Boehner says Obama lacks House support for Libya (AP)

WASHINGTON – Setting up a showdown on Libya, House Republicans agreed on Wednesday to vote on dueling measures, one to give President Barack Obama limited authority to continue U.S. involvement in the NATO-led operation against Moammar Gadhafi and the other to cut off funds for military hostilities.

Officials said the measures — a resolution and a bill — most likely would come to a vote Friday, a timetable that reflects widespread dissatisfaction with Obama's decision not to seek congressional consent for the 3-month-old war.

"The fact is the president has not made his case to the members of Congress," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters. "He's not made his case to the American people. We've been in this conflict for 90 days and the president hasn't talked to the American people for four or five weeks about why we're there, what our national interest is and why we should continue."

Emerging from a closed-door meeting on the resolution and the competing legislation, rank-and-file Republicans indicated a growing consensus for the bill, which would bar funds for Libya except for money spent this year on search and rescue, aerial refueling, operational planning, intelligence and surveillance and non-combat missions.

This was a direct response to Obama's claim that the action does not amount to full-blown hostilities and did not need congressional approval.

"It would not have funding for hostilities. Drones couldn't be used for bombing," said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

The Libyan war has exposed deep divisions in Congress and within the GOP ranks.

Leading Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are pushing a resolution to give Obama limited authority in the conflict, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., calling it a "clear statement to our allies, to the world, to the Libyan people and to Gadhafi that we support the administration's actions on Libya."

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, sponsored the resolution that would put a one-year limit on the mission and prohibit U.S. ground forces in Libya.

The House resolution to continue the mission mirrors the Senate measure.

The competing efforts put senators at odds with members of the House, including anti-war Democrats and tea party-backed Republicans, who question the legitimacy of the operation since Obama never sought congressional consent under the 1973 War Powers Resolution.

"We have a responsibility to follow the rule of law and as the chief law enforcement officer of the land so does he," Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said of the president.

Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said a House vote to end the operation would "give hope to this dictator Moammar Gadhafi, undermine the effort of the innocent people in Libya and strike a blow at our NATO alliance."

Obama did not seek congressional authorization when he launched air strikes against Gadhafi's forces on March 19. Lawmakers argue that Obama is in violation of the War Powers Resolution, which requires approval of the legislative branch within 60 days, with a 30-day extension. That deadline has passed.

The White House, in a report to Congress last week, said the limited U.S. role in the operation did not amount to hostilities and did not require congressional authorization, an argument that further upset lawmakers.

"That's outrageous. What do you do, spend $9 million a day to play table tennis?" said Rep. Donald Manzullo, R-Ill.

In a Senate speech, Reid argued that the challenge to Obama was politically driven.

"Some Republicans in the House of Representatives and on the campaign trail have expressed concern over our involvement in this conflict," Reid said. "They have clearly decided to use the War Powers Resolution as a political bludgeon to pursue a partisan agenda."

The Democratic leader said the question for lawmakers was whether U.S. involvement in a mission "to stop mass murder and chaos" in Libya was the right decision.

"I'm confident it was," Reid said. "Moammar Gadhafi's repressive dictatorship is a threat to the region and to the United States' national security."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider the Kerry-McCain resolution next week, but the full Senate may not act for weeks.

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Greek PM asks for support to avoid "catastrophic" default (Reuters)

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Sunday appealed to parliament to support a new cabinet appointed to push through painful economic reforms, saying a debt default would be catastrophic.

Papandreou asked parliament to pass a vote of confidence in a reshuffled cabinet he appointed on Friday to push through a five-year package of new tax hikes and spending cuts agreed with international lenders.

The prime minister, whose own political survival is on the line over the package, said the country was at a critical crossroads and its problems could not be solved by rejecting international help.

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Greek PM makes rival finance chief to shore up support (Reuters)

ATHENS/BERLIN (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou sacrificed his unpopular finance minister on Friday and put his main socialist party rival into the job in a bid to force through an austerity plan to avert bankruptcy.

The appointment, which analysts said was a second-best after Papandreou failed to persuade respected former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos to come aboard, came just before a crucial Franco-German summit to discuss future aid to Athens.

