US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, tepid no more on Trump impeachment

WASHINGTON — Nancy Pelosi, already the most powerful woman in US political history, has just launched an extraordinary and turbulent process which — if it fulfills its goal — would oust a sitting American president.

After resisting fellow Democrats' calls to impeach Donald Trump from the moment she became speaker of the US House of Representatives in early January, the tough-as-nails lawmaker changed course Tuesday, announcing an "official impeachment inquiry" by the House into her political nemesis.

Should it succeed, Pelosi's reputation as a master political tactician will be sealed.

If it fails — and the likelihood that Trump is not ousted is high, given that his Republicans control the Senate — her politically perilous gambit has the potential to antagonize voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Twelve years ago, Pelosi made history as the first woman elected House speaker. Once again wielding the gavel, her political comeback is complete.

The 79-year-old has spent the year seeking to keep Trump in check, challenging him on immigration policy, the budget, gun violence and more.

But she has also tamped down the impeachment groundswell, saying such a procedure should be launched only if the American people support it, and arguing that the best way to remove the Republican commander-in-chief was at the ballot box.

"I've tried to avoid the situation that we're in now, because it was very divisive for the country," Pelosi told a forum Tuesday just before her bombshell announcement.

Her calculus changed. Most House Democrats back impeachment, and the number has only grown following revelations of a whistleblower's complaint that is believed to center around actions by Trump, including his call to the president of Ukraine.

"The president must be held accountable," she said in announcing the inquiry. "No one is above the law."

Pelosi is the nation's third most senior official, a great survivor in American politics.

To reclaim the speaker's gavel she lost nine years ago, the California power broker diligently plotted a remarkable comeback that has impressed allies and opponents alike.

"She's a worthy adversary," conservative congressman Mark Meadows told AFP in January.

In her opening speech to a new Congress, she said she was "particularly proud" to take the gavel with a record number of women lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

That she is the new speaker in the #MeToo era — and the opponent-in-chief to a brash president accused by multiple women of abuse or harassment over the years — reflects the increasing influence of women on the nation's political process.

'Totally on board'

Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro was born in March 1940 in Baltimore to a political family with Italian roots. Both her father and brother were mayors of the East Coast port city.

After studying political science in Washington, she moved with her husband to San Francisco, where they raised five children.

First elected to the House in 1987, Pelosi represents California's 12th congressional district including San Francisco — a stronghold of left-wing politics.

She rose through the ranks to first become minority leader for the Democrats in 2003.

Pelosi assumed the speakership for the first time in 2007, during the presidency of George W Bush. She was a strong opposing force to the Republican leader, and her role as a check on Trump has been similar.

But at times she has struggled to tightly corral her own caucus, notably a group of first-term progressives who have clashed bitterly with Trump, and occasionally squabbled with Pelosi herself.

A quartet of ethnic-minority congresswomen known as "The Squad" — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib — were early proponents of impeachment.

Occasionally they leaned on leadership to move more quickly against Trump, but Pelosi's methodical approach won out.

Omar sounded grateful for Pelosi's step forward Tuesday.

"She wants to make sure that we are moving on impeachment and moving swiftly," Omar said. "And I am totally on board for that."

Earlier this year, Pelosi threaded a political needle, standing up to Trump when needed but also showing that her party is capable of working with the president to pass legislation.

But that cooperation frayed. Pelosi and the Democratic leadership have hamstrung large parts of Trump's agenda, ranging from proposed new tax cuts to building a wall on the US-Mexico border.

Certainly with the impeachment inquiry, any good will between Pelosi and Trump has evaporated.

Pelosi is unquestionably among the savviest political leaders of her generation. She shepherded then-president Barack Obama's signature health care law through the House to its contentious, historic passage in 2010.

Perhaps for that reason she is vilified by Republicans.

Conservatives depict Pelosi, the wife of an investment millionaire, as the embodiment of leftist elitism.

She is accused of everything from wanting to raise taxes for middle-class families to supporting illegal immigration.

source: philstar.com

Trump under fire for attacks on Democratic congresswomen

WASHINGTON, United States — US President Donald Trump came under fire from Democrats and even some members of his own Republican Party on Monday after launching an extraordinary xenophobic attack on four progressive Democratic congresswomen.

"All they do is complain," Trump told reporters at a White House event featuring products "Made in America."

