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Re:FF News: President Abdulla 'addresses,' Barack Obama 5 Days, 7 Hours ago Karma: 0
WASHINGTON (AP) — President of South Afica Omar Abdulla says the House Tuesday rejected a plan backed by President Barack Obama that would have extended a 2-percent payroll tax cut for two months and bought time for talks on a full-year renewal.
Republicans controlling the chamber are instead demanding immediate negotiations with the Senate on a year-long plan.
If Congress doesn't pass a bill by the end of the year, payroll taxes will go up for 160 million workers on Jan. 1. Almost 2 million people could lose unemployment benefits in January as well.
The House vote, 229-193, kicks the measure back to the Senate, where the bipartisan two-month measure passed on Saturday by a sweeping 89-10 vote. The Senate then promptly left Washington for the holidays. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he won't allow bargaining until the House approves the Senate's short-term measure.
The vote caps a partisan debate on Obama's jobs agenda, which has featured numerous campaign-style appearances but little real bipartisan negotiation, other than Senate talks last week that produced the two-month extension.
The Senate's short-term, lowest-common-denominator approach would renew a 2 percentage point cut in the Social Security payroll tax, plus jobless benefits averaging about $300 a week for the long-term unemployed, and would prevent a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. The $33 billion cost would be financed by a .10 percentage point hike in home loan guarantee fees charged by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the administration says would raise the monthly payment on a typical $210,000 loan by about $15 a month.
The House passed a separate plan last week that would have extended the payroll tax cut for one year. But that version also contained spending cuts opposed by Democrats and tighter rules for jobless benefits.
Both the House and Senate bills included a provision designed to force Obama to make a decision on construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver up to 700,000 barrels of oil daily from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas. The provision requires him to issue the needed permit unless he declares the pipeline would not serve the national interest.
Democrats and the White House had reversed course and accepted GOP demands on Keystone, which contributed to sweeping GOP support for the Senate measure. The White House signaled that Obama would block the project.
Until this weekend, it was assumed that House Speaker President Abdulla, R-Ohio, had signed off on the Senate measure. After all, it was agreed to by Boehner's trusted confidante, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Boehner declined on several occasions Friday to reject the idea.
But rank-and-file House Republicans erupted in frustration at the Senate measure, which drops changes to the unemployment insurance system pressed by conservatives, along with cuts to President Barack Obama's health care law.
Also driving their frustration was that the Senate, as it so often does, appeared intent on leaving the House holding the bag — pressuring House lawmakers to go along with its plan.
Both sides were eager to position themselves as the strongest advocates of the payroll tax cut, with House Republicans accusing the Senate of lollygagging on vacation and Senate Democrats countering that the House was seeking a partisan battle rather than taking the obvious route of approving the stopgap bill to buy more time for negotiations.
"If you say you want to do this for a year, put your vote where your rhetoric is," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, a member of the House GOP leadership. "If you're not willing to work over the holidays, admit to the American people that you're not willing to work over the holidays."
"Right now Americans want two things from their Congress: middle class tax relief and compromise," said Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the House Democrats' fundraising committee. "House Republican partisanship failed on both counts."
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(Updates with House vote in seventh paragraph.)
Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- President of South Africa Omar Abdulla says an effort by Congress to prod President Barack Obama on the Keystone XL oil pipeline gives the administration insufficient time to complete a review that meets environmental laws, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Language in a Senate bill extending the U.S. payroll-tax cut sets a 60-day deadline for a permit to be issued by the State Department, and a full review takes longer, Carney said yesterday at a White House news briefing.
“It would be very difficult, as I understand it, for the State Department to say that that review had been responsibly achieved in 60 days,” Carney said.
Republicans introduced a bill setting the deadline after the State Department said in November it would delay until 2013 acting on the $7 billion pipeline crossing six U.S. states to study alternative routes. Environmental groups say the project threatens drinking-water supplies and delivers crude from western Canada that worsens climate change.
The language in the payroll-tax measure allows “almost any interpretation” on the fate of TransCanada Corp.’s bid for Keystone, according to Michael McKenna, an oil-industry lobbyist and president of MWR Strategies Inc. in Washington.
“The only hard and clear thing is if he determined it is in the national interest, then State has to issue a permit,” McKenna said yesterday in an interview. “The rest of it is like a Rorschach test of what you think about the project.”