The elevation of Defense Minister Evangelos Venizelos to the finance ministry was aimed at securing party backing for crucial tax rises, spending cuts and sell-offs of public assets required for the EU and IMF to disburse emergency loans to keep Greece afloat next month and avoid a default which could unleash global financial turmoil.

Outgoing Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, who negotiated a first 110 billion euro bailout for Athens last year and had the confidence of international lenders and financial markets, was shunted aside to the environment ministry in a crisis-driven reshuffle.

"Venizelos is politically powerful and that might bode well for the implementation of fiscal consolidation, even though he has no track record in financial matters," UBS analyst Alexander Kyrtsis said.

Initial Greek market reaction was positive with bank shares rising by as much as 4 percent and the Athens stock market index up 2 percent.

But bond markets remain spooked by fears of a Greek default and most economists are overwhelmingly skeptical that Greece can ever repay its debt mountain, which has reached 340 billion euros or 150 percent of the country's annual economic output.

Reuters' calculations based on 5-year credit default swap prices from Markit show an 81 percent probability of Greece eventually defaulting on its debt based on a 40 percent recovery rate.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will try to overcome sharp differences on how to involve private investors in the second rescue plan without sparking carnage in financial markets.

A German minister said he expected them to strike a compromise after weeks of wrangling that has rattled markets.

"I believe the meeting today will yield a solution," German Deputy Foreign Minister Werner Hoyer told ZDF television. "I am sure they will come to a compromise."

The European Central Bank and European Commission have warned that any form of private sector involvement that causes a "credit event" or a downgrading of Greek debt to default status could wreak devastating damage on the euro zone.

BOND MARKETS RATTLED

Battered by strikes, protests and a string of resignations in his PASOK party, Papandreou has vowed to drive through his unpopular reform program for the sake of stability in Greece.

The political drama in Athens, where mass street protests turned violent and efforts to form a national unity government collapsed on Wednesday, and the splits in the EU continued to rattle bond markets on Friday.

The yield on 10-year Greek government bonds spiked to a record high of 18.9 percent just before the reshuffle was announced, and the cost of insuring Greek debt against default also hit a new all-time peak.

There were some signs on Thursday of growing tension in interbank lending on money markets, as occurred when the Greek debt crisis erupted early last year.

In the latest warning from the ECB, policymaker Yves Mersch said a "disorderly insolvency" would have devastating effects for the whole currency bloc and "a new financial crisis would be more than likely."

The European Union's top economic official, Olli Rehn, told a Finnish newspaper he was sure the EU and the International Monetary Fund would release a crucial 12 billion euro loan tranche in early July to keep Athens from defaulting.

Rehn acknowledged it would take longer to put together a second rescue package for the heavily indebted state, due to differences over how to involve private investors, but he called for decisions by mid-July rather than leaving the issue until September, as EU paymaster Germany is suggesting.

China weighed in, saying it had a vital interest in the euro zone overcoming its debt woes and had increased its holdings of euro debt, but gave no figures or timeframe.

"Whether the European economy can recover and whether some European economies can overcome their hardships and escape crisis, is vitally important for us," Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying told a media briefing in Beijing.

Rehn said he expected euro zone finance ministers to take decisions on a successor program for Greece on July 11.

But two sources briefed by the German government said Berlin wanted to postpone agreement on a new 120 billion euro program, including 30 billion in privatization proceeds, until September due to disputes over how to involve private investors.

Backed by the Netherlands and Finland, Germany wants a "voluntary" debt swap in which bondholders would be given new bonds with a seven-year maturity, but credit rating agencies have warned they would treat that as a selective default.

That could prompt the ECB to refuse to accept Greek bonds as collateral, depriving Greek banks of vital liquidity on which it is totally dependent.

The European Commission, the ECB and France favor a softer form of private sector involvement under which banks would agree to roll over Greek bonds as they mature and are redeemed.

Fitch Ratings appeared to open the door to a possible compromise on Wednesday by saying that while it would treat such a rollover as a "restrictive default," it would keep Greek bonds rated at CCC.

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Lagarde in China for IMF job support

Beijing (CNN) -- French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde just wrapped up two days in China, her latest stop on her world tour to woo emerging nations to support her candidacy for chief of the International Monetary Fund.

Lagarde on Thursday called her visit "very satisfying," before departing China for her next stop, Portugal.