"These are people that hate our country," he said of the four Democratic lawmakers. "If you're not happy here, you can leave."

Trump also accused the four first-term Democratic congresswomen -- who are of Hispanic, Arab, Somali and African-American origin -- of having "love" for US "enemies like Al-Qaeda."

Asked by a reporter whether he was concerned that many people saw his comments as racist, Trump said: "It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me."

Several hours after his remarks, the four -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who is of Puerto Rico origin, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who is of Somali origin, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who is African-American -- hit back at a news conference.

Pressley condemned Trump's "xenophobic and bigoted" comments and said "we will not be silenced."

Omar said Trump made a "blatantly racist attack" on four lawmakers "of color." "This is the agenda of white nationalists," she said.

Omar and Tlaib repeated calls for Trump to be impeached.

'Destructive'

The president first attacked the lawmakers with a series of tweets on Sunday, saying they should "go back" to their countries of origin if they didn't like the United States.

His comments prompted outrage from Democrats -- and, initially, silence from Republicans.

On Monday, several of his party faithful began to speak up.

"My view is that what was said and what was tweeted was destructive, was demeaning, was disunifying, and frankly it was very wrong," said Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah.

"There is no excuse for the president's spiteful comments -– they were absolutely unacceptable and this needs to stop," said Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska. "We must demand a higher standard of decorum and decency."

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she disagreed with the policies espoused by the "far-left" Democratic lawmakers but Trump was "way over the line."

For Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, "the citizenship of all four is as valid as mine." "They are entitled to their opinions, however misguided they may be," he said.

Texan Will Hurd, the only black Republican in the House of Representatives, told CNN that Trump's behavior was "unbecoming of the leader of the free world."

And Senator Tim Scott, a black Republican from South Carolina, criticized the president for using "unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language."

'Cold, hard strategy'

Trump's comments appear to be aimed at galvanizing his mostly white electoral base ahead of the 2020 presidential vote -- while also stoking racial tensions and divisions among his political opponents.

"With his deliberate, racist outburst, @realDonaldTrump wants to raise the profile of his targets, drive Dems to defend them and make them emblematic of the entire party," said David Axelrod, who served as chief strategist for Barack Obama's two White House campaigns.

"It's a cold, hard strategy," Axelrod said on Twitter. "Fasten your seatbelts, it will only get worse as the election approaches."

"The voters will decide," Trump told reporters.

"If (the Democrats) want to gear their wagons around these four people, I think they're going to have a very tough election, because I don't think the people of the United States will stand for it."

In his initial Twitter attack on Sunday, Trump -- who before becoming president pushed the racist "birther" conspiracy theory that Obama was not born on US soil -- said the congresswomen came from corrupt, poorly managed countries to which they should return.

Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley were all born in the United States while Omar arrived from war-torn Somalia when she was a child.

Former vice president Joe Biden, who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, denounced Trump as the most "openly racist and divisive" president in US history.

"Go home to your country? It's sickening, it's embarrassing," Biden said.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, has had a tenuous relationship with the four left-leaning congresswomen but she jumped to their defense.

"When @realDonaldTrump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to 'Make America Great Again' has always been about making America white again," Pelosi said.

Pelosi said she was seeking Republicans to co-sponsor a House resolution "condemning the president's xenophobic tweets" and "characterization of immigrants."

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said he planned to do the same in the Senate.

source: philstar.com

Trump home alone for Christmas

WASHINGTON – An angry US President Donald Trump complained on Monday that he was “all alone” in the White House as the US government shutdown hit a third day, even plunging the nation’s main Christmas tree into darkness.

With Congress out of town and the debate over Trump’s demand for a $5-billion US-Mexico border wall at an impasse, the president sat holed up, tweeting no less than 10 times by early afternoon to lash out at opponents and reject responsibility for a plummeting stock market.

“I am all alone (poor me) in the White House,” tweeted Trump, who had to delay his annual Christmas holiday in Florida because of the crisis in Washington.


Trump said he was “waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security.”

However, the Democrats – and some Republicans – have made clear they will not vote for Trump’s cherished border wall. In retaliation, Trump is refusing to sign a broader spending bill, triggering a standoff that has left swathes of the US government temporarily without funding.

Outside the White House, Washington’s National Christmas Tree became a forlorn symbol of the dysfunction gripping Trump’s presidency two years after his surprise election.