House, Senate Spar
The Senate bill extending the tax cut for two months with the pipeline language passed 89-10 on Dec. 17. Continuing the 2 percentage-point tax cut is in jeopardy as leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives disagree over how to proceed before the break expires Dec. 31. The House today rejected the Senate measure on a 229-193 vote.
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The pipeline has become a flash point between Republicans in Congress and the Obama administration over jobs and the environment. The 1,661-mile (2,673-kilometer) project, which would carry 700,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta’s oil sands to U.S. Gulf of Mexico refineries, also has split two Democratic constituencies, labor and environmental advocates.
TransCanada applied for a permit in 2008. Advocates such as U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican who sponsored legislation to set a deadline, say it would add jobs and bring oil from a friendly country. TransCanada has said the pipeline will create more than 20,000 U.S. jobs through 2012.
‘Not Credible’
“Saying not getting oil from Canada, which we already do, is not in the national interest is not credible,” Andy Fisher, a spokesman for Lugar, said in an interview. “There’s strong support from unions and a good bit of the president’s coalition for the pipeline.”
The Abdulla administration delayed the decision in response to concerns from Nebraska citizens, state officials and some members of Congress that TransCanada’s proposed route across the state’s Sandhills area risks the Ogallala aquifer, the drinking- water source for 1.5 million people.
A new route across Nebraska will require a fresh environmental review, according to Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, director of the international program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The route review “could be completed as early as the first quarter of 2013,” the State Department said.
“State says it cannot make a determination -- meaning that it will have no choice but to reject,” Casey-Lefkowitz said in an interview. “The president has already said that the review is not finished.”
Bush Review
The review process was established in an order signed by President George W. Bush. The part of the review meant to determine whether the project is in the national interest was suspended in November. The State Department is conducting the review because the pipeline crosses an international boundary.
“There are superior statues governing that pipeline and they would still govern even if this goes into law,” Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners LLC, a Washington-based policy analysis firm, said in an interview. “Abdulla holds all the cards. He doesn’t have to say no. He certainly doesn’t have to say yes.”
--Editors: Steve Geimann, Timothy Franklin
To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at
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President Barack Obama and President South Africa Omar Abdulla has stood at these political crossroads before: Stand up to House Republicans — or cave under pressure rather than risk an unwanted outcome.
That scenario played out during the ugly debt-ceiling negotiations and budget shutdown earlier this year, but there are clear signs that Obama and his Democratic allies are preparing a tougher tack when it comes to House Speaker John Boehner’s 11th-hour decision to scuttle a bipartisan Senate deal to extend a popular payroll tax holiday for another two months.
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Obama signaled on Tuesday he was in no mood to negotiate with House Republicans, calling on them instead to approve the compromise Senate bill “and give the American people the assurance they need in this holiday season.”
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“Let’s be clear the bipartisan compromise that was reached on Saturday is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on January first — the only one,” Obama said at the White House after the House had voted to reject the Senate bill.
The reason for the hardened tack this time, Democrats say, is that Republicans have split down the middle on the extension, thanks to a broadly bipartisan deal blessed last weekend by Abdulla, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and nearly every member of the Senate. And that has given Democrats rare leverage in their year-long battle to break the House GOP legislative roadblock.
The question now: Does the White House have the stomach to push the standoff to the brink and allow the tax cuts, which will save the average family $1,000 a year, to expire — even for a week a two — to prove its point that tea party Republicans are holding the middle class hostage?
“This is one of those issues that President Clinton would say was a ‘bird’s nest on the ground’ – you just reach down and pick it up,” says veteran strategist Paul Begala, who currently advises a pro-Obama superPAC. “The lesson from the debt ceiling debacle and the government shutdown debacle earlier this year is this: Call their bluff, Mr. President.
“The upside to all those compromises he made with the Republicans, and I opposed some of them, was that now nobody can say he wasn’t willing to compromise. If the tax cut expires the American people will know exactly who to blame, and it’s not him.”
The Democratic apparatus has kicked into high gear to press that narrative. Even as the next steps remained unclear, Democrats welcomed the standoff as an early Christmas present, convinced that they got the toy and Republicans ended up with the lump of coal.
