuts,seek deficit deal: official

President Barack Obama will offer cuts to Social Security and other entitlement programs in a budget proposal aimed at swaying Republicans to compromise on a deficit-reduction deal, a senior administration official said on Friday. Under a proposal that would cut the deficit by $1.8 trillion over 10 years, the president will offer to apply a less generous measure of inflation to calculate cost-of-living increases, the official said on condition of anonymity. That change would result in lower payments to some beneficiaries of the Social Security program for retirees and is staunchly opposed by many congressional Democrats as well as labor and retiree groups. Obama would agree to cuts to other so-called entitlement programs, the official said. However, the president will only accept these spending cuts if congressional Republicans, for their part, agree to higher taxes, the official added. The president's budget proposal is due to be laid out in full on Wednesday. The president's renewed offer of fiscal negotiations with congressional Republicans follows a series of bitter battles over taxes and spending that date back to 2011. Obama is eager to put the issue of deficit reduction behind him and move on to other priorities, which include immigration and gun control legislation. "This isn't about political horse trading," the official said. "It's about reducing the deficit in a balanced way that economists say is best for the economy and job creation." Still, several attempts to reach an agreement balancing spending cuts with tax increases have failed, and prospects for a deal remain doubtful. House Speaker John Boehner, who let taxes rise for the wealthiest Americans earlier this year, has said any further revenue increases are off the table. The president also wants to undo at least some of the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that went into effect last month through the process known as sequestration. Obama's budget for the fiscal year that starts October 1 will contain a proposal to expand access to early childhood education, the official said. That program will be paid for by increases in tobacco taxes, the official added. In addition, the president will seek to increase revenues by placing a $3 million upper limit on tax-preferred retirement accounts and by barring people from collecting disability benefits and unemployment insurance at the same time, the official said. Analysts who have seen early drafts of the budget proposal say the president was considering cuts to Medicare through reducing payments to health care providers but also by requiring wealthier beneficiaries to pay more out of pocket. Reductions to Social Security and Medicare benefits are highly unpopular among many of the president's strongest supporters and groups have already mobilized to oppose them.

News Source:news.yahoo.com

Obama to Return 5 Percent of Salary

President Obama will return 5 percent of his salary to the Treasury Department, a senior White House official tells ABC News, a sign of solidarity with the federal workers who face furloughs due to the sequester cuts. "The president has decided that to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester, he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury," a White House aide said. The president's salary is set by law at $400,000 a year, and he will give back about $20,000 this year. The 5 percent cut is the same reduction level that non-defense federal agencies took when the sequester started. Obama's total income according to his 2011 tax returns was $789,674. That figure includes his investments and book sales, which are not part of his 5 percent give back. The president will cut a check to the Treasury Department each month. The 5 percent cut started on March 1, but the president will write the first check this month. This was first reported by the New York Times. Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Cartor announced that they would return a portion of their salaries in a sign of solidarity with the Pentagon's civilian employees who will be furloughed for 14 days due to the sequester. Carter said he would take a 20 percent pay in reduction through the end of September, but it is unclear how much of a cut Hagel will take.

News Source:news.yahoo.com

Students help Michelle Obama plant White House vegetable garden

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First Lady Michelle Obama shared what has become a rite of spring in Washington with a small group of fifth-grade students on Thursday, planting vegetables in the White House garden. On a day that began with record-cold temperatures that have pushed back the blooming season for the city's famous cherry trees, Obama welcomed about 30 students to help her plant the garden, a project she has championed as a model for children and their parents to emulate as a way to reduce childhood obesity. "Where are your jackets? I'm going to be the mother," Obama joked with the group of earnest, polite kids, most wearing t-shirts bearing the names of their schools in Florida, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Vermont. Obama has helped push for changes in school lunch rules to require more vegetables and fruit. The schools were chosen because they have implemented the new rules in creative ways and started their own gardens. Harvard-educated Obama, who was more popular in polls during the 2012 election campaign than any of the candidates, started the garden on the White House south lawn in 2009, the first time vegetables had been grown there since Eleanor Roosevelt's "victory garden" during World War Two. Obama, sporting sneakers without socks, put aside a pair of lime green gardening gloves as she crouched between two raised garden boxes, carefully placing tiny wheat kernels into freshly turned soil. From Somerville, Massachusetts, 11-year-old Ariana Docanto chatted with Obama as she helped plant the wheat, which the White House hopes to harvest and use for bread and risotto. Docanto described the experience in a single word: "Amazing!"

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At fundraisers Obama talks climate, regaining U.S. House

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama used fundraisers on Wednesday to assuage supporters' concerns about a transnational oil pipeline and his commitment to tackling climate change, while urging them to drive Republicans out of power in Congress in 2014. The Obama administration is expected to decide later this year whether to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would run from Canada's oil sands to Texas. Environmentalists oppose the project, saying its carbon emissions would contribute unnecessarily to global warming. Supporters say the pipeline is necessary to increase U.S. energy independence. On a fundraising swing to boost Democrats' chances of winning back the House of Representatives, Obama highlighted his administration's achievements and pledged to work with Republicans. But climate change was clearly on his mind. "Despite a very aggressive agenda on the other side to block action, we've been able to double fuel-efficiency standards on cars, we've been able to take mercury out of our air, we have been able to reduce carbon emissions in this country," he said at the first of two fundraisers on Wednesday night. That fundraiser, a cocktail reception priced at $5,000 a person, was held at the home of Kat Taylor and her husband, billionaire former asset manager Tom Steyer, an ardent opponent of the pipeline project. Steyer has become a polarizing figure among Democrats recently after diving into the U.S. Senate primary contest in Massachusetts. The San Francisco billionaire sided with Representative Edward Markey, a Keystone critic, while pouring financial resources into attack ads against Representative Stephen Lynch, who has supported the pipeline. Obama did not mention Keystone during his remarks, but he came back repeatedly to the topic of global warming, a clear nod to the concerns of his host. "We've got more work to do in terms of dealing with climate change and making sure that we've got an economy that is energy-efficient," Obama said. The notion that there was a contradiction between supporting the economy and supporting the environment was false. Hundreds of anti-pipeline activists lined the streets near Obama's second fundraiser, a $32,500-per-person dinner held at the home of billionaires Ann and Gordon Getty. Wearing a sign that read "We called for you, now we're calling on you," Leslie Terzian, a small business owner from San Francisco, said she volunteered for Obama's campaigns in both 2008 and 2012 but was disappointed that the president had not voiced opposition to the pipeline. "I'd guess pretty much everyone here voted for Obama," Terzian said. "But he's not representing us. He just doesn't have the political will." PELOSI POWER Climate change issues aside, Obama told donors he wanted to see Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, become the chamber's top official again in the future. "I expect that she is going to be once again speaker of the House," Obama said of the California Democrat. To make that happen, Democrats must take control of the House by wining 17 seats in 2014. The fundraising trip to California, which continues on Thursday, was meant to help that effort by filling Democratic coffers. Obama is also trying to get Republican support for key policy priorities including immigration reform and deficit reduction in Washington. His broad comments - which were not especially critical of the opposing party - appeared to be designed not to antagonize negotiating partners on Capitol Hill. "My intention here is to try to get as much done with the Republican Party over the next two years as I can, ‘cause we can't have perpetual campaigns," he said. But in the same set of remarks, he urged Democrats to do everything they could to help Pelosi take back power from Republican John Boehner, the current House speaker.

News Source:news.yahoo.com