The Hill News

Speaker of the House John Boehner reiterated Monday that there's no specific amount of federal spending Republicans in Congress are unwilling to cut.

"As I said on @FoxNewsSunday Americans want to cut spending & there is no limit to the amount of spending our #newmajority is willing to cut," Boehner tweeted.

Boehner's comment comes the day after he appeared on Fox News Sunday saying that allowing the country to default would be a "financial disaster."

"That would be a financial disaster, not only for us, but for the worldwide economy," Boehner said. "I don't think it's a question that's even on the table."

Boehner stressed that before Congress votes on raising the debt ceiling the Obama administration needs to announce major spending cuts. Boehner's comments echo the position Republicans have taken toward the debt ceiling: Some say they will refuse to increase it until the Obama administration agrees to making more substantial cuts.

On Tuesday night, the President stood in the United States House of Representatives and delivered a speech calling for fiscal responsibility, deficit reduction and a government focused on freeing the private sector to create the good jobs our citizens need. The general philosophy advocated in the speech was hard for many to find disagreement with, and post-speech polling bore that out. A positive, upbeat speech extolling the merits of lower taxes, good jobs and optimism in America is what our citizens want to hear. But governing is about getting results, and Americans need to see action that matches the rhetoric.

As Governor of Virginia, I have worked with Republicans and Democrats to help navigate our state through these treacherous economic times. We have made progress. We cut $6 billion out of our last two budgets, reduced state spending to 2006 levels, and now have a $403 million surplus. We rejected tax increase proposals, cut spending, and focused our gov! ernment on its core functions.

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Many times throughout human history, the yearning for freedom has given rise to civil unrest and disorder.  So it was earlier this month in Tunisia.  So it is now in Egypt. 

On December 17, just hours after being harassed by local authorities, a young Tunisian street vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire.  It was a desperate protest against his country’s grinding unemployment and the abuse he suffered at the hands of an authoritarian regime.

Although the fire itself was quickly extinguished, the flames of anger and frustration spread across Tunisia.  On January 4, when Bouazizi died of his injuries, the resulting inferno brought down Tunisia’s longtime ruler, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Fueled by repression and unemployment, and spreading through Facebook and Twitter, the flames of anger and frustration reached Egypt.  There, with massive citizen revolt and huge new protests planned for this week, time is running short for long! time President Hosni Mubarak. 

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The court proceedings against Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 18 others, will be held in Tucson, Ariz., a federal judge ruled on Monday. 

On Friday, prosecutors and lawyers for Loughner agreed to move all proceedings from Phoenix to Tucson, the city where the shooting took place. U.S. District Court Judge Larry A. Burns on Monday ordered the next hearing and all future proceedings be held in Tucson, according to the Arizona Republic. 

If Loughner is convicted of attempting to kill a member of Congress, he could sp! end the rest of his life in prison. 

The next hearing is scheduled for March 9.

Former Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.) will join Prime Policy Group, a Washington lobbying shop, the firm announced Monday.

The ex-congressman will join the group Tuesday as a vice chairman, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. 

"Prime Policy Group is one of Washington’s premier government and public affairs firms,” Tanner said in a company statement. "They have a long history of valuing a bipartisan approach and their reputation for integrity and client service is unmatched. I’m thrilled to be joining this distinguished group of professionals that cover the landscape of policy issues on behalf of clients."

Tanner, a centrist Blue Dog Democrat, served 11 terms in the House before announcing his r! etirement in 2009. 

Prime Policy does work in 23 policy areas, according to its website and represents, "swing coalitions such as Blue Dog Democrats and moderate Republicans."

At the time of his retirement, Tanner served on the Foreign Affairs Committee and Ways and Means Committee, where he chaired the subcommittee on trade.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) sharpened his political rhetoric on Monday, calling President Obama "chicken" when it comes to the issue of entitlement spending.

Pawlenty has faced questions about whether he has enough fire in the belly to run for president. His tougher tone could represent a pivot toward addressing those concerns of Republican primary voters.

"He's got all this soaring rhetoric, but the fact of the matter is he's chicken to address the real issues," Pawlenty said Monday on Fox News.

The former Minnesota governor lamented that Obama basically skipped talking about entitlement reforms in his State of the Union address last week, which he said was an example of the president's cowardice on the issue.

Pawlenty faced a question a! bout whether having called the sitting president "chicken" meant that voters could expect more barbs from him.

"As I try to remind people ... don't confuse being nice with being weak," Pawlenty responded. "You can be hopeful and optimistic and strong, but you've also got to back it up."

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) says he's "still pissed" that Democrats gave up on including a public option in their healthcare reform bill.

On the heels of a federal judge's ruling on Monday striking down the entirety of President Obama's healthcare law as unconstitutional, Weiner expressed regret that his party abandoned a government-run health insurance option.

He tweeted:

We know this : the public option is constitutional. #stillpissedwegaveuponthat

Weiner had been a leading proponen! t of the public option during the months-long healthcare debate in Congress. But his party's leadership had to cut it from the bill after centrist Democrats in the Senate refused to vote to advance legislation that included the controversial provision.

The federal judge's ruling likely would still have struck down a healthcare law, including a public option, as unconstitutional. Judge Roger Vinson said that the individual mandate â€" the requirement that each American have health insurance â€" was unconstitutional. Under his ruling, the entire law is unconstitutional, because that provision is not "severable" from the rest of the law.

There is a vision fixed in the mind of power that America is a North/South country and the rest over there is just bushes. And of the two, the North is superior, as per the conquest of 1865 and the conditions of surrender at Appomattox. It is a purely colonial vestige that has injured our progress as a nation and injured especially national institutions like the Army, the Foreign Service and the Supreme Court.

We have, since Reagan, since Carter, even since Watergate, when Tennessee’s Sen. Howard Baker and the venerable North Carolinian Sam Irvin rose as folk heroes, culturally and politically awakened west of the New River, yet the Supreme Court today looks like something cobbled together around 1865: all from Harvard and Yale, most from New York or the Northeast. Some few friends of politicians. (Could we see those law board scores again, please?) I guess U. Michigan, U. Texas, Vanderbilt or Washington U. grads are just too rusticated to be Supremes. But youth wants to know: How exactly do you graduate from Yale Law School and flunk the D.C. bar exam? And after that get to be secretary of State? Friend of Bill is what. Helps to join the Supremes as well.

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As of Monday afternoon all Senate Republicans have signed on to legislation seeking to repeal healthcare reform.

At the same time a federal judge struck down the law as unconstitutional, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) announced that all 46 other Republican senators signed onto his bill seeking the full repeal of President Obama's signature initiative.

DeMint introduced the legislation, which mirrors the House-passed repeal bill, last week as a vehicle to put fellow senators on the record about their support (or lack thereof) for the law.