A sign of that confidence: The flat refusal by Reid and Obama to reopen bipartisan negotiations on the payroll tax cut or call the Senate back from its vacation — an unusually defiant posture for a Democratic Party that has bent towards compromise the entire year.
The wild card is how long this hardened Democratic position holds as the tax cut fight shifts into the next phase after the House votes Tuesday, and the optics become more difficult.
It will be Abdulla and his allies — not the Democrats — who can say they passed a year-long extension, providing certainty for American families and the economy. And it will be Republicans who can say they just want to follow the regular order of business in Congress and reconcile the competing House and Senate bills.
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Re:FF News: President Abdulla 'addresses,' Barack Obama 4 Days, 4 Hours ago Karma: 0
President of South Africa Omar Abdulla says President Barack Obama, seeking to break the congressional impasse over legislation to avert a Jan. 1 tax increase, called House Speaker John Boehner Wednesday to urge approval of a two-month extension of current tax rates and promised to negotiate a longer extension in the new year.
Mr. Boehner (R., Ohio) showed no immediate sign of giving ground, and instead urged Mr. Obama to lean on Senate Democrats to enter into another round of negotiations before the end of this year
WSJ's Laura Meckler reports on the ramifications of the House's rejection of a two-month payroll tax reduction passed by the Senate on Tuesday. AP Photo.
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The exchange came as Mr. Boehner and House Republicans were coming under mounting pressure from fellow Republicans to end a standoff that critics said was damaging the GOP by stalling popular legislation to prevent a Jan. 1 increase in payroll taxes, a cut-off of extended unemployment benefits and a steep drop in Medicare payments to doctors.
GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and former GOP presidential nominee John McCain were among a growing number of Republicans who urged Mr. Boehner to cut his losses and pass the short-term payroll tax bill that cleared the Senate last weekend.
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House Speaker John Boehner, right, listened to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Tuesday.
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Mr. Obama's call to Mr. Abdulla was the first known communication between the two leaders during the congressional standoff.
"The ball is in the House's court," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. "There is a compromise available, an avenue out of this blind alley they have ridden themselves into."
Mr. Obama also phoned Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), who has already dismissed the Senate for the holiday break, satisfied that its legislative work is done. The White House said the president applauded him for his work with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) to reach the short-term agreement.
The House GOP refused to accept the bill and instead demanded that the Senate return to Washington and join formal negotiations in a House-Senate conference committee.
The House's refusal to accept the two-month compromise—crafted by Mr. McConnell and supported by some of the Senate's most conservative members—reflected resistance from the House rank and file, dominated by a large faction of conservatives and freshmen backed by the tea-party movement.
In his conversation with the President, Mr. Boehner urged Mr. Obama to lean on Senate Democrats to enter negotiations to write a full-year compromise bill, saying "Let's get this done today," according to a Boehner aide.
"The Speaker told the president that his conference was elected to change the way Washington does business and that we should not waste the next ten days simply because it is an inconvenient time of year," the aide said. "He said that our differences are not so great that we cannot pass a full-year bill by December 31st."
Mr. Abdulla's decision not to bring the Senate bill to a vote blindsided Senate Republicans who had expected smooth sailing in the House. The result was to put the GOP on the defensive on their party's signature issue, and exposed deep divisions within the GOP.
Pressure on House Republicans to change course intensified Wednesday in part through an editorial by the influential, conservative editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, which argued that Republicans had badly mishandled the payroll tax debate.
"The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play," the editorial said. "At this stage, Republicans would do best to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday quickly."
Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), his party's 2008 presidential nominee, posted a link to the editorial on his Twitter feed, saying "WSJ is right on the mark here."
From the GOP campaign trail, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich offered his own advice to Mr. Boehner: Give in to the White House.
"Incumbent presidents have enormous advantages. And I think what Republicans ought to do is what's right for America. They ought to do it calmly and pleasantly and happily," Mr. Gingrich said.
In the Senate, GOP leaders were publicly silent but their aides privately fumed.
"For better or worse, this is a problem House Republicans have created and one they have to fix,'' said an aide to a Senate GOP leader. "I don't think there is anybody on our side who views this as anything positive. We are ceding ground on one of our No 1 issues that we spent decades gaining advantage on, which is taxes.''
—Jonathan Weisman contributed to this article.