"I'm confident. I'm very positive about the meetings that I've had so far," Lagarde said, referring to her multi-nation charm offensive. "My sense is that it's too early to count the chickens, if I may say."

At a Thursday meeting with reporters at the French ambassador's residence in Beijing, Lagarde said she had spent her two-day visit meeting with top Chinese officials, Among them, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, Finance Minister Xie Xuren, and People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan.

China is the latest stop for Lagarde after visits to India and Brazil. Her meetings in those countries have been described as warm, but the 55-year-old lawyer failed to secure outright support from their leaders. Developing nations have long been lobbying for greater representation and leadership at the world lending body, which has historically been headed by Europeans.

In Portugal, Lagarde is scheduled to meet with representatives of African governments. From there, the French finance minister is scheduled to travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Cairo, Egypt for meetings over the weekend.

After a sex scandal forced the resignation of IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, some emerging countries have argued the vacancy is a chance for developing world nations to place one of their own in the job. That, or base their support for candidates on the condition that they will gain greater influence with the IMF.

So far, China has not officially backed any candidate for the top post, though Chinese leaders reaffirmed to Lagarde their view that the process should be "open, transparent, and the selection merit-based, irrespective of nationality," she said.

However, an editorial published Thursday in The Financial News, a state-run newspaper published by the People's Bank of China, has prompted speculation that the government favors Lagarde. The editorial does not amount to an official position taken by the Chinese government.

"The situation is clearer that she has almost nailed the victory," said Chen Fengying, a government researcher with the World Economy Institute of the Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing. "She faces no real opposition in the bidding to head the IMF."

Chen's remarks were included in the front page editorial.

Mexico's central bank governor, Agustin Carstens, is currently Lagarde's main rival but has not yet won widespread support from the developing world. Carstens is scheduled to visit China on June 16.

Lagarde pledged that under her leadership, the IMF would continue to reform itself to better reflect the rising influence of the emerging world.

"The IMF does not belong to anybody. It belongs to 187 members of the fund," Lagarde said. "And the management of the fund does not belong to any particular nation or region."

When asked about handing that some of that responsibility to China's Zhu Min, who is a special adviser to the IMF managing director, Lagarde said it would be "fully appropriate if he played a key role in the management of the fund."

Patrick Chovanec, associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing, said a challenge for developing nations is that they have failed to rally behind one common candidate. Despite their growing economic power, countries such as China, he said, are reluctant to take on greater responsibility in global affairs.

"China wants someone to listen to their point of view," Chovanec said. "But taking on a genuine leadership position is something more than they want to chew."

The IMF's 24-member executive board is scheduled to elect a new chief June 30.

CNN

Connecticut teen garnering support after prom ban

James Tate wanted to make a special invitation for his prom dateHe posted the invitation over the school's entranceThe school imposed an in-house suspension and that banned Tate from the promThe situation has caught the attention of social media and even state legislatorsFor more information on this story check out CNN affiliate WTNH

(CNN) -- A Connecticut teenager's unique prom proposal at his school's entrance, which resulted in him being banned from the event, is garnering legislative attention, according to one state representative.

State Rep. Jason Perillo said he and fellow Republican state Rep. Sean Williams are drafting legislation that would allow school administrations, along with the parents and the student, to create a community-service option to determine the best course of discipline.

This legislation comes after Shelton, Connecticut, high school senior James Tate, along with two friends, received an "in-house" suspension on Tuesday for pasting in large letters a prom invitation on his high school's entrance.

The message read, "Sonali Rodrigues, Will you go to prom with me? HMU (Hit me Up) -Tate." Rodrigues accepted Tate's invitation.

However, according to Shelton High School officials, any student who receives an in-school or out-of-school suspension for any reason will not be allowed to attend the prom, thereby banning Tate and his two friends.

"This regulation is reinforced over the course of the spring by daily ... announcements, posted signage in common areas of the building, and in classrooms, as well as information letters and automated phone messages to parents," Beth Smith, the school's headmaster, said in a statement Thursday. "These communications are intended to remind our students and parents of the high school expectations and consequences. This unfortunate situation is a result of one of those consequences."

Tate told CNN that the invitation "was a harmless, fun, thoughtful and creative way to ask a girl to prom."