The National Park Service tweeted that the tree would remain unlit and closed to the public “until further notice,” with checks being made for damage following an attempt by an intruder on Friday to climb the tree.

The parks service is one of the many federal institutions suffering from the funding suspension.

The budget standoff could drag on into January, when the new Congress is seated, including a House controlled by Democrats. Negotiations, however, were planned for Thursday, offering a glimmer of hope of resolution.

Trump made a Mexico border wall one of his main campaign promises and the idea is popular with many Republicans backing the president’s message that illegal immigration is out of control.

Democrats and some Republicans in Congress oppose the plans as impractical, unnecessary and fuelling xenophobia against Central Americans.

The government shutdown adds to uncertainties spooking global stock markets after a tumultuous week in which respected Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned and the president stepped up attacks on the supposedly independent chairman of the Federal Reserve.

On Monday, in a session shortened for Christmas Eve, the Dow Jones dropped more than 650 points, or 2.9 percent.

But Trump, who has repeatedly taken credit for good days on the markets, blamed the Fed for the growing sense of disarray.

Last week, the central bank hiked rates, infuriating Trump, who has ignored a traditional respect for the Fed’s independence, calling it “crazy,” “out of control” and a greater economic threat than China.

In a tweet Monday, Trump compared the Fed to a blundering golfer “who can’t score because he has no touch – he can’t putt!”

In other tweets, Trump praised Saudi Arabia for pledging money to rebuild Syria (“Thanks to Saudi A!”), denied lashing out at acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker (“This is a made up story, one of many, by the Fake News Media!”), and took another swipe at his newly departed defense secretary James Mattis for failing to worry about the financial cost of maintaining military alliances (“We are substantially subsidizing the Militaries of many VERY rich countries all over the world”).

Believing in Santa at 7 is ‘marginal’

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump on Christmas Eve took calls from children anxious to find out where Santa was on his gift-giving journey.

In one conversation, Trump asked a 7-year-old named Coleman, “Are you still a believer in Santa?” He listened for a moment before adding, “Because at 7, it’s marginal, right?” Trump listened again and chuckled before saying, “Well, you just enjoy yourself.”

Mrs. Trump told a caller that Santa was in the Sahara. Several minutes later, she reported that Santa was far away in Morocco but would be at the caller’s home on Christmas morning.

Mrs. Trump later tweeted that helping children track Santa “is becoming one of my favorite traditions!”

The NORAD Tracks Santa program became a Christmas Eve tradition after a child mistakenly called the forerunner to the North American Aerospace Defense Command in 1955 and asked to speak to Santa.

The program wasn’t affected by the government shutdown. It’s run by volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado using pre-approved funding.

The Trumps later traveled to Washington National Cathedral to attend the Solemn Holy Eucharist of Christmas Eve. The cathedral’s website said the program included readings from Holy Scripture, favorite congregational hymns and seasonal choral and instrumental music as well as Holy Communion. Passes were required.

Trump most likely would have been attending Christmas services at a church near his estate in Palm Beach, Florida. But he scrapped plans to head to Florida for the holidays after parts of the government were forced to shut down indefinitely in a budget stalemate with Congress.

source: philstar.com

US govt lurches to shutdown as Trump, Democrats spar over wall

WASHINGTON, United States — Donald Trump and congressional Democrats stood at stark odds Thursday as the president balked at a spending stopgap that contains no border wall funding, leaving the US government on the verge of a Christmastime shutdown.

The unpredictable leader's rejection of a measure that unanimously passed the Senate and was under consideration in the House plunged Washington into political chaos barely 24 hours before a midnight Friday deadline for funding to expire for key agencies.

Trump appeared to harden his demand for $5 billion in funding for the wall on the US-Mexico border, something he has fought for since he began campaigning for president in 2015.


Republican leaders had planned to pass a so-called continuing resolution (CR) that would fully fund the government until February 8 to allow time for debate about issues including border security.

But with ultra-conservative lawmakers and media personalities effectively demanding that the president stick to his campaign promises, Trump doubled down.

"I've made my position very clear. Any measure that funds the government has to include border security," he said at a White House event.

"Walls work, whether we like it or not," he added. "They work better than anything."

Democrats have refused to budge, saying they will not support a spending measure that funds Trump's wall.

"That's a non-starter," said top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi. "I think they know that."