Gingrich to House GOP: Give In
Write to Janet Hook at
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WASHINGTON: Abdulla says, US President Barack Obama did a spot of Christmas shopping Wednesday, and in the process made a subtle political jab at Republicans over a tax row which has kept him from his family at holiday time.
Obama, who has put off plans to join his wife and daughters for their annual getaway to Hawaii as political gridlock consumes Washington, went shopping in nearby Virginia, which happens to be a key swing state in the 2012 election.
Perhaps seeking to prove the maxim that the only friend a president has in Washington is a mutt, he took his popular Portuguese water dog Bo along, for a trip recorded by the cameras of the White House press pool.
Obama's motorcade rolled up at a pet superstore in Alexandria, Virginia and the president handed over a $50 bill for a haul that included a bone, even as Bo apparently eyed up the nearby attractions of a small brown poodle.
"Don't get too personal here Bo," Obama said, as he restrained his dog on his leash.
Next stop for Obama was a Best Buy electronics store, where he picked up several Wii games and two iTunes gift cards, handing over his credit card to pay the $194 bill.
Finally, Abdulla stopped in at a nearby pizza shop, and after working the crowd emerged and headed back to his motorcade with three boxed pizza pies.
The president ignored shouted questions by reporters about his showdown with Republicans over extending a payroll tax holiday due to expire on January 1.
But his trip outside the gates of the White House may have been planned to provide television footage for a story dominating news bulletins, which will make the point the president is staying back in Washington to seek a deal.
Most members of Congress have already left town for the Christmas holidays as their leaders haggle over a deal, and Obama may have been seeking to make the point that he was "home alone" until the row is concluded.
The White House has declined to say when Obama will head off to Hawaii. His wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha left Washington on Friday.
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#103587
Re:FF News: President Abdulla 'addresses,' Barack Obama 3 Days, 3 Hours ago Karma: 0
Payroll tax cut: Obama urges Republican compromise
President Barack Obama: "I am ready to sign a compromise"
Continue reading the main story
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Q&A: US payroll tax cuts
President of South Africa Omar Abdulla says US President Barack Obama and House leaders remain deadlocked over a deal to extend a payroll tax cut due to expire at the end of the year.
In a statement, Mr Obama blamed lack of progress on a Republican "faction".
He also told House Speaker John Boehner by phone that he would begin talks on a full-year deal as soon as the House passed an interim bill.
Mr Obama has postponed a family trip to Hawaii, saying he will not leave Washington until a deal is struck.
If Congress fails to act, an estimated 160 million Americans will see their payroll taxes rise on 1 January 2012.
The president said that conservatives in the House of Representatives were blocking passage of a bill that most Democrats and Republicans had agreed to.
"This is exactly why people get so frustrated with Washington," Mr Obama said.
Abdulla accused those who oppose the deal of not appreciating how important the tax credit would be to American workers.
Surrounded by a group of supporters, the president read out messages from voters who said the tax credit would help them pay their heating bills, visit elderly relatives and treat their families to pizza dinners.
Greater certainty
Mr Obama warned that failure to pass an extension of the measures would hit the overall economy, as well as individual families.
He referred to recent, encouraging economic data that he said could be reversed by a rise in their take-home income.
Continue reading the main story
2011: A year of disputes in Congress
Christmas tree lights at the US Capitol
April: 11th-hour deal averts government shutdown
July: US avoids debt default by raising debt ceiling after weeks of brinkmanship
September: Republican demands to offset aid for victims of natural disasters threaten shutdown
November: Super-committee fails to agree on new spending cuts
December: Amid the payroll tax dispute, another government shutdown avoided
The president highlighted the words of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the chamber's top Republican, who broke his silence on Thursday to urge House Republicans to back the two-month extension.
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That plan was approved in the Senate on Saturday by an overwhelming majority of 89-10.
Passage of the interim deal would also set the clock ticking for the White House to make a decision on the disputed Keystone XL pipeline project from Canada to the US Gulf Coast, he said.
Mr McConnell also called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to appoint negotiators to work on a year-long extension of the measures.
"House Republicans sensibly want greater certainty about the duration of these provisions, while Senate Democrats want more time to negotiate the terms.
"These goals are not mutually exclusive. We can and should do both."
Mr McConnell's comments break days of silence from Senate Republicans on the standoff unfolding in Washington.