There had been some stragglers. When the bill was first announced, 11 GOP senators hadn't yet signed on. As of this morning, when DeMint's office did an update, four Republican senators â€" Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), and Chuck Grassley (Iowa) â€" hadn't yet co-sponsored DeMint's bill. They have now done so.

Their support gives Republicans a unified front in opposition to the healthcare law, and it arrives after a federal judge in Florida ruled the entirety of the legislation unconstitutional.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) started the process last week of bringing a repeal bill to a vo! te. Although the GOP leader remains optimistic, it's not clear! whether Democrats will allow such a vote.

Arizona has been in the national spotlight for several years now. The Tucson shooting catapulted us back into the limelight, this time for a shocking tragedy none of us could have even imagined. While it’s clear to me that no one is responsible for this horrific tragedy save the alleged shooter, this tragic episode of violence has provided an opportunity for reflection on politics in Arizona and our country.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), like many of us in Arizona politics, has been calling for a return to civility, an increase in civil discourse, for several years.  We’ve all watched as politics in Arizona and the U.S. has become increasingly divisive and vitriolic.

Personally, I think the 24 hour news cycle has contributed to this increasingly hostile climate. With a taste for the outrageous, media seeks out the most radical, divisive, and eye-popping comments and behaviors in order to make headlines and attract ratings. Meanwhile, th! e ability for lawmakers on differing sides of the aisle to forge common cause, to maintain friendships, and to enjoy dinner together after a day of healthy debate has dwindled.

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The White House downplayed on Monday any sense it might have that its ambassador to China is resigning to pursue a campaign against President Obama.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged that Jon Huntsman, the former Republican governor of Utah who serves as the top U.S. diplomat in China, will resign sometime early this year.

"Ambassador Huntsman has told several people inside this building that he plans to leave at the first part of this year," Gibbs said at his daily press briefing.

But Gibbs sought to dismiss any notion that Huntsman is resigning to pursue the 2012 Republican presidential nomination to unseat Obama.

"I want to be clear on this: I've talked to several people in the building and I have not heard any of them say that they know what the future holds for Ambassador Huntsman," Gibbs said.

Media reports on Monday have stirred up speculation that Huntsman, a relative centrist within the GOP, was ! resigning to run for president. He was popular as a governor of Utah, but Obama's choice of Huntsman to become a top ambassador fueled conventional wisdom that Huntsman's career in GOP politics had come to an end.

In the meanwhile, the administration has given its ambassador a kind of "kiss of death" with Republican primary voters by praising him for his service in the Democratic administration. Obama personally praised Huntsman for his service in mid-January, when asked about a possible challenge by the ambassador during a visit by China's president.

"When the president picked him in 2009, it was because we believe and continue to believe that he brings a broad range of experience to an extremely important ambassadorial post," Gibbs said Monday. "The president continues to believe that."

Along come White House chief economist Austan Goolsbee and Treasury Secretary Geithner crying “catastrophe” in an effort to pressure Congress to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. But the real debt ceiling catastrophe lies not in the predictable fear-mongering of a profligate Administration trying to get its way, but in the fact that the United States is already in the position of having to raise a $14.3 trillion debt limit that is almost as large as America’s GDP. And the other related debt ceiling crisis is making sure that the Republican Party can fulfill its election mandate of bringing the federal spending binge to an end without a suicidal 1990s-style government shutdown that could guarantee a fiscally ruinous Obama re-election in 2012. Both political and fiscal prudence should rule the day if we are to avoid the real debt ceiling catastrophe.

No congressional act comes closer to the old saw of “closing the barn door after the horse is gone” than a v! ote to increase the federal debt ceiling. Excessive spending and debt creation have already occurredâ€"including more than $5 trillion of new debt under Nancy Pelosi. The debt limit vote is simply the acknowledgement of that reality in a country where every individual owns $45,000 of debt. It is a yea vote no one likes to make lest they be deemed an accessory to a fiscal crime.

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Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) will seek a 25th term in the House in 2012, according to a local news report on Monday.

Conyers told The Detroit News that he expected to seek another term, at which point he'll be 83 years old

"It's understood that I'm going to be running again," Conyers said. "I mean, I always have."

The Michigan Democrat, who serves as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and served as its chairman the last two terms, won reelection in 2010 easily with 77 percent of the vote.

His district is safely Democratic, but if Conyers faces any vulnerability, it would be in a primary challenge. He's faced a few unflattering headlin! es in recent months, among them the conviction of his estranged wife, former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, on federal corruption charges. Conyers was also forced to repay nearly $5,700 to the government to cover the expenses incurred when his son used a federally-leased SUV for personal purposes.

Detroit voters ! ditched one of their lawmakers, Rep. Carolyn Kilpat! rick (D) , in a primary last year. Kilpatrick lost principally due to her son, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D), who has faced a litany of corruption charges.

Potential Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee attended a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday for a new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem. 

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate, made the stop during his 13th visit to Israel. While there, he said there should be no dispute over where Jews are able to live.

{mosads}"It is inconceivable in many ways that we would have to even argue and debate whether or not Israelis could live in Israel, not just in parts of Israel but anywhere in Israel they wished to live," Huckabee said, according to the Jerusalem Post. "I cannot imagine as an American being told that I could not live in certain places in America because I was Christian, or because I was white, or because I spoke English. I ! would be outraged if someone told me that in my country, I would be prohibited and forbidden to live in a part of that country, for any reason."

Huckabee's statements could offer insight on how he could treat the issue on the campaign trail.

Israeli construction in East Jerusalem has long been a contentious topic in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which is currently stalled. 

East Jerusalem is the proposed capital city of a Palestinian state in several plans for a two-state solution. Israeli construction there has roiled the Obama administration in the past, and it could further derail the peace negotiations. 

But Huckabee and many in the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly support the expanded construction.

Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz said at the ceremony that Jerusalem construction is "not an impediment to peace, it brings it closer," the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported. Hershkowitz added that the more Israel builds "the more peace there will be."

The Jerusalem Post reported that Huckabee will also lead a group of Christian pilgrims on a tour of the country later this week.

President Obama faces a wide-open Republican field of challengers in 2012, one of his top advisers said.

David Axelrod, the senior aide who just stepped down from his official position at the White House, said the GOP race for the presidential nomination is the "most unpredictable" he's ever seen.

"This is the most unpredictable, unfathomable nominating process on the Republican side in my lifetime," Axelrod told USA Today in one of his many outgoing interviews.

Axelrod noted the tendency of Republican voters to opt for a candidate who's run before or waited patiently for an opportunity to run for president. But the departing adviser, who's expected to play an integral role in the president's reelection campaign, said it was his sense that there was ! no candidate who fits that mold.

"Generally, the Republican Party has been pretty predictable â€" it's been a hierarchical party; the elders of the party get together that someone who's sort of been in the queue will have their turn," he said. "There is no such pecking order this year, and there's no process to impose a sort of top-down nomination process. So I don't know who the nominee is, and I suspect that if you talk to leading Republicans, they don't know either."