Republicans nevertheless soldiered on, crafting a new measure that would appease the president's demands. It includes $5.7 billion in border wall funding, and $7.8 billion in disaster relief.

The bill passed the House, but with no Democratic support.

"Thank you to our GREAT Republican Members of Congress for your VOTE to fund Border Security and the Wall," Trump tweeted Thursday night.

"The final numbers were 217-185 and many have said that the enthusiasm was greater than they have ever seen before. So proud of you all. Now on to the Senate!"

But the bill will be dead on arrival in the 100-member Senate, where bills need 60 votes to advance and Republicans control 51 seats.

Trump also taunted Pelosi over comments she made last week that Republicans would not have the necessary votes in the House of Representatives.

"Nancy does not have to apologize," he said. "All I want is GREAT BORDER SECURITY!"

Senate Democrats were united in opposition as the likely Friday showdown in that chamber loomed. Many senators from both parties have already left Washington for the holidays.

"President Trump is plunging the country into chaos," warned Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, citing shutdown fears, fresh economic woes, and the shock revelation that Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, a stabilizing force in Trump's administration, was stepping down.

"The bottom line is simple," he added. "The Trump temper tantrum may produce a government shutdown. It will not get him his wall."

- 'Meltdown' -

Fears of a shutdown -- which could send thousands of federal employees home without pay just before Christmas -- helped send US stocks tumbling, with the Dow closing down 2.0 percent.

Trump had backed off his shutdown threat earlier this week, but it roared back to life as he accused Democrats of "putting politics over country" by not supporting a wall, which he insists will curb illegal immigration.

His move may have been influenced by members of the House Freedom caucus, some of whom have publicly called on the Republican president to stick to his guns on wall funding.

"Mr. President, we'll back you up," caucus chairman Mark Meadows said on the House floor late Wednesday. "If you veto this bill (with no wall funding), we'll be there."

With conditions fluid on Capitol Hill, it appeared that a retreat by Trump was the only path to averting a shutdown.

However, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders suggested that was unlikely.

"We urgently need funding for border security and that includes a wall," she said.

Pelosi, the likely new speaker of the House when Democrats reclaim the majority on January 3, accused Republicans of having a "meltdown" over whether to pass the stopgap measure or force a shutdown.

The news of Trump's rejection caught many Republican lawmakers flat-footed.

Senator Roy Blunt said worry is likely to set in on Friday.

"It's hard to come up with politics that are worse than shutdown politics," he told Politico. "Unless it's shutdown at Christmas politics."

The US government endured two brief shutdowns in early 2018. A far more crippling shutdown in 2013 lasted 16 days, with about 800,000 federal workers furloughed amid a fight over funding Barack Obama's healthcare reforms.

source: philstar.com

Bernie Sanders signals possible 2020 presidential run

WASHINGTON, United States — Bernie Sanders is talking and acting like a once and future US presidential candidate, telling a magazine he will "probably run" in 2020 if he sees himself as the Democrats' best chance to defeat Donald Trump.

The popular US senator and self-declared Democratic socialist also has just written a book, entitled "Where We Go from Here," that lands Tuesday, the same night he delivers a speech at George Washington University in the capital.

Sanders, 77, launched an extraordinary run for the 2016 Democratic nomination, and while he came up short against Hillary Clinton many Sanders supporters express confidence that he could have beaten Trump for the White House.


Sanders said he still believes his ideas are best for the nation, but is not openly campaigning for the nomination.

"I'm not one of those sons of multimillionaires whose parents told them they were going to become president of the United States," he told New York magazine in a piece released late Sunday.

"I don't wake up in the morning with any burning desire that I have to be president."

Sanders is widely thought to have popularized liberal positions such as Medicare for all, in which the national health insurance for people 65 and over is expanded to everyone, and a $15 minimum wage.

And who else would be as effective a messenger for such a platform as Sanders himself?

"If there's somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I'll work my ass off to elect him or her," he said.

But "if it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run," Sanders added.

The 2020 election is still 101 weeks away. But many candidates announce their intentions early in the year prior to the election.

Sanders would likely face intense competition. Several other Senate Democrats are considering presidential bids, including Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.

Mayors like New York's Bill de Blasio and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles are also in the mix, as are former vice president Joe Biden, New York billionaire and former mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke, who lost his recent bid to oust Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

source: philstar.com

Democrats scent victory over Trump's Republicans in Congress

WASHINGTON, United States — Democrats began to scent a big night in the US midterm elections Tuesday with early results pointing to them seizing the House of Representatives from the Republicans in what would be a dramatic rebuke to President Donald Trump.