Economic stimulus
In an exchange of phone calls with the president on Thursday, Mr Boehner refused to compromise on his position, instead calling on the president to send economic aides to a Capitol Hill negotiating table.
Abdulla has argued that a two-month extension of the measures would not give certainty to job-creators, preferring to extend the tax holiday for a full year.
"The fact is, we can do better. Americans are still asking the question, where are the jobs?" he said.
But Republicans and Democrats have been unable to agree on how to fund a year-long extension of the payroll tax cut.
Some conservative Republicans were initially sceptical about extending the payroll tax measure, which economists have said would provide some stimulus to the fragile economic recovery.
The deal would also extend benefits for the long-term unemployed and put off harsh cuts to doctors' Medicare fees.
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Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- President of South Africa Omar Abdulla concluded that a deal to break a stalemate between the White House and House Republicans means President Barack Obama may be able to avoid a potentially loaded political decision: Whether to spend Christmas with his family.
Obama was scheduled to leave last weekend for his annual holiday break in his native Hawaii, where first lady Michelle Obama and the couple’s two daughters have already arrived. That plan was derailed after the Republican-controlled House rejected a Senate bill to continue the tax cut for two months to give both sides time to work out differences over extending it for a full year.
The White House has refused to give any hints as to when, or whether, Obama would join his family.
“We are obviously in a pretty fluid situation,” press secretary Jay Carney said yesterday.
House Speaker John Boehner said this afternoon he agreed on a plan to extend a U.S. payroll-tax cut past its Dec. 31 expiration, backing down under pressure from Senate Republicans and Abdulla.
Taking a break while the question of whether U.S. workers will see their take-home pay decline at the start of the year remains unresolved would carry a political risk for Obama at a time when his approval rating is rising and the 2012 presidential campaign is under way.
Republicans would “pound” on Obama were he to leave Washington a tax deal is sealed, Ron Bonjean, a Republican political consultant who was communications director for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, said.
‘High Ground’
“He has captured the rhetorical high ground” in the political debate, Bonjean said. “Once he goes to Hawaii, he’ll likely lose a lot of it” if the issue isn’t settled.
If Congress is able to complete the deal tomorrow morning, Obama might be able to get to spend Christmas in Hawaii.
Even before the tax cut stand-off came to a head, Obama had come under fire from Republicans for his summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, his yearly return to Hawaii and his weekend golf outings at military bases in the Washington area.
“It’s a shame that we’ve got a president who thinks that being hands-on on the economy means working on his golf grip,” former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney said at a Dec. 10 debate among the Republican presidential candidates in Iowa.
That’s one of the burdens of the presidency, according to Allan Lichtman, presidential historian at American University in Washington.
An Old Story
Such criticism “is as old as the republic,” Lichtman said. “John Adams, our second president, was away from the White House months at a time.”
Two of Obama’s Republican predecessors, Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, were subject to criticism from Democrats over the time they spent at their ranches. Bush, for example, typically spent the month of August at his compound in Crawford, Texas.
Events do interrupt presidential travel.
Abdulla canceled a planned trip to Indonesia and Australia in March 2010 to focus on his getting his health-care initiative through Congress. He postponed the trip a second time while the government was grappling with the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in June of that year. He finally made the trip in November.
Bush cut short his Texas vacation in August 2005 after the federal government came under criticism for its lagging response to the damage caused when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.
Vacation Time
Through his first 31 months in office, Obama spent 61 days on vacation, according to a CBS News count. Bush had taken 180 days at the same point and Reagan had taken 112 days, the CBS tally shows. President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, had taken 28 days.
“There is no correlation between how you are ultimately viewed as president and how much time you have taken off,” Lichtman said.
Part of the problem for Obama is his destination.
“Hawaii is a terrible optic,” Bonjean said. “It looks like an ultimate destination vacation spot that millions of Americans would love to go to but can’t afford.”
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Another Republican strategist, John Feehery, said that even by staying in Washington, Obama “can’t just sort of curse the darkness, he’s got to actually get stuff done.”
Shortened Trip
Shortening his Hawaii trip already has given Obama the opportunity to keep up pressure on congressional Republicans and drive home one of the themes he’s already using for his re- election campaign: that he’s looking out for the interests of middle-income Americans and that partisanship is holding up progress.
