President Obama Delivers Remarks on Sequester Cuts Mean Job Loss
Published on Mar 1, 2013
President Obama Delivers Remarks on Sequester Cuts Mean Job Loss
A fiscal deadline all but blown, President Barack Obama says he once again wants to seek a big fiscal deal that would raise taxes and trim billions from expensive and ever growing entitlement programs. But with automatic federal spending cuts ready to start taking their toll, the path toward that grand bargain Obama campaigned on last year has significantly narrowed.
The president has summoned the top bipartisan congressional leadership to the White House, a meeting designed to give all sides a chance to stake out their fiscal positions with a new threat of a government shutdown less than four weeks away. There were no expectations of a breakthrough.
But for Obama, Friday’s session would be his first opportunity to spell out his 10-year, $1.5 trillion deficit reduction plan in a face-to-face meeting with congressional allies and adversaries.
His chances are squeezed by anti-tax conservatives, by liberals unwilling to cut into Medicare and Social Security, and by a Republican leadership that has dug in against any new revenue after ceding to Obama’s demands two months ago for a higher tax rate for top income earners.
On Thursday, two ill-fated proposals aimed at blunting the blame over the cuts — one Democratic and the other Republican — failed to overcome procedural hurdles in the Senate. Obama placed the responsibility on Republicans.
“They voted to let the entire burden of deficit reduction fall squarely on the middle class,” he said.
President Obama Speaks on the Impact of the Sequester
Published on Feb 26, 2013
President Obama highlights the devastating impact of automatic budget cuts on jobs and middle class families if Congressional Republicans fail to compromise to avert the sequester. February 26, 2013.
President Obama Speaks on the Sequester
Published on Feb 19, 2013
President Obama urges Congress to take action to avoid the automatic budget cuts scheduled to hit next Friday if lawmakers fail to find a path forward on balanced deficit reduction.
Hoodie For Trayvon Martin Gets Rep. Rush Kicked Off House Floor
Published on Mar 28, 2012
“On Capital Hill there’s also been reaction to the Trayvon Martin case. In fact his family went up there they had a moment of silence and then Bobby Rush decided to make a speech about this issue on the floor of the House and he wanted to quote the bible and he wanted to do it wearing a hoodie to make an important point. The Republicans didn’t want to let him do that…”
Early life, education, and activism
Rush was born on November 23, 1946 in Albany, Georgia during a time of racial tension, with just eight months after his birth, a white mob lynched an African-American couple just north of his home, an event now known as the Moore’s Ford Bridge Case. After his mother and father separated when he was 7, Rush, his siblings and their mother moved to Chicago, Illinois. In 1963 after dropping out of high school, Rush joined the U.S. Army. While stationed in Chicago in 1966, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1968, he went AWOL from the Army and co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers. He later received an honorable discharge from the Army.
Throughout the 1960′s, Rush was involved in the civil-rights movement and worked in civil-disobedience campaigns in the Southern United States. After co-founding the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers in 1968, he served as its “defense minister”. After witnessing fellow Black Panther Fred Hampton being killed in a police raid, Rush made statements saying “We needed to arm ourselves” and referring to the police as “pigs”. Earlier that same year Rush stated the philosophy behind his membership in the Black Panthers saying, “Black people have been on the defensive for all these years.
The trend now is not to wait to be attacked. We advocate offensive violence against the power structure.” Despite the group’s engagement in violence, Rush nonetheless worked on several non-violent projects that built support for the Black Panthers in African-American communities, such as coordinating a medical clinic which offered sickle-cell anemia testing on an unprecedented scale.
Rush’s own apartment was raided in December 1969, where police discovered an unregistered pistol, rifle, shotgun, pistol ammunition, training manuals on explosives, booby traps, an assortment of communist literature, and a small amount of marijuana. Rush was imprisoned for six months in 1972 on a weapons charge, after carrying a pistol into a police station. In 1974 Rush left the Panthers, who were already in decline. “We started glorifying thuggery and drugs,” he told People. Rush, a deeply religious born-again Christian, went on to say that “I don’t repudiate any of my involvement in the Panther party—it was part of my maturing.” He subsequently resumed his education in the early 1990′s at the McCormick Seminary and received a master’s degree in theology.
Rush ran for a seat on the Chicago City Council in 1974, the first of several black militants who later sought political office, and was defeated. In the early 1980′s however, Chicago’s political life was transformed by the ascendancy of U.S. Representative Harold Washington, a noted orator and a charismatic figure who helped unite the city’s African-American community. Washington was elected Mayor of Chicago in 1983, the first African-American to ever hold the office. That same year, Rush was elected alderman from the Second Ward on Chicago’s South Side. He was a part of the pro-Harold Washington faction on the Council during the “Council Wars” that began in 1983 following Washington’s election as Mayor in a racially-polarized contest.