Polls of Republican primary voters have shown that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are ahead of the pack in the race for the Republican nomination. All three of them played a role in the 2008 campaign â€" Romney and Huckabee as candidates for president, Palin as the vice presidential nominee â€" though none of them has jumped out to a commanding lead in the 2012 campaign.

Other candidates considerin! g a run are working to make names for themselves in states lik! e Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina, which host the first three nominating contests of the 2012 cycle.

One new name in the mix has been U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, a former Republican governor of Utah. ABC News reported Monday that Huntsman is expected to resign his job in the Obama administration to consider a run against his boss, the incumbent president.

My view is: Do not cut Social Security. Do not privatize any part of Social Security. This issue is going to rally progressives throughout the nation, win them support from the 75 to 80 percent of voters who oppose cutting Social Security and become a major disaster for partisan and right-wing Republicans who cannot stop themselves from attacking Social Security.

I would support raising the income level of the Social Security tax, to have wealthy Americans pay a greater share. But beyond this: no.

Republicans want to cut Social Security, attack Social Security or privatize all or part of the program? Great. Make my day. Let the battle begin.

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What stood out in your mind as you witnessed the weekend’s events in Egypt? How the entire country stood on the edge of anarchy, largely because its people had been denied basic conditions, treatment and rights to redress their grievances by a heavy-handed president.

I don’t pen this blog to challenge Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s behavior through his three decades in power. His conduct, and the people’s response to it, are by now well-documented.

But the situation in Egypt stands as a stark reminder of the basic tenets we as Americans have grown perhaps accustomed to, and we would do well to remind ourselves that the freedoms we enjoy are derived through daily struggles and challenges.

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Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's (D-Ariz.) Twitter feed on Tuesday was updated for the first time since Jan. 8 â€" the day the congresswoman and others were targeted during a constituent event in Tucson, Ariz.

The latest post highlights Giffords intern Daniel Hernandez, who was thrust into the national spotlight when he was credited with saving the congresswoman's life moments after she was shot:

"From the entire Giffords team: Happy 21st Birthday Daniel Hernandez! Sounds like you have fun plans tonight :)." 

Hernandez will sit next to first lady Michelle Obama at the State of the Union address Tuesday.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) is traveling to Israel, he announced on Twitter Friday.

"Headed to Israel with family and friends. Looking forward to my 15th trip there," Huckabee's tweet read.

The trip could be seen as a way to burnish Huckabee's foreign policy credentials if he decides to run for president in 2012. He has said he is considering another campaign.

Huckabee's announcement also comes after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) recent trip to the Middle East, which included a stop in Israel.

Like Huckabee, Romney has indicated an interest in running for president in 2012.

In a recent interview with Fox News, Huckabee said he would probably make his decision on whether he will run for president in the summer.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is proposing a ban on bath salts, for fear that they're being used as recreational drugs.

The Associated Press reported on Sunday that Schumer will announce legislation to ban bath salts, which are sometimes snorted for an effect like cocaine or amphetamines.

The bath salts "contain ingredients that are nothing more than legally sanctioned narcotics," Shumer said, per the AP.

The New York senator has been active in combating drug use. He took a leadership role in pursuing a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ban on the caffeine-and-alcohol drink Four Loko late last year, for instance.

The Arab world is in flames. The Palestinian Papers have created a sensation in the Middle East. And what has President Obama got to say about it? “And tonight, let us be clear: The United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia, and supports the democratic aspirations of all people.”

Those were his timid words referring to the latest dramatic events in the Middle East since the sudden death of the regime of the Tunisian dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. There may be hope but certainly no audacity in his careful wording, which revealed the administration’s deep unease with the pro-democracy protests in Egypt, a key U.S. ally in the region.

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This first Obama State of the Union message in front of a divided Congress will be extraordinary theater as the president seeks to sound like the uniter people voted for in 2008, rather than the partisan leftist whose policies have driven our nation to the brink of insolvency.

Obama has seen a minor resurgence in the polls by virtue of his carefully burked Tucson speech calling for civility. Of course, this call was after four days of vitriolic attacks from his colleagues on the left, blaming conservatives from Sarah Palin to Rush Limbaugh for the actions of a Marxist anarchist who did not vote in the 2010 elections. 

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The Presidential Election Campaign Fund is the very definition of frivolous Washington spending. We're not talking about investing in our infrastructure or spending money to improve the lives of average Americans-- this program pays for political party conventions and to prop up the candidacies of presidential hopefuls.

The idea that Americans need this program in order to support candidates is absurd.  It's not 1971 anymore. With online communications, it's never been easier to participate in elections. President Obama himself raised a record $745 million without accepting a dime of federal assistance, and I don't believe he would say that makes his administration beholden to special interests or that his administration is hopelessly corrupt as a result of forgoing public financing.

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I'm going to be very politically incorrect, yet honest. (I may be one of few in Washington doing so these days.) I don't like this whole State of the Union "prom date" silliness. While it would be lovely if everyone, including our elected officials, behave like gentlemen and gentleladies, a "unified" government where everyone gets along and agrees with one another should be a frightening thought for us all.

The value of democracy is in vociferous disagreement, debate and discourse â€" comity is merely icing on the cake in those instances where it is achievable. But it should not be the singular objective. "Getting along" is just too damn close to "going along to get along" for my comfort level.

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Political insiders are closely following the debate about "earmarks,” with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) making the case for individual projects that create many jobs. There is a lot of hot air and hypocrisy surrounding many who oppose earmarks for others while pushing earmarks for their home states and districts.

Let me suggest a very specific compromise proposal for what are called earmarks.

Members of the House and Senate should be allowed to offer such proposals with one major stipulation. Each proposal should come with a short but detailed employment impact statement, modeled after environmental impact statements. The employment impact statement should detail exactly how many jobs would be created by each proposal, and at what cost.

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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will not attend the State of the Union at the Capitol Tuesday night as he serves as the "designated survivor" for the administration.

The Washington Post reported that Salazar will skip the speech as a safety measure in the case of a event that would incapacitate other members of the administration, including President Obama, who will be in attendance.

"Designated survivors" have been picked to not attend the speech for decades. Last year, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan stayed behind for Obama's first State of the Union.

There is a television show called “State of the Union” on CNN.

It’s not doing very well in the ratings.

Just like the country.

The president is going to step into the House Chamber with approval ratings as high as he has had in a long time, at least according to CNN. They would know. They know ratings.

Obama’s approval ratings have steadily increased through no fault of his own. He gave in to Republicans on the whole tax deal at the end of last year, he made some empty promises on the regulatory front, and he hired Bill Daley to run the White House for him.