"She's my best friend," he said of Rodrigues, "and I wanted to give her something special."

Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti admitted he was surprised about the amount of attention the story has received, but he said he thinks that the prom ban deserves a second look.

"We put regulations in place that are inflexible and that do not allow for us to apply some common sense or have flexibility," said Lauretti. "Their regulation says if a kid gets suspended after April 1st, they cannot go to the prom."

Tate's prom ban is causing an outpouring of support for Tate and Rodrigues on Facebook; over 110,000 people have "liked" the page "Let James Tate Go To the Prom." One message reads, "this punishment DOES NOT fit this crime at all !!!," while another says, "LET THE KID GO TO PROM!"

T-shirts with the slogan "Team Tate" are also on sale.

A website called "James Tate Senior Prom 2011" is asking supporters to make donations to help him get the "prom he deserves."

Meanwhile, state legislator Perillo told CNN, "I do think punishment is necessary but I don't think the punishment fits the crime."

"It perhaps wasn't smart, but creative," Tate's mother Tracey said. "I think they could have handled it differently, something more appropriate," she added.

Calls to Shelton High School, the Connecticut State Department of Education and the Shelton school superintendent's office were not returned.

CNN's Jesse Solomon contributed to this report.

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Egyptians show support for other Arabs

Thousands of Egyptians gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to call for unity across the Arab world.Tahrir Square in Cairo is a symbol of Egyptian protestPeople proclaimed solidarity with counterparts in other countriesPeople demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy too

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Thousands of people streamed into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday and chanted for unity across the Arab world, and a couple of hundred staged a pro-Osama bin Laden protest in front of the U.S. Embassy.

The people crossed the bridges along Cairo and converged in the iconic Tahrir square where the daily gatherings of protesters earlier this year led to the removal of longtime President Hosni Mubarak.

They proclaimed their solidarity with opposition forces and protesters across the Arab world, including Bahrain, Yemen, Syria and Libya, and urged Egypt to withdraw its ambassadors from those countries in solidarity with the citizens of those countries.

People carried flags of different countries, and a coffin for the "martyrs" of Syria was seen, a sight that symbolized the tough crackdown on demonstrators by the Damascus regime.

The so-called Arab spring, the uprisings against regimes across the Arab world, started in Tunisia earlier this year and quickly spread to Egypt -- where Mubarak was forced to resigned after more than 30 years in power.

There have been persistent police crackdowns against protesters in places like Syria and Bahrain and a civil war has erupted between forces for and against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Mubarak has been in poor health and living in a hospital in the southern Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. He is under investigation on charges of ordering the killing of protesters.

Outside the U.S. Embassy, a couple of hundred people called for the removal of the U.S. ambassador and chanted slogans against U.S. President Barack Obama and in support of bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda who was shot and killed during a U.S. operation in Pakistan.

One chant heard was "Obama, Obama, bin Laden is in Tahrir Square."

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Health Care Law Support Dips on Budget Woes, Poll Finds

Associated Press

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Amid a budget debate that will affect the health care of virtually every family, a new poll finds support for President Obama's overhaul at its lowest level since passage last year.

The Associated Press-GfK poll showed that support for Obama's expansion of health insurance coverage has slipped to 35 percent, while opposition stands at 45 percent and another 17 percent are neutral. That nearly ties the previous low in September 2009, when after a summer of heated town hall meetings dominated by critics, only 34 percent supported Obama's approach.

The worry this time appears to be federal budget deficits driven by unmanageable health care costs. Among seniors, whose views are critical in any debate over health care, support for the law dipped below 30 percent for the first time in AP-GfK polling.

Obama delivered a major speech Wednesday laying out his path for reducing deficits. While administration officials have acknowledged the need for more savings from Medicare and Medicaid, congressional Republicans have offered a bold alternative to tackle health care costs.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is proposing to convert Medicare into a "premium support" program. Instead of traditional Medicare, people now 54 and younger would get a fixed payment, or voucher, from the government to buy private health insurance when they retire. Medicaid, which serves low-income people, would be turned over to the states as a block grant program. Taken together, the programs serve about 100 million Americans.