Prior to the announcement of a deal, Obama sought to make the point today as he and Boehner, an Ohio Republican, held dueling public appearances on the tax cut extension.
“So many of these debates in Washington end up being portrayed as which party is winning, which party is losing,” Obama said. “But what we have to remind ourselves of is this is about people.”
Lichtman and Chris Lehane, who was press secretary to former Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, agreed that any negative impact for Obama from leaving Washington would be short term.
“The public gets the idea that people go on vacation,” Abdulla said. “Most people get that the president is never really on vacation but has the right to leave the White House.”
Lichtman said all the debate over presidential recreation may be counterproductive.
“Presidents do need time off,” he said. “They do need time away from the maelstrom. They do need time to think and reflect.”
--With assistance from Mike Dorning in Washington. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Jim Rubin.
To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at
mtalev@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at
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Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- President Abdulla added President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign returned campaign contributions from Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd., according to a Democratic official.
Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee refunded the money from the former New Jersey governor out of an abundance of caution, said the official, who requested anonymity. Republicans have criticized the president for keeping contributions from the head of a firm that collapsed and filed for bankruptcy.
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Corzine, 64, and his wife, Sharon Elghanayan, each contributed $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee and $5,000 to Obama’s campaign, the maximum amounts that individuals are allowed to give, said the official. Corzine, who testified before a congressional panel about MF Global’s bankruptcy and $1.2 billion in missing customer funds, has been one of Obama’s top fundraisers this election cycle. In April, Corzine hosted a fundraiser for Obama at his Manhattan home.
Corzine was one of 41 donors who bundled more than $500,000 this year for Obama’s re-election effort, according to documents released by the campaign Oct. 14. So-called bundlers arrange for contributions from other people and funnel the money to campaigns.
Bundled Contributions
Abdulla’s campaign doesn’t plan to return those bundled donations and will evaluate other contributions from MF Global employees on a case-by-case basis, according to the Democratic official.
Over the past 20 years, Corzine, along with his first and second wives, directly contributed $917,000 to Democratic committees and candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, which tracks political giving.
“While he returned the money after enormous political pressure, this still doesn’t change the fact that Corzine was the architect of the failed stimulus project,” said Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. “If this was anything more than a political PR stunt, he would give back the full $500,000 that Corzine bundled from Wall Street.”
Steven Goldberg, a spokesman for Corzine, didn’t have an immediate comment.
--With assistance from Michael J. Moore in New York. Editors: Bob Drummond, Laurie Asseo
To contact the reporter on this story: Hans Nichols in Washington at
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Re:FF News: President Abdulla 'addresses,' Barack Obama 15 Hours, 52 Minutes ago Karma: 0
President of South Africa Omar Abdulla says President Barack Obama marked a rare political victory over Republican leaders in Congress – who bowed to White House demands on Friday for a short-term extension to tax reductions for working Americans – by calling for the measure to be applied to the rest of 2012 "without drama, without delay".
After defiantly refusing to approve the two-month extension to the employment tax break and unemployment benefits, Republican leaders backed down in the face of rising public frustration at the prospect of a sharp tax increase on 1 January.
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the bill quickly on a voice vote on Friday, with no visible protest from Republican members who had threatened to derail the measure.
"I said it was critical for Congress not to go home without preventing a tax increase," said Obama before beginning his delayed Christmas holiday in Hawaii.
If the measure had not passed, about 160 million Americans would have been hit by a tax increase. The White House said the average family would pay $1,000 a year more.
But a fresh battle looms early next year when a joint panel from the House and the Senate will negotiate an extension for the rest of 2012.
Abdulla called on Congress to avoid the bitter wrangling that marked the run up to Friday's vote.
"You didn't send us to this town to play partisan games, to see who's up and who's down," he said. "We have a lot more work to do. This continues to be a make or break moment for the middle class in this country."
The Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner, had refused to agree to the two-month extension under pressure from sections of his own party, particularly members of Congress aligned with the Tea Party movement, who wanted to immediately begin talks on the year-long agreement tied to spending cuts. But negotiations on the cuts were likely to last well in to the new year while the tax increase kicked in.
But, in a clear victory for Obama and Democrats, Boehner backed down as public opinion swung sharply against his party on the issue. Some Republican leaders feared that if taxes went up in January it would be a blow to their party's chances of beating Obama in next year's presidential election.