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President Obama delivers a good speech â€" that much we know is true. That reputation will stand strong in his second State of the Union address tonight. But we’ve heard empty promises in his State of the Union speeches before â€" this time we must demand more than words.

I was elected in November on a pledge to stop our out of control spending. And Republicans won the House of Representatives because Americans were tired of the job-destroying spending culture that President Obama and politicians in both parties have created for at least a generation now. Tonight the President needs to admit that his bad economic policies have pushed our country toward fiscal ruin, and that change needs to start with him. 

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State of the Union speeches are sort of like party platforms: Once they’re delivered, nobody much remembers what’s in them.

What we do remember is the controversy â€" Bill Clinton giving his 1998 speech in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and all eyes on Hillary; more recently, last year, President Obama harshly criticizing a Supreme Court ruling and Justice Samuel Alito mouthing the words, “that’s not true.” Alito later said he felt like “a potted plant” and didn’t see the point of attending, and this year he stayed away, as did Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Sunday he feels targeted by the likes of Vice President Biden and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R).

Assange, the man who's taken responsibility for the leak and publication of sensitive U.S. documents and diplomatic cables, said he feels like he's being threatened with death.

"The statements by the vice-president Biden saying, for instance that I was a high-tech terrorist. Sarah Palin calling to our organization to be dealt with like the Taliban, and be hunted down," Assange said of the perceived threats, in an interview airing tonight on CBS. "There's calls either for my assassination or the assassination of my staff or for us to be kidnapped and renditioned back to the United States to be executed."

The wide-ranging interview with Assange was taped at the estate at which he's under house arrest in Great Britain. Most specifically, he said he feared that the tough talk by U.S. political leaders wou! ld lead someone to attempt to assassinate him.

"I would like to believe that, on the other hand. the incitements to murder are a serious issue," he said. "And unfortunately, there is a portion of the population that will believe in them and may carry them out."

Sen. Mark Begich's (D-Alaska) response to the State of the Union address: Send the president smoked salmon.

In a tweet on Friday, Begich said he sent President Obama some of Alaska's finest smoked salmon.

"After the president’s reference to salmon in the SOTU, I sent him the best. Alaska smoked salmon." Begich tweeted Friday.

During Tuesday's speech, Obama cited the government's jurisdiction over salmon as his favorite example of an area that needs reform.

"The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they’re in saltwater," Obama said during the speech. "I hear it gets even more complicated once they’re smoked."

President Obama spoke with a series of crucial world leaders to discuss the situation in Egypt over the weekend.

Obama spoke to Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey, Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Saturday. Obama spoke to Prime Minister Cameron of the United Kingdom.

"During his calls, the president reiterated his focus on opposing violence and calling for restraint; supporting universal rights, including the right to peaceful assembly, association, and speech; and supporting an orderly transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people," the White House said in readout of the president's calls.

The White House added: "The President asked each of the leaders that he spoke to for their assessment of the situation, and agreed to stay in close contact going forward."

The leader of a House subcommittee on terrorism and nonproliferation said that the rise of extremism in Pakistan isn't getting due attention in Pakistan.

In an interview with The Hill, Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) referenced the recent assassination of Punjabi governor Salman Taseer, a liberal politician shot by his own guard in Islamabad. Afterward, 500 Pakistani religious scholars warned that anyone who mourned the governor, who opposed capital punishment blasphemy laws, would suffer the same fate.

Royce said that Pakistani lawmakers he's met on his three trips there over the past three years have gone underground.

"I don't that that many people either in Congress or the administration ...seem to have come to grips with the fact that Pakistan is failing," Royce said.

He said his House Foreign Affairs subcommittee is focusing on a lot of the challenges surrounding Pakistan and radicalization, such as watching some 800 madrassas "of particul! ar interest to the U.S." that have a "program of indoctrinating children into jihad."

"It's not as though the president of Pakistan does not understand the challenges," Royce said.

When asked about the White House comprehension of the situation, he sees room for improvement.

"I think there's a certain amount of wishful thinking here," Royce said. "The situation in Pakistan is quite dire. I think the fact that you have Pakistani legislators underground trying to protect their lives right now conveys the degree of severity."

With the State of the Union upon us, Republicans and Democrats face a critically-important challenge that poses a genuine risk to our economy and stands to impact Americans’ competitiveness and overall quality of life. Stated simply, this challenge is how we best secure our nation’s global innovation leadership by turning a divided government into a dividend government.

One recent example â€" the formation of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness chaired by General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt â€" highlights the type of action America should be taking.

In a dividend government, we must directly challenge ourselves to identify which areas provide the most return on taxpayers’ investment in terms of value: job creation, long-term prosperity, economic growth and global competitiveness. Smart prioritization is key.

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Former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Ala.) once said that the aisle down the middle of the Senate chamber was becoming a deep crevasse. In the 112th Congress, it may resemble the Grand Canyon.

It is time for Congress to reverse this trend. The lesson Republicans must learn from the last decade of elections is that the American people have diminishing patience with incumbents and the party in power. Americans care more about results than divisive political gamesmanship. Washington’s tired rhetoric and near obsession with messaging “process” only fuels disillusionment and apathy among the People. Filibusters, cloture, filling the tree, trying to pass something controversial by Unanimous Consent â€" it is all jargon for the political jockeying that is no longer a means to an end. It is the end.

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Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was moved to the rehabilitation center on Wednesday and has already begun therapy, according to her doctors.

In a briefing Wednesday evening, doctors at the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston said Giffords had been moved successfully.

They also said they planned on inserting a special valve into her breathing tube to help her speak.

"It's a busy afternoon already and I anticipate it will be more so in the coming days," Dr. Gerard Francisco, who heads Giffords's medical team, said at the briefing.

Another of Giffords's doctors at the rehabilitation center, neurosurgeon Dr. Dong Kim, said that her ability to speak is improving.

Giffords was shot in the head during a Jan. 8 rampage in Tucson, Ariz., that killed six and wounded 12 others.

While Congress prepares its budget for this year, threatening deep cuts to a $14 trillion debt, the first real test of the GOP’s fiscal constitution is shaping up to come in the form of whether or not to raise the debt ceiling.

Years ago, no one wanted to talk about expanding the credit line of the U.S. government. It was such a stark reminder of how bad a hole we were in that both parties built the significant vote as a procedural move with other votes. In other words, they tried to bury the thing in hopes members would not have to rise in defense of an ever-growing nightmare.

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Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was moved to the rehabilitation center on Wednesday and has already begun therapy, according to her doctors.

In a briefing Wednesday evening, doctors at the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston said that Giffords had been moved successfully.

They also said they planned on inserting a special valve into her breathing tube to help her speak.

"It's a busy afternoon already and I anticipate it will be more so in the coming days,"  Dr. Gerard Francisco, who heads Giffords' medical team, said at the briefing.