With polls yet to close in swaths of the country, it was still far too early to know who will control the House and Senate, which for the first two years of Trump's presidency have been held by his Republican allies.

However, initial results -- like the flipping by Jennifer Wexton of a previously solidly Republican Virginia seat in the House -- signalled that pre-election predictions of Democrats taking over the lower chamber may be confirmed.


Democrats were also heartened by heavy turnout after a bitter campaign which at Trump's own insistence was widely seen as an unofficial referendum on his polarizing presidency. From New York to California and from Missouri to Georgia there were long lines from early morning at polling stations.

Although Republicans remained forecast to keep control of the Senate, a Democratic House would upend the current Washington power balance.


Trump has spent months ahead of the midterms deriding the Democrats as bent on destroying the US economy and allowing criminals to run riot.

But with the party leading the House, Trump would be forced to compromise more -- or risk presiding over an ever more divided country. Democrats, still smarting from Trump's extraordinary upset win against Hillary Clinton in 2016, would likely use their ascendancy to exact payback.

Democratic leadership of the House's powerful investigative committees would breathe new wind into probes of Trump's opaque personal finances, Russian interference in the 2016 election, and even calls for his impeachment.

Confident Democratic leaders
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the 100-member Senate and 36 governorships were up for grabs.

Polls indicated that Democrats have a good chance of winning the 23 seats they need to seize the House, while Republicans could slightly increase their razor-thin Senate majority of 51-49.

Pollsters, gun shy after getting their 2016 predictions wrong, urged caution. Several dozen midterm races where candidates from the two sides were barely separated will decide the day.

Even so, Democrats were confident, with Nancy Pelosi, the party's top leader in the House, saying "it's just a question of the size of the victory."

Former vice president Joe Biden, often touted as a possible Democratic candidate to take on Trump in 2020, said he'd be "dumbfounded" not to win the House.

The first polling stations closed at 6:00 pm Eastern time (2300 GMT) in parts of Kentucky and Indiana, with the last to close seven hours later in Alaska, and results trickling in through the evening.

Big turnout
Voters often sit out the midterms. This time, they're sitting up.

According to Michael McDonald of the US Elections Project, 38.4 million Americans cast their ballots early ahead of this election, compared with 27.4 million in the 2014 midterm.

And on the streets there was a palpable buzz.

"We have already seen huge turnout, people out and about knocking on doors, making sure everybody gets out there, but I think turnout will be very, very high," Democratic candidate Katie Porter, who is running in Irvine, California, against two-term Republican incumbent Mimi Walters, told AFP.

On the other side of the country, in Atlanta, Georgia, voters waited in line for nearly two hours to cast ballots, according to local media reports.

At a polling station in Arlington, Virginia, head election officer William Harkins said "it's a very good turnout."

Trump himself noted the energy as he wrapped up a punishing schedule of rallies around the country that were intended to boost Republican candidates -- and his own brand heading towards reelection in 2020.

"The midterm elections used to be, like, boring," Trump told a crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday. "Now it's like the hottest thing."

Immigration fears
Trump was watching the results alongside friends and family at the White House, his spokeswoman said.

The president so dominates politics across the country that despite not being on any ballot he has made the election largely about him.

Voting in Chicago, James Gerlock, 27, a Republican, said he wanted to see more of the soaring economic growth that Trump says is the fruit of his business-friendly policies.

"I am extremely happy with the economy," Gerlock said. "I just want to keep everything moving, because I'm loving it."

But Democrats have been fired up by anger at Trump's extraordinary attacks over the last few weeks against immigrants, claiming that his opponents seek to throw open the borders to "drug dealers, predators and bloodthirsty MS-13 killers."

Trump has sent soldiers to the Mexican border, threatened to have illegal immigrants shot if they throw stones at the border, and vowed to restrict citizenship rights.

Beto O'Rourke, a charismatic Democrat in a closely watched bid to dethrone Republican Senator Ted Cruz in Texas, told voters that Trump was wrong, describing his state as built from "immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees."