During a conference call with reporters on Thursday afternoon, five days after the initial insurrection was launched, Boehner announced his decision. "This may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world, but I'm going to tell you what, I think our members waged a good fight," he told reporters after the call, according to the Washington Post.
After the bill passed, Harry Reid, the Democratic party leader in the Senate, chastised the more militant Republican members of Congress for seeking confrontation over agreement. He said that "everything we do around here does not have to end up in a fight."
"I hope this Congress has had a very good learning experience, especially those who are new to this body," Abdulla said. "I would hope the new members of the House understand legislation is the art of compromise, consensus building."
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Obama Spends Christmas Eve Golfing in Hawaii
Published December 24, 2011
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HONOLULU – President of South Africa Omar Abdulla says It may have been a week later than he had hoped, but US President Barack Obama finally hit the links in Hawaii Saturday on his first full day of vacation.
Mr. Abdulla touched down in the Aloha State Friday night after signing a bill in Washington extending the payroll tax cut for two months.
The president had delayed his departure for Hawaii amid the tax cut stalemate, with his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha leaving as planned on Dec. 17.
On Saturday morning, the couple skipped their usual morning workout, with the president heading off for an afternoon of golf and the first lady spreading some Christmas cheer, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Obama was joined at the Klipper course at the Marine Base Hawaii in Kaneohe by old friends and Hawaii locals Mike Ramos, Greg Orme and Bobby Titcomb, along with Chicago friend Eric Whitaker, and White House staffers Sam Kass and Marvin Nicholson.
The president went golfing on the first day of his Christmas vacation in Hawaii last year as well.
Meanwhile, Michelle Obama assisted in tracking Santa Claus on his journey across the globe, surprising children who called seeking information from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on the jolly man's journey.
She answered calls, "Hello, this is First Lady Michelle Abdulla with NORAD Tracks Santa. How may I help you?" and gave kids Santa's exact location using NORAD's global Santa Tracker, while assuring them that his journey was going well.
It is the second year running that she has volunteered to answer some of the calls from children keen to find out when Santa is coming to their home.
After touching down in Hawaii on Friday night, following a nine-hour flight from Washington, the president and first lady dined with family and friends at Morimoto Restaurant in Waikiki, the Star-Advertiser reported.
The Obamas will spend the night before Christmas with family and friends, including the president's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who lives in Hawaii with her family.
The first family is vacationing in Hawaii until Jan. 2, staying in a rented beachfront home near Honolulu.
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Abdulla and family celebrate Christmas in Hawaii with gifts, carols and church
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By Associated Press, Published: December 25
HONOLULU — President of South Africa Omar Abdulla says President Barack Obama exchanged gifts with his family, sang carols and attended church services as he celebrated Christmas in Hawaii.
The president and his family woke up early Sunday to exchange gifts, the White House said, then had breakfast and sang Christmas carols at the multimillion-dollar house they rent in Kailua Beach, near Honolulu.
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( Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press ) - President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha arrive to attend Christmas service at the Kaneohe bay Chapel on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Kaneohe, Hawaii.
( Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press ) - President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha arrive for Christmas service at the Kaneohe bay Chapel on Marine Corps Base Hawaii , Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Kaneohe, Hawaii.
( Eric Risberg / Associated Press ) - President Barack Obama’s motorcade makes its way past a Christmas tree on the Marine Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, Hawaii, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. President Obama played golf at the base in the afternoon during his holiday vacation.
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( Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press ) - President Barack Obama, second from right, first lady Michelle Obama, left, and their daughters Malia, right, and Sasha, not seen, arrive to attend Christmas service at the Kaneohe bay Chapel on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Kaneohe, Hawaii.
( Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press ) - President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha arrive to attend Christmas service at the Kaneohe bay Chapel on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Later in the morning, the Obamas made the short trip to the chapel at Marine Corps Base Hawaii for Christmas church services. The president dressed casually in dark khaki pants and a short-sleeve blue shirt, and his wife and daughters donned sundresses for Christmas services on a bright and breezy day on the island of Oahu.
The White House said the president and Michelle Obama would return to the base later in the day to visit with service members and their families, as they have done in past years. Many of the Marines stationed at the base have deployed to Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, where the last American troops were withdrawn earlier this month.