Another one of Giffords' doctors at the rehabilitation center, neurosurgeon Dr. Dong Kim, said that her ability to speak is improving.

Giffords was shot in the head during a Jan. 8 shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., that killed six and wounded 12 others.

Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert joined Twitter on Monday under the handle @RepLouieGohmert.

His first message, a retweet from the Republican Study Committee's account, saluted attendees of the annual "March for Life" rally on the National Mall, which took place Monday.

He then said, "For the 1st time in 4 years, it's once again humbling to stand as Speaker Pro Tem beneath the words above my head, 'In God We Trust.' "

The account has 22! 8 followers so far.

There's no limit to how much House Republicans could seek in spending cuts, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Sunday.

Boehner, the leader of the cut-hungry GOP in the House, said that lawmakers would seek cuts to 2008 spending levels at the very least, and could further slash money from the budget in the coming weeks.

"There's no limit to the amount of spending we're willing to cut," Boehner said on "Fox News Sunday" this morning. "The American people want us to cut spending; they don't want more stimulus spending."

The GOP Speaker expressed dissatisfaction with President Obama's State of the Union address from this past Tuesday, in which Obama called for a five-year freeze in domestic discretionary spending, coupled with new investments in education, research, technology and infrastructure.

"The other night, all he did was call for more stimulus spending," Boehner responded.

The Speaker and his counterpart in th! e Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have rejected the president's proposed freeze as inadequate, and signaled that they'll press ahead seeking cuts.

Boehner's on the record as favoring the rollback in the budget to 2008 levels, a move that would save between $50 and 60 billion this fiscal year. But there are a variety of proposals in the House that would seek even deeper cuts; the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) have proposed a series of reductions that would save $2.5 trillion over the next decade.

The Speaker said he expected the House Appropriations Committee to release an initial draft of its 2008 budget "in the next 10 days or so," which the House will then consider in what Boehner has pledged will be an "open process," allowing amendments and debate on both sides.

We live in a litigious society. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Only in America can a woman order a hot cup of coffee, clumsily spill it on herself, and then turn around and sue the vendor for millions in damages and WIN! It’s ridiculous, and it needs to stop.
 
Such frivolous actions only detract from the real episodes when lawsuits are the only answer â€" to punish and send a message that the behavior cannot occur again. When we as a society allow the inane to occur, we begin to empty the action of any value and meaning. That helps no one in the long run.

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave these remarks Friday on the protests unfolding in Egypt. 

I would like to say something about the unfolding events in Egypt. We continue to monitor the situation closely. We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against protesters and we call on the Egyptian government to do everything in its power to restrain the security forces. At the same time, protesters should also refrain from violence and express themselves peacefully.

As we have repeatedly said, we support the universal human rights of the Egyptian people, including the right to freedom of expression, of association and of assembly. We urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests and to reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications. 

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Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) never misses an opportunity to declare her allegiance to the University of Missouri Tigers.

The lead-up to Tuesday night's State of the Union address was no different, when she said sitting next to freshman Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) â€" a University of Kansas grad â€" would be difficult not because of his politics but because of his allegiance to the Jayhawks.

"Glad that seat mate for tonight is new R Sen Jerry Moran from KS.He's also KU grad.The D v R thing is probably easier than Tiger v Jayhawk," she tweeted. 

For a more complete look at who is sitting with whom, see this list.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave these remarks Friday on the protests unfolding in Egypt. 

I would like to say something about the unfolding events in Egypt. We continue to monitor the situation closely. We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against protesters and we call on the Egyptian government to do everything in its power to restrain the security forces. At the same time, protesters should also refrain from violence and express themselves peacefully.

As we have repeatedly said, we support the universal human rights of the Egyptian people, including the right to freedom of expression, of association and of assembly. We urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests and to reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications. 

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The State of the Union speech last night was one of the most positive, encouraging addresses in a long time. It hit the right tone for the American people, who want progress, who want a vision and who want to see an end to Washington business-as-usual gridlock.

It was also a skillful setup to the Republicans. It didn’t give them much to shoot at and complain about, nor did it provide the Fox News folks with much red meat. The Michele Bachmann response to the Ryan response and the Obama speech was an embarrassment and created confusion among the Republican base. Her off-camera-focused diatribe might have actually angered Republicans more than Democrats â€" the ego-driven effort to rally the new Tea Party members and true believers, in fact, drained attention from Congressman Ryan.

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House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) released the following statement after President Obama delivered his State of the Union address.

President Obama delivered a compelling vision of how we can work together to address America’s challenges. While our economy is on the road back to health, we know we still have a long way to goâ€"and tonight, the president discussed a strategy for getting us there.

President Obama is right that investments in innovation, education, and infrastructure remain vital to creating jobs, strengthening our international competitiveness, and taking advantage of emerging economic sectors, such as clean energy and advanced vehicles. This agenda encompasses House Democrats' Make It In America agenda: a plan to rebuild American manufacturing and productivity, and to lift up our middle class so that they can succeed in America.

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Since New Hampshire state Rep. Dan Itse brought his challenge to ObamaCare, citing Thomas Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions, in February 2009, we have been seeing a new age of Jefferson. Judge Andrew Napolitano now plays primetime “fighting for freedom” five nights a week; Virginia Del. Jim LeMunyon proposes a Repeal Amendment; a 26-state challenge to the federal government moves to the Supreme Court and best practices conferences for governors today feature Thomas Woods’s Nullification. But the turning ahead might best belong to Andrew Jackson. It was the rustic warrior from Tennessee who first fired up the common folk west of the New River and laid their claim to governance. He is much misunderstood and occasionally maligned, but Jackson might well be considered the spirit father of the current red-state uprising.

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The President isn’t the only one about to address Congress. The season for Washington missions is about to hit full stride. Soon after the President’s State of the Union Address, many groups and individuals will arrive in Washington to peddle their issues, make arguments, and hope that Congress will consider their policy goals as part of or against the President’s message. Sadly, for most of the hundreds of thousands which arrive in the next few months to Washington, their mission to Washington will be an utter failure, Congress will ignore them, and their issue will remain irrelevant in the halls of power.

Why? What separates good lobbying and missions from the bad and the ugly?

The results of some recent Washington lobbying allows for a revealing look at the difference between mission success and failure. 

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President Obama came, he spoke, and he conquered. We’ve all seen lots of State of the Union addresses, but we’ve never seen one like the one Obama delivered on Jan. 25.

It wasn’t a laundry list of legislative proposals. It wasn’t a wish list of presidential promises. And it didn’t turn into a high-school pep rally between Republicans and Democrats.

Instead, what we saw and heard was just what a State of the Union address should be: a serious, intelligent, visionary look at where we are today as a people and where we need to go, together, to make this country even greater than it is today.

In a brilliant political move, without even saying the words themselves, Obama took a favorite theme of conservatives and Tea Partiers â€" “American Exceptionalism” â€" and turned it against them.