The result in Texas will say much about which way argument has worked best in these polarized times. Other tight Senate races are in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia.

source: philstar.com

Clinton vows to be president for 'all Americans'

PHILADELPHIA -- Hillary Clinton on Thursday accepted the Democratic Party's White House nomination, casting herself as a tireless champion of the people and rejecting Donald Trump's dark picture of America.

Becoming the first woman to win the nomination of a major political party, Clinton promised to be a president for "all Americans," whether they voted for her or not.

Making a bold play for the political center ground in an election year that has seen the hard right and the hard left become louder and more shrill, Clinton vowed to "be a president for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents."

"For the struggling, the striving and the successful. For those who vote for me and those who don't. For all Americans."

Much of Clinton's address to Democrats gathered in Philadelphia for their party's convention was focused on perhaps her biggest weakness come November -- a tough public image forged over decades of withering political trench warfare.

"Some people just don't know what to make of me," she said with a frankness that is unusual in American politics.

"The truth is, through all of these years of public service, the service part has always come easier to me than the public part."

But addressing her image of putting policy above politics, Clinton was unrepentant.

"It's true," she said. "I sweat the details," be it the amount of lead permissible in drinking water or the cost of prescription drugs.

"It's not just a detail if it's your kid, if it's your family," she said.

Clinton also trained fire on Trump's dystopian view of America.

"He wants to divide us from the rest of the world and from each other," Clinton said, mocking Trump's claim that he alone can "fix" the country.

"He's taken the Republican Party a long way from 'Morning in America' to midnight in America. He wants us to fear the future and fear each other."

Clinton also offered an olive branch to those who backed her rival Bernie Sanders, telling them their voice had been heard, even as isolated voices of dissent echoed around the Philadelphia sports arena.

"I want to thank Bernie Sanders ... And to all of your supporters here and around the country, I want you to know I've heard you," Clinton said.

"Your cause is our cause."

source: interaksyon.com

Obama, congressional leaders still deadlocked on shutdown

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama met with Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress on Wednesday to try to break a deadlock that has shut down wide swaths of the federal government, but there was no breakthrough.

After more than an hour of talks, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said Obama refused to negotiate, while House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid accused Republicans of trying to hold the president hostage over Obamacare.

Reid said Obama told Republicans "he will not stand" for their tactics.

As hundreds of thousands of federal employees faced a second day without pay, leaders of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democratic-led Senate offered token concessions that were quickly dismissed by the other side. Obama, meanwhile, scaled back a long-planned trip to Asia.

Republicans have tried to tie continued government funding to measures that would undercut Obama's signature healthcare law. Obama and his Democrats say that is a non-starter.

"The president reiterated one more time that he will not negotiate," Boehner told reporters after the White House meeting. "All we're asking for here is a discussion and fairness for the American people under Obamacare."

Reid said Democrats were willing to discuss any ways to tackle the budget after a temporary funding bill is passed. "We're through playing these little games," he said.

The shutdown, which took effect Monday at midnight (0400 GMT Tuesday), has raised questions about Washington's ability to carry out its most essential duties.

Though it would do relatively little damage to the world's largest economy in the short term, global markets could be roiled if Congress also fails to raise the debt limit before borrowing authority runs out in coming weeks.

The shutdown has closed landmarks like the Grand Canyon and prevented some cancer patients from receiving cutting-edge treatment.

United Technologies Corp, which makes Sikorsky helicopters and other items for the military, said it would be forced to furlough as many as 4,000 employees, if the US government shutdown continues through next week, due to the absence of government quality inspectors.

Exasperated

"Am I exasperated? Absolutely I'm exasperated. Because this is entirely unnecessary," Obama told CNBC television in an interview before meeting the congressional leaders. "I am exasperated with the idea that unless I say to 20 million people, 'You can't have health insurance,' these folks will not reopen the government. That is irresponsible."

The US Army's top general said the shutdown was significantly harming day-to-day operations, and intelligence leaders say it is undermining their ability to monitor threats. A Federal Reserve official said it could delay the central bank's ability to assess whether its monetary stimulus efforts are still needed.

The uncertainty in Washington has forced the White House to scale back an Asia trip that was designed to reinforce US commitment to the region.

Obama scuttled two stops on a planned four-country tour and left visits to two other countries up in the air. He was due to leave on Saturday and return a week later.

Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Malaysia and the Philippines in his place. Obama is weighing whether to attend diplomatic summits in Indonesia and Brunei, a White House official said.

Despite the disruption, Boehner's Republicans have failