Barack Obama, Congress | featured news

It's not just Republicans who are blocking President Obama's jobs bill. Two Senate Democrats -- Jon Tester of Montana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska -- also opposed Obama on a procedural vote this week, and other Democrats have also raised questions about the $447 billion American Jobs Act.

The House on Thursday returned to an abortion issue that nearly sank President Barack Obama's health care law last year with legislation that bars an insurance plan regulated under the new law from covering abortion if any of its customers receive federal subsidies.

A large group of Senate Republicans unveiled a jobs bill Thursday, saying they were tired of hearing President Obama assert they had not put forward a plan to spur hiring and jump-start the economy.

Four years ago, Senator Claire McCaskill was one of Barack Obama's biggest boosters in his presidential campaign. But when he recently visited her state of Missouri, she did not have time to join him.

Senate Democrats are poised to bring Obama's jobs bill to the floor for a vote Tuesday, but with passage facing long odds, party leaders may break the legislation into parts, hoping for greater success in smaller increments.

When Republican candidate Mitt Romney attacked President Obama for conducting a "feckless" foreign policy, the White House had a ready answer. It came from a Republican. White House spokesman Jay Carney quoted this particular Republican as saying: "I've been very supportive of the President's decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan ... When you look at the prosecution of the war effort against the enemy in the tribal areas, there's clearly been more done under President Obama than there was under President Bush in terms of a more aggressive effort focused at them." "So said John Boehner, Speaker of the House, highest elected Republican in the land," Carney dutifully reported.

Senate Democratic leaders are proposing a 5% surtax on those earning $1 million a year as a new way pay for President Obama's jobs plan, turning to an issue with populist appeal as they line up support for a vote, possibly next week.

President Obama will blame House Republican leader Eric Cantor for blocking his jobs package when he speaks later today in Mesquite, Texas. ...

President Barack Obama said on Monday he expects the Congress to vote on his $447 billion jobs package by the end of October.

President Barack Obama's deficit reduction plan would be positive for U.S. ratings but chances of its implementation are "extremely low," Moody's Investors Service said on Monday.