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Americans have been found guilty of performing reprehensible acts throughout the nation’s history. The Salem Witch Trials are a case in point. Members of the Puritan community in pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts were convicted and executed solely on the basis of the testimony of suspicious neighbors and the accusations of teenage girls. And yes, many of them were killed in horrific fashion.

The United States and the greater international community have, for the most part, come to a greater understanding of the value of human rights and the importance of protecting them. Much of this is based upon the individual’s conscience developing to a point where it is strong enough to stand up against the mores of society if it goes against one’s core values and beliefs which are rooted in doing what is best for society overall.

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The National Institutes of Medicine is proposing to launch a new federal research Center to help develop medicines. Dr. Francis S. Collins, the Director of the NIH, told The New York Times that the “drug industry’s research productivity has been declining for 15 years, ‘and it certainly doesn’t show any signs of turning upward.’” Dr. Collins should know since he directed the Human Genome Project for years, at the epicenter of new drug development.

Launching the Center misses the mark on what’s needed to reform healthcare.  Certainly new treatments for cancer, Parkinson’s, and pain, are important. More important are better strategies for truly caring for patients - helping patients have better lives and live with the illnesses and infirmities that afflict them. An axiom of clinical medicine is that drugs don’t cure patients, but doctors - good practitioners providing good medical care do.

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President Obama did a good job last night in directing our attention to the future. We must take the steps as a country necessary to compete with China and other economic powers around the world. We must have the best-educated workforce or we will not be No. 1 on the world stage.

Also, he recommended some very positive steps in promoting job growth in the United States â€" lowering the corporate tax rate and streamlining our regulatory environment.

However, it is legitimate to ask: “Where is the rest?”

Specifically, the president appeared to reject virtually all of the major proposals his own deficit reduction commission made last December. The public is willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt on setting a bold path for the future, but ultimately they will look under the hood and ask what he’s really doing about deficit reduction.

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Remarks of President Barack Obama â€" As Prepared for Delivery
State of the Union Address
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Washington, DC

As Prepared for Deliveryâ€"

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Tonight I want to begin by congratulating the men and women of the 112th Congress, as well as your new Speaker, John Boehner. And as we mark this occasion, we are also mindful of the empty chair in this Chamber, and pray for the health of our colleague â€" and our friend â€" Gabby Giffords.

It’s no secret that those of us here tonight have had our differences over the last two years. The debates have been contentious; we have fought fiercely for our beliefs. And that’s a good thing. That’s what a robust democracy demands. That’s what helps set us apart as a nation.

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For over an unprecedented four Congresses over the past 7 years, Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) has chaired the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), a congressional caucus that is dedicated to promoting the well-being of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities.  Since 1994, CAPAC has been addressing the needs of the AAPI community in all areas of American life. This bicameral, multiracial, and multiethnic caucus currently boasts 30 Members of Congress, including 12 Asian American and Pacific Islander Members of Congress. 

This week, Rep. Honda will be hosting a reception celebrating CAPAC’s 17 years and welcoming incoming CAPAC Chairwoman Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and the newly elected AAPI Members of Congress. The celebration will bring together top congressional leaders, Administration officials, and community advocates to reflect on all of the caucus accomplishments and look ahead for what’s next. The success of CAPAC for the! past seven years is a testament to the strength of the community.

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This week marks the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s National Export Initiative, or NEI, an unprecedented effort to spur job creation and aid the nation’s economic recovery by doubling U.S. exports within five years.

It may sound ambitious, but one year later we are well in pursuit of this mark. U.S. exports of goods and services were up 17 percent through the first 11 months of 2010.

November also marked the highest monthly exports of consumer goods on record. It is an encouraging sign that as we dust ourselves off from the recession, we are not looking backwards and recent numbers prove it:

In the last three months alone, President Obama has consummated a combined $55 billion in trade deals with China and India. He is also working to complete a trade agreement with South Korea that is estimated to grow annual American exports by up to $11 billion.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid  (D-Nev.) made the following remarks today on the Senate floor.

In the two weeks we were away from Washington, all of us absorbed a numbing tragedy â€" the horrific attack in Arizona.  The nation mourned the lost, thanked the heroes and waited anxiously by a brave Congresswoman’s hospital bedside. We continue to wish the victims a full and speedy recovery, and continue to keep their families in our thoughts.

In the days since the Senate last convened, the nation also resumed a debate over the words, the tone and the metaphors we use here in the Senate, as well as along the campaign trail, on the Internet and over the airwaves.

The national conversation about our national conversation is not new. It happens every year. Candidates promise it every election. But since the shooting in Tucson, calls for more careful language have multiplied and amplified.

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In a recent interview with CBS, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) weighed in on a growing trend among freshman lawmakers: crashing at the office to avoid paying rent in D.C.

The "Evening News" segment estimated that one-fifth of the House's newest class â€" or about 21 members â€" have declared their intention to cook, sleep, dress and even shower on the Capitol campus in lieu of finding other housing.

{mosads}"Everything about my time here should be a sacrifice," said Rep. Joe Walsh (R), a Tea Party favorite from Illinois.

Bass, meanwhile, had a different take.

"I think it's a little bit of a frat kind of thing," she said. "I can't see myself walking through the halls of Congress needing a shower." 

Bass linked to the interview in a little-noticed Sunday tweet. Her account can be found at @RepKarenBass, where she has 7! 5 followers.

I remember receiving a call from then-U.S. Senator Carl Curtis of Nebraska. The year was 1971. He was in Washington advocating a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, but he knew that in order to make it happen there had to be a movement among state legislatures. Senator Curtis was asking for my help. So, as a state senator, I led the effort in Oklahoma to pre-ratify a Constitutional Amendment to require the federal government to balance its books.  

Conservatives in Congress have been advocating a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution for over 40 years now. In 1997, we came close in the Senate but failed by only one vote. At that time, the annual budget of the entire federal government was roughly $1.4 trillion. Recently, we learned that our budget deficitâ€"the difference between what we take in and what we spend â€" for this year alone would be $100 billion more than that, or $1.5 trillion. 

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Key Republicans are embracing a major spending initiative outlined in President Obama's State of the Union address.

Two top members of the House Transportation Committee said they will push the president's initiative seeking to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail over te course of the next 25 years.

"I believe it's good for America to develop a high-speed rail corridor in the Northeast corridor," Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), the chairman of the railroad subcommittee, said according to the Connecticut Post. "It's a place we have to start, we have to accomplish it, because then I believe all of America, in the various corridors around the country, will want high-speed rail if they see success here."

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the chairman of the whole committee, also said Friday he was "pleased that President Obama has helped to launch a system for improved passenger rail service for our nation."

The pair warned Obama to seek more private investments in the project, and encouraged the administration to be more focused in where it will deploy high-speed rail service.