After redistricting, Rush decided to run in the newly redrawn Illinois’ 1st congressional district. He defeated incumbent U.S. Congressman Charles Hayes and six other candidates in the Democratic primary election. He won the general election with 83% of the vote. In the 2000 Democratic primary for the Illinois’ 1st congressional district, Rush was challenged by then-State Senator, Barack Obama. During the primary, Rush said, “Barack Obama went to Harvard and became an educated fool. Barack is a person who read about the civil-rights protests and thinks he knows all about it.” Rush claimed that Obama was not sufficiently rooted in Chicago’s black neighborhoods to represent constituents’ concerns. For his part, Obama said Rush was a part of “a politics that is rooted in the past” and said he himself could build bridges with whites to get things done. But while Obama did well in his own Hyde Parkbase, he didn’t get enough support from the surrounding black neighborhoods. Starting with just 10% name recognition, Obama went on to get only 30% of the vote, losing by a more than 2-to-1 margin despite winning among white voters; and Rush winning 61% overall. Rush went on to win the general election with 88% of the vote.
Rush has consistently won with high margins, winning above 80% in every election, with the exception being his first bid for re-election in 1994 and in 2012 after redistricting, with him still winning above 70% of the vote.
Tenure
Bobby Rush has been considered a loyal Democrat during his tenure, in the 110th Congress, he voted with his party 97.8% of the time. Rush is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Rush sponsored the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act passed in 1999. The law temporarily addressed the nursing shortage by providing non-immigrant visas for qualified foreign nurses in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago and was reauthorized in 2005.
Rush sponsored the Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Depression Research and Care Act, named for Melanie Blocker-Stokes, a Chicago native who jumped to her death from a 12th story window due to postpartum depression. The bill would provide for research on postpartum depression and psychosis and services for individuals suffering from these disorders.
The Children’s Health Act, passed in 2000 incorporated Rush’s Urban Asthma Reduction Act of 1999, amending the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant program and includes an integrated approach to asthma management.
Energy
Rush was very outspoken against the GOP No More Solyndras Bill that would override a guarantee by the Energy Department. The Energy Department guaranteed a federal loan contract with the Solyndras company to help with research and development. Rush made the comment that the No More Solyndras Bill would be better named as the “No More Innovation Bill”.
Firearms
Rush introduced the “Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009″ on January 6, 2009. The bill would require all owners of handguns and semiautomatic firearms to register for a federal firearms license. All sales of the subject firearms would have to go through a licensed dealer. It would also make it a criminal act not to register as an owner of a firearm.
On February 13, 2007, Rush opposed President George W. Bush‘s proposed 20,000 serviceman troop surge in Iraq. He said the presence of the troops in Iraq is the greatest catalyst of violence in Iraq, and advocated a political resolution of the Iraq situation. Towards the close of his speech, Rush stated that the troop surge would only serve to make the Iraqi situation more volatile.
Trayvon Martin
On March 28, 2012, Rush addressed the House while wearing a hoodie in honor of Trayvon Martin, a teenager who was shot in Florida, and spoke against racial profiling. As the House forbids its members from wearing hats, Rush was called out of order and escorted from the chamber.
Together Rush and his wife Carolyn have had 6 children. One of their sons, Huey, named after Black Panther leader Huey Newton, was murdered in Chicago at the age of 29.
In 2008, Rush had a rare type of malignant tumor removed from his salivary gland. Rush is a member of Iota Phi Theta. According to a DNA analysis, he is descended mainly, from people of Ghana.
Though a very close friend to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Rush announced early on in the 2008 Democratic primaries that he would support Barack Obama. After Obama won the Presidency and vacated his Senate seat, Rush proposed that an African-American should be appointed to fill his seat.
During a press conference, Rush said, “With the resignation of President-elect Obama, we now have no African-Americans in the United States Senate, and we believe it will be a national disgrace to not have this seat filled by one of the many capable African-American Illinois politicians.” Rush said he did not support any one individual in particular for Senate, and was not interested in being appointed himself.
Obama supporters unite for ‘Organizing for Action’
“Obama for America,” the non-profit group formed to help re-elect President Obama has changed its name to “Organizing for Action” and continues to work for issues important to the President.
According to the AP:
“Coming just days before Obama’s second inauguration, the move represents the first time a sitting president has ever transformed his presidential campaign operation into an outside group with the express purpose of promoting his agenda.”
Obama for America, President Barack Obama’s campaign group, is turning itself into a nonprofit organization that will advocate for issues like immigration reform, climate change, gun control, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and middle class jobs, the Associated Press reported.
The new group will be called Organizing for Action, according to MSNBC. It will act independently of the DNC, which is where Democratic presidents traditionally have gone for support on policy issues.
President Barack Obama may have run the last campaign of his career, but his political organization is not going away. In an unprecedented step for the campaign of a sitting president, Obama for America is relaunching itself ahead of the president’s second inauguration as a social welfare nonprofit group called Organizing for Action.