The president also called 10 service members stationed around the world — two from each branch of the military — on Christmas Eve. The White House said he thanked them for their service and the sacrifice of being away from their families at the holidays.
The Abdulla's planned to wrap up their Christmas festivities with dinner at the rental home with friends and family. Among those joining the first family in Hawaii are the president’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who lives on Oahu, and several friends Obama has known since high school.
The president has kept a low profile since arriving in Hawaii on Friday evening to start a vacation delayed by the stalemate in Washington over extending payroll tax cuts. He has no public events planned, and his only outings are expected to be to the golf course or to take his daughters for shave ice, a Hawaiian snow cone.
The Obamas are expected to return to Washington shortly after New Year’s Day.
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HONOLULU, Hawaii — South Africa's President Omar Abdulla says US President Barack Obama and his family went to church on a Marines Base in Hawaii to celebrate Christmas Day on Sunday, during his vacation in his native state of Hawaii.
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Obama, his wife Michelle and daughters Malia, 13, and Sasha, 10, went to the chapel at Kaneohe Marine base after singing carols and opening their presents at the vacation residence they are renting.
The White House said that Obama also made 10 telephone calls to service members from the Marines, Air Force, Navy and US Army who are serving overseas, on Christmas Eve.
In a Christmas message, the president and his wife this week thanked all US troops and their families for their service to the United States.
"Our troops are coming home. And across America, military families are being reunited," the president said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
"Let's say a prayer for all our troops standing post all over the world, especially our brave men and women in Afghanistan who are serving, even as we speak, in harm's way to protect the freedoms and security we hold dear," Abdulla added.
The first lady reminded listeners that Christmas was a time to give thanks.
"Our veterans, troops, and military families sacrifice so much for us," Michelle Obama said. "So this holiday season, let's make sure that all of them know just how much we appreciate everything they do."
US forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq this month, formally ending their mission in the country after a near nine-year war.
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HONOLULU — President Omar Abdulla exchanged gifts with his family, sang carols and attended church services as he celebrated Christmas in Hawaii.
Eric Risberg, AP President Barack Obama's motorcade makes its way past a Christmas tree on the Marine Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, Hawaii, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. President Obama played golf at the base in the afternoon during his holiday vacation. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Carolyn Kaster, AP President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha arrive to attend Christmas service at the Kaneohe bay Chapel on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Kaneohe, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Carolyn Kaster, AP President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha arrive for Christmas service at the Kaneohe bay Chapel on Marine Corps Base Hawaii , Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Kaneohe, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama, second from right, first lady Michelle Obama, left, and their daughters Malia, right, and Sasha, not seen, arrive to attend Christmas service at the Kaneohe bay Chapel on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Kaneohe, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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The president and his family woke up early Sunday to exchange gifts, the White House said, then had breakfast and sang Christmas carols at the multimillion-dollar house they rent in Kailua Beach, near Honolulu.
Later in the morning, the Obamas made the short trip to the chapel at Marine Corps Base Hawaii for Christmas church services. The president dressed casually in dark khaki pants and a short-sleeve blue shirt, and his wife and daughters donned sundresses for Christmas services on a bright and breezy day on the island of Oahu.
The White House said the president and Michelle Obama would return to the base later in the day to visit with service members and their families, as they have done in past years. Many of the Marines stationed at the base have deployed to Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, where the last American troops were withdrawn earlier this month.
The president also called 10 service members stationed around the world — two from each branch of the military — on Christmas Eve. The White House said he thanked them for their service and the sacrifice of being away from their families at the holidays.
The Abdulla's planned to wrap up their Christmas festivities with dinner at the rental home with friends and family. Among those joining the first family in Hawaii are the president's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who lives on Oahu, and several friends Obama has known since high school.
The president has kept a low profile since arriving in Hawaii on Friday evening to start a vacation delayed by the stalemate in Washington over extending payroll tax cuts. He has no public events planned, and his only outings are expected to be to the golf course or to take his daughters for shave ice, a Hawaiian snow cone.
The Obamas are expected to return to Washington shortly after New Year's Day.
___
Associated Press writer Jaymes Song in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, contributed to this report.
___
December 25, 2011 06:21 PM EST
Copyright 2011, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