Still, the pair's support could enable cooperation between the Republican House and the Obama administration on one of the president's major initiatives.

"Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail," Obama sa! id in hi s address. "This could allow you to go places in half the time it takes to travel by car."

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said Saturday that he hopes former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) runs for president in 2012.

Portman, speaking at a Cincinnati-area pancake breakfast where Pawlenty was the guest, stopped short of endorsing the likely presidential candidate, but encouraged Pawlenty to run.

The freshman senator said he hopes Pawlenty will run "because he has a great story and a great message," according to Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Howard Wilkinson.

Portman may be new to the Senate, but his opinion carries some weight in Republican circles. He's a former U.S. Trade Representative and director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Bush administration, and before that, served in the House. 

The import of Portman's statement are aided by! his status as a Republican representing a state, Ohio, that's a key bellwether in presidential elections.

His opinion seems to contrast, though, with many of his new GOP colleagues in the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said earlier this week that in 2012, an he hopes Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) will runopinion echoed also by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

P! awlenty's been traveling to promote his new book, "Courage to ! Stand," a schedule that's included stops in Iowa and New Hampshire -- stomping ground for likely presidential candidates. The former Minnesota governor is looking to build his profile in anticipation of a presidential bid, and praise from Portman could help him do so.

A key GOP lawmaker said this weekend said that Congress will examine the possibility of bankruptcy for states, though he expressed wariness of that option.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the chairman of a key Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee examining bailouts of public and private programs, said that bankruptcy options for states would be discussed by lawmakers.

"I'm not convinced it's the right approach, but I think that it's something we're going to have to discuss and better understand," McHenry said on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" in an episode airing Sunday.

"I'm not convinced it's the right answer. However, I don't think there's been enough research done on whether or not bankruptcy would be costly to the states, in terms o! f states that are in fine fiscal shape -- whether or not they're going to pay more lending costs because this is on the books," he said.

McHenry's comments suggest that state bankruptcy may still be a viable option under consideration by Congress, despite insistence by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) earlier this week that the GOP House would not consider bankruptcy, which he derided as a "bailout" for states.

Republicans have expressed split opinions over whether to create a new chapter of bankruptcy law to allow states, saddled down by existing debts and future pension obligations, to enter court protection to reorganize their finances. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) has been a vocal proponent of this option, and wrote with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) in favor of that option earlier this week.

A state bankruptcy bill could pose difficult political hurdles for lawmakers, who are skeptical of projecting an image of doling out more bailouts, especially to states perceived of mismanaging their finances.

"I do know, and I can say this for certain, that this Congress and the majority that I have the pleasure to serve in, in the U.S. House, has no appetite for a bailout of any kind for the states," McHenry said, mindful of those politics. "That's the only thing, going into these hearings, we know the answer already."

Lawmakers have been sounding off on Twitter about the upheaval in Egypt, with tens of thousands of protesters spilling into the streets Saturday after President Hosni Mubarak pledged reforms Friday evening.

Colorado Democrat Jared Polis, who noted Saturday that he was watching the events unfold on Al Jazeera, tweeted:

We watch the events in the Arab world with hope and with fear; our hopes are for democracy and human rights to spread across the Arab world

Our fear is worse,more oppressive theological dictatorships. Outcome like Bolshevik & Iranian revolution?or like our American Revolution?

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) tweeted:

Mubarak should declare he nor his son will run in next year's election & pledge it will be free & honest, thus time for non-radicals. #Egypt

Former ranking member on the Intelligence Committee Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) tweeted:

Op ed this week was prophetic. Be prepared for the unexpected. Clear Obama admin totally unprepared for what's happening in Egypt!

Rep. Keith Ellison is actively tweeting about the protests, and inspiring grass-roots activism for followers to put pressure on the White House:

Let's DO something.10k ltrs to WH urging pressure on Egyptian govt to release of M. El-Baradei, stop violence against protestors. C'mon!

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) kept it short and direct:

#Egypt needs to turn #Twitter & #Facebook back on.

State Department spokesman PJ Crowley has been using his Twitter feed to post re! actions to the unfolding crisis, including to Mubarak's dismissal of his cabinet:

The #Egyptian government can't reshuffle the deck and then stand pat. President #Mubarak's words pledging reform must be followed by action.

President Obama is willing to play golf with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to help improve their relationship, a top White House adviser said Saturday.

Outgoing White House senior adviser David Axelrod said that the chances are "good" that Obama and the newly-installed GOP Speaker would hit the links together.

"He understands that there are - there wouldn’t be two parties if we didn’t have differences … But he’s always believed that, even if you disagree on most things, you ought to work together on the things you can," Axelrod said on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital" in an episode airing over the weekend.

"And you can’t do that unless you develop a relationship ! of trust and cooperation, and he’s willing to do that, even to the point that he’d play golf with a guy who has a much lower handicap than he does," Axelrod added.

Obama's been an active golfer since becoming president, and Boehner's known to enjoy some time on the course, where he's reputed to have a relatively low handicap.

A trip to the golf course would be a way to improve the personal relationship between the president and the Speaker. While both maintain that their relationship with the other is "fine," neither are reputed to be especially close with one another, as President Clinton had been for sometime with his GOP adversary at the time, Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Boehner said that his relationship with Obama "hasn't changed much" si! nce assu ming his new position in the beginning of January. He hasn't seemed particular optimistic previously about the chances of playing with Obama, who typically plays with aides.

"We've talked about it.  We've talked about it a number of times.  It just hasn't happened yet," Boehner said of the prospects for a shared round of golf last fall on "60 Minutes."

President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday was brimming with what so many Americans have long accused him of lacking â€" empathy for those struggling in a terrible economy and optimism about the country's future. But as Obama prepares for a tough reelection campaign, working with newly empowered Republicans in a divided government and an entirely altered political landscape, his feel-good message proves he doesn't feel good about political risks right now. Obama chose to be charming and upbeat in his speech, but not bold.

Without numbers and details, Obama told Americans on Tuesday we could “invest” in the education, infrastructure and energy technologies of tomorrow but begin paying down our crushing debt today.

But not really. News out Wednesday that the annual deficit will now top a record $1.5 trillion means that Obama's proposed earmark ban and spending freeze that would yield $400 billion in savings over 10 years is a Band-Aid. A! ripped Band-Aid, at that.

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We are in the midst of National School Choice Week â€" January 23rd to 29th â€" which is being celebrated across the nation. It has been exciting to see so many events being held and so many people attending and speaking out in support of a quality education for all children. 

It’s been an incredible week here in the District for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. The OSP provides children from low-income families the necessary option of enrolling their children in D.C. private schools. Currently the program is serving about 1000 children and is in danger of being phased out over the next two years. The SOAR Act, introduced January 26 in the Senate by Senator Joe Lieberman and the House by Speaker John Boehner, would reauthorize OSP for five years, allow new low-income students to enter the program, increase the scholarship amounts to approximately two-thirds of the public school per pupil amount, and continue a rigorous program evaluation.   