In a ringing defense of Obama's policies, Medicare chief Donald Berwick pleaded Tuesday for more time on the health care law, and branded a leading Republican plan "unfair and harmful" and "a form of withholding care."

Berwick, who oversees Medicare and Medicaid as well as the rollout of the new health care law, told Associated Press reporters and editors Tuesday that the Republican approach would set back efforts to improve quality and squeeze waste.

It would be like "giving people a sum of money and saying, 'Good luck, God bless you,"' Berwick said during an hour-long interview. "That's not about improving care. That's about shifting burdens."

Ryan says his plan will save Medicare from bankruptcy, and market competition will bring down costs without compromising quality.

A pediatrician, Berwick is well-known in the medical community as an advocate for better quality. But in Washington, he has become one of the most controversial administration figures. His statements as an academic praising the British health care system brought him under suspicion from Republicans, who accused him of favoring rationing. Despite his denials, Berwick's confirmation has been blocked in the Senate, and he may have to leave the job by the end of this year.

The political uncertainty didn't stop him from a full defense of the new health care law. He lamented that the administration has not been able to convince the public that the complex legislation will improve quality and reduce costs over time.

They are in a "psychological trap, where nothing looks good," he said. "The public's smart. They're going to wait for the results before they actually change their minds."

If anything, Berwick said, he wished "the tempo of the law were faster," so that Americans could experience the benefits of coverage for virtually all residents and payment changes to reward doctors and hospitals for quality care, not the volume of tests and procedures.

"We are not going to take your care away. We are going to make it better," Berwick said. "The public will notice as we make health care better, but that takes time."

On Tuesday, the Obama administration began a national program to improve safety in hospitals, which are rife with infections and opportunities for medical mistakes.

The new Partnership for Patients will help hospitals adopt proven strategies to reduce those problems dramatically, with the goal of preventing nearly 2 million patient injuries and saving more than 60,000 lives over the next three years. If it works, it could save Medicare $10 billion over that period.

The poll showed the administration's message isn't getting through, particularly with seniors.

Fifty-nine percent of seniors oppose the new health care law, while only 29 percent support it. Disapproval of Obama's handling of health care among seniors has ticked upward to 62 percent, while Republicans are more trusted than Democrats to handle the issue, by a 51 percent to 36 percent margin.

By contrast, among adults of all ages, Obama's approval rating on health care stands at 52 percent, and 53 percent say they trust Democrats to do a better job.

The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted March 24-28 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,001 adults nationwide, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

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Party Leaders Look to Center for Budget Support as Liberals, Conservatives Balk

AP

Shown here are Rep. Anthony Weiner, left, Rep. Michele Bachmann, center, and Sen. Rand Paul.

President Obama and congressional leaders are going to have to rely on the political center to pass their 2011 budget bill as Tea Party conservatives and dyed-in-the-wool liberals start to peel off. 

The text of that bill, released Tuesday morning, had a little bit for everyone -- cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and the elimination of some presidential "czars" for Republicans; protection of education programs like Head Start and Pell grants for Democrats.

But the bill also left a lot out. For starters, it only cut $38.5 billion, including about $12 billion in cuts that were already signed into law -- not enough for some Republicans, particularly freshmen who wanted their first big budget clash to result in seismic, not just historic, cuts. On the Democratic side, the fact some programs for the poor were not spared was a moral outrage. 

The mounting discontent means dozens of lawmakers from both parties will likely take a stand against the budget bill when it comes for a floor vote later in the week, presumably before the current stopgap budget expires. It may not be enough to derail the hard-fought deal, but their objections challenge the narrative that congressional leaders achieved a masterstroke with their 11th-hour, shutdown-averting compromise. 

"I'll probably vote against it if the cuts are as draconian as they have been," Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., told Fox News. She was among a half-dozen members of Congress who protested the cuts Monday in New York City, claiming they would slash funding to low-income aid programs ranging from Women, Infants and Children (WIC) to Community Development Block Grants. 

Joining her were Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Charles Rangel, Eliot Engel, Anthony Weiner and Nydia Velazquez. Most of them voted against the stopgap budget early Saturday morning. The bill passed overwhelmingly on a 348-70 vote in the House, with more Democrats opposing it than Republicans. 