First reported Thursday night by the Los Angeles Times and Politico, the new group will use the Obama campaign’s extensive collection of data and manpower to push the president’s agenda from outside the confines of the Democratic Party structure, while giving grassroots supporters a voice in deciding which issues the nonprofit will focus on.
Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager and the chair of Organizing for Action, explained the relaunch in an e-mail to staffers and donors, “It will be a supporter-driven organization, as we’ve always been, staying true to our core principles: ‘respect, empower, include.’”
“We’ll work on the key battles of our generation, train the next generation of grassroots organizers and leaders, and organize around local issues in our own communities,” Messina continued. “We’ll continue to support the President in creating jobs and growing the economy from the middle out, and in fighting for issues like immigration reform, climate change, balanced deficit reduction, and reducing gun violence.”
Organizing for Action will support the legislative agenda we voted on, train the next generation of grassroots organizers and leaders, and organize around local issues in our communities.
Watch this video the First Lady recorded about the next step of this grassroots movement, and say you’re in:
The First Lady on the Launch of Organizing for Action
Van Jones explains the impact of Organizing for Action in the upcoming years.
Today, the First Family kicked off Inauguration weekend by participating in the National Day of Service, helping out with some school improvement projects at Burrville Elementary in Washington, DC.
President Barack Obama stains shelves during a National Day of Service school improvement project at Burrville Elementary School in Washington, D.C., Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
LANSING, Mich. — Over the shouts of thousands of angry protesters gathered outside the State Capitol here, Michigan’s House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill that would vastly reduce the power of organized labor in this traditionally strong union state.
The 58-to-51 vote was the first piece of a two-part package, that would, among other things, bar workers from being required to pay union fees as a condition of employment.
Recall! Recall! Recall!” union supporters cried out from the gallery.
Before the vote, Democrats in the state’s House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a 64-to-46 majority over Democrats, were desperately trying to offer amendments to the measures in order to derail them. Among the suggestions: Send the question to a public vote. So far, all amendments had been rejected.
“This is being forced down peoples’ throats,” said Jon M. Switalski, a Democrat, speaking against the legislation. “It’s being done so in a very poor way — in lame-duck with no committee meetings.”
Why Biden v. Ryan Was So Different From Obama v. Romney….By Mr. Charlie Whelton:
“Obama was attacked from all sides in the aftermath of the first debate for his perceived weakness and passivity. MSNBC accused him of just ‘enduring the debate‘, the Guardian called him ‘nervous, distracted and unprepared‘ and even this own blog deemed him ‘ lackluster to say the least‘. However, had Obama adopted Joe Biden’s aggressive stance, taking Romney to task on his repeated misrepresentations and falsehoods as so many liberal commentators had hoped, would the fallout really have been more positive?”
“Ta-Nehisi Coates in his article ‘Fear of a Black President‘ recently pointed out the levels of rage, rudeness and aggression that Obama has evoked from fellow politicians over the course of his term in office, ’but the rules of our racial politics require that Obama never respond in like fashion‘, lest he receive the dreaded label of an ‘angry black man’. This holds the key to the major difference between Obama’s performance and that of his vice president; Biden had no stereotype to avoid, no preconceived notion to dispel and no need to disguise his contempt for Ryan’s falsehoods. Republicans may have called him disrespectful for his conduct, but much more importantly undecided voters said that he had won.”
For all you “expert pundits” who know jack about being a Black man, let alone a Black POTUS….educate yourselves by reading this post from “Our Friends In The West” and Mr. Charlie Whelton. Why is it a British man understands American politics better than the so called “expert American political pundits”?
I am amazed at all the “Democrats” who are STILL bitchin & moanin over what they describe as a loss for President Obama in his debate with Lyin UnFitt Mitt Romney.
I was a debate team member for 7 years during high school & college and never once was a debater allowed to lie, or use unsubstantiated facts during a debate.
Never in those 7 years of debating was an opponent declared the winner based on lies and misinformation.
For those of you disappointed, disillusioned or despondent over the POTUS performance during the 1st Presidential debate……..Shut The Fuck Up And Go Sit The Fuck Down.
It’s a sad ass day in American politics when a man from Britain understands American politics better than you.
The Road to November 6th: Las Vegas to Madison – 24 Days Until Election Day
Catch up with President Obama, the First Lady, and Vice President Biden for a few stops on the road to November 6th—including a field office full of volunteers and the biggest campaign event yet.
I want Barack Hussein Obama & Joseph Robinette “Joe“ Biden, Jr as MY POTUS & VPOTUS. I want men/women representing me and MY America who can relate to me and MY America.
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If we ever needed to vote & vote DEMOCRATIC, we sure do need to vote DEMOCRATIC now. For us (Black America) the right to vote is not just a Constitutional matter but a right borne out of struggle, out of sacrifice and in some cases out of death. Think for a moment where we are in time and you will understand why: ”If we never ever needed to vote DEMOCRATIC, we sure do need to vote DEMOCRATIC NOW!!”
Anthony Weiner announces NYC mayor run
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Jueseppi B.