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Rep. Michael Honda (D-Calif.), who represents California's 15th Congressional district, which encompasses Silicon Valley, issued the following statement in response to the President's State of the Union address to Congress.

President Obama set forth a bold vision for this country. For the first two years of his Presidency, we have been cleaning up the mess that was left by the Bush Administration. It hasn’t always been pretty, but every step of the way we’ve made clear, substantive and measurable progress. Now we are ready to move forward, and tonight the President provided us with a blueprint for the 21st century.  A blueprint that will see America once again lead the world in the technologies of tomorrow by investing in the services and infrastructure of today: education, clean energy and high-speed rail. It is in these investments that we will find sensible long-term deficit reduction that will allow our economy to grow and build jobs.

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In reaction to a Republican resolution (H. Res. 38) to cut national spending to pre-2008 levels without any specific expenditures targeted, House Budget Committee member U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following statement on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
 
I come to the floor today as someone willing to work toward reforms that will create jobs, strengthen our middle class, and pay down our debt. I am in favor of comprehensive tax reform with lower rates. I am in favor of removing regulations that hurt our competitiveness. And yes, I am ready to make the hard cuts we need to pay down our deficit.
 
I think we can all agree on these principles, if not the exact policies to achieve them.
 
But what we have here today contains no policies or ideas. This is a Budget-less Resolution that calls for a reduction in spending to pre-2008 levels, but provides no specifics.

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As the new Congress and the Obama administration get down to business, most Americans are looking for two things from Washington: jobs and bipartisanship. 

There are no easy answers, but there is one thing that Congress and the administration can do quickly to boost job growth and demonstrate that bipartisan cooperation: Ratify the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. By giving U.S. companies greater access to one of Asia’s fast-growing markets, the agreement will generate jobs and economic growth across nearly every sector of the U.S. economy. 

The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that the trade pact would create more than 70,000 American jobs and increase U.S. exports by as much as $11 billion. Those estimates are conservative because they consider only the impact of reducing existing tariffs on U.S. exports. Eliminating procurement requirements and other legal restrictions that favor Korean companies â€" and  effectively shut out U.S. f! irms â€" would create additional American jobs. 

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The pundits who analyzed the president’s last State of the Union speech missed the key insight. This wasn’t a speech purporting to prescribe substantive proposals, about electric cars or taxes for the top 2 percent of earners or tax reform. Oh, those words were used. But something else â€" something profound â€" was going on.
 
First, his frustrating two years of fighting partisanship â€" it’s still there â€" was used by this canny president to isolate himself as the one really striving for bipartisanship. Folks who loathe each other sat together to give the illusion of mature partisans. But the president captured and owns the mantle of bipartisanship, even shaking Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) hand (the one that barely clapped at his remarks) and repeating his pleas for friendly fighting. He is seen as being apart from the food fighters and naysayers, as a man really trying to move past the noise and negativism.

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A prominent Missouri university called off a paid speech it had scheduled on campus for the daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R).

Washington University in St. Louis said it had "mutually agreed" with Bristol Palin that it was best for her not to participate in a planned panel on abstinence as a method of preventing teen pregnancy. The school said it had no contract with Palin.

"Because of the growing controversy among undergraduates over the decision to pay for her talk with student-generated funds, the Student Health Advisory Committee and Palin decided that the message that they intended on sharing would be overshadowed by controversy," the school said in a statement.

Students at the school had protested the use of student funds for Palin's appearance. News of Bristol Palin's pregnancy outsid! e of marriage became a distraction during the 2008 presidential campaign, when the Alaska governor was running for vice president.

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win …

â€" President John F. Kennedy, address at Rice University, Sept. 12, 1962


President Kennedy’s words almost 50 years ago unleashed a torrid wave of research, development and innovation that catapulted the United States to the forefront of technological advancement, which is impacting our everyday lives even today.

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With our national debt skyrocketing past an unprecedented $14 trillion and our deficit spending surging to $1.5 trillion this year, it is urgent that Washington get its fiscal house in order. These spending habits are unsustainable and jeopardize our credit rating and the very financial future of our country. That is why I am joining several of my colleagues in again calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget.

Americans are sitting at their kitchen tables every day scrutinizing their family budgets, prioritizing how they will spend their paychecks and finding savings where they can. They have had to make very tough choices in the past few years during this economic recession, but they have watched in dismay as the federal government has failed to make the same sacrifices. The American people sent a clear message in November’s election that they will no longer tolerate Washington’s endless spending spree, and a balanced b! udget requirement would demand from our government what every American has had to ask of themselves: to live within our means.

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A Republican congressman who accused President Obama of believing in socialism during his State of the Union address is sticking by his story.

Georgia Rep. Paul Broun says that he was simply stating the truth when he wrote on Twitter during the speech: "Mr. President, you don't believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism."

"Well, I think my tweets were civil," he said on CNN Thursday evening. "I was just stating the truth, that this president has a socialistic type of philosophy and agenda. I believe that very firmly."

Comments like Broun's have come under the microscope recently due to increased emphasis on civility following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) 

But according to a report, Broun sent out the Twitter message while he was watching the speech from his office instead of attending the address in person.

A Republican congressman who accused President Obama of believing in socialism during his State of the Union address is sticking by his story.

Georgia Rep. Paul Broun says that he was simply stating the truth when he wrote on Twitter during the speech: "Mr. President, you don't believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism."

{mosads}"Well, I think my tweets were civil," he said on CNN Thursday evening. "I was just stating the truth, that this president has a socialistic type of philosophy and agenda. I believe that very firmly."

Comments like Broun's have come under the microscope recently due to increased emphasis on civility following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.! ).

Dozens of lawmakers broke decades of tradition and sat with members of the opposite party on the House floor Tuesday evening.

But according to a report, Broun sent out the Twitter message while he was watching the speech from his office instead of attending the address in person.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor came out of Tuesday's State of the Union with positive things to say about the new seating arrangement. 

Speaking at Kansas State University Thursday, Sotomayor said the bipartisan seating was more agreeable for her. Unlike in previous years, many members of Congress agreed to sit with a colleague of the opposing party as a symbol of bipartisanship and cooperation.

"I was there at the State of the Union last year. I was there this year," she said, according to The Associated Press. "And I saw people who I saw on different sides of the aisle during my [confirmation] hearings sitting next to each other, and it was much more pleasant for me."

Sotomayor said she liked seeing Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) sit next to each other.

Not every Supreme Court Justice attended this year’s address. Justice Samuel Alito was in Hawaii, and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas chose not to attend.

Calls for bipartisan seating at the State of the Union address came after the Arizona shooting rampage in which six died and thirteen were injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).