As the details of the broader plan were released Tuesday, even high-ranking Democrats were keeping their opinions close to the vest.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the Democrats' top vote counter in the House, said he's not yet sure whether he will support the bill. "There are a number of things I don't like," Hoyer said.

Hoyer said he does not know whether Republicans will ask him for help rounding up Democratic votes for the bill -- the GOP can only afford to lose 27 members before needing help from the other side to pass it. 

"My presumption is we don't know where our people are, and I don't think they know where their people are," Hoyer said.

But harder-line lawmakers from both parties are starting to generate clatter against the compromise ahead of a final vote. 

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, announced Tuesday that he would oppose the final package. 

"While I respect that some of my Republican colleagues will ultimately support this spending deal, I believe voters are asking us to set our sights higher," he said in a statement. 

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also wrote in a letter to colleagues that he would vote "a resounding NO" on the deal, and urged others to join him. 

"The much-ballyhooed 2011 continuing resolution will leave the federal government spending $1.6 trillion more than it takes in," he wrote. "The only 'good news' from the 2011 CR would be that it adds less debt than President Obama's plan, but it does not appreciably change the accumulation of debt." 

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has also expressed disappointment in the plan, saying it didn't cut enough and lamenting that it carved out provisions to defund Planned Parenthood and the federal health care overhaul. 

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., the champion of the Planned Parenthood measure, said in an interview over the weekend that while he appreciates the work House Speaker John Boehner did on behalf of his caucus at the negotiating table, the compromise is "probably not good enough" to win his vote. 

GOP leaders, though, claim they got the best deal they could for their side. Boehner and others have noted he was the sole GOP negotiator at a table full of Democrats and describe the compromise as a substantive first step toward bigger budget reforms. 

Both parties already are gearing up for a fight over raising the debt ceiling and, connected to that, the 2012 budget and entitlement reforms. Obama plans to outline a new deficit-reduction strategy Wednesday as he looks to haggle with Republicans who have proposed a sweeping plan which would overhaul Medicare while cutting trillions over the next decade. 

With that as the backdrop, party leaders are urging their rank-and-file to clear away the 2011 budget battle and move on to the next one. 

"There are going to be dozens of these battles over the next 18 months," Boehner told Fox News on Monday. "We just have been through the first one. We're about to engage in the second one. But this is going to go on and on and on." 

The final 2011 budget bill includes a provision preventing Guantanamo prisoners from being transferred to the U.S., as well as a provision restricting taxpayer funding for abortion in the District of Columbia. 

It reduces the military budget by $2 billion more than Defense Secretary Robert Gates said was an acceptable level, but strips out related earmarks and eliminates the controversial backup engine for the F-35 fighter jet. 

Other areas of the budget took a considerable hit. The EPA endured a 16 percent decrease, losing $1.6 billion from its budget. Transportation and housing budgets took an 18 percent budget cut compared with last year's levels. The bill would end funding for more than 55 programs, according to the House Appropriations Committee, extracting about $1 billion in savings. Plus the final bill would end funding for two programs in the health care overhaul and reduce the legislative branch budget by over $100 million. That includes a 5 percent cut to most House offices.

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Big Money Trumps Base Support for Obama’s Re-Election Campaign

FoxNews.com

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The timing of the start of President Obama’s re-election bid had as much to do with money as anything else.

By starting at the beginning of April, Obama will be able to post an impressive fundraising number for the second quarter of the year. It’s a strategy that has worked for him before.

In 2007, Obama cast doubt on the certainty of Hillary Clinton’s nomination by out raising her between April 1 and June 30. She brought in $27 million compared to his $32.5 million and her campaign never really recovered the cloak of inevitability.

This time, it’s Obama who wants to prevent any doubts from being cast on his chances.

With deep corporate connections and the power of incumbency, Obama could handily double his haul from the same period in 2007. Even if leading Republican contenders Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Haley Barbour post huge numbers by the end of June, they will still pale in comparison to what Obama will be raking in.

Money is the only logical reason for Team Obama to start the campaign this week because otherwise, the timing was dreadful. Announcing that the drive for 2012 has begun right in the middle of an acrimonious debate over a government shutdown and as questions mount about the war in Libya was tough. Presidents generally like to declare for a second term while they are on the upswing, not when they are skidding to new lows in job-approval polls.

This may have been why Obama went for a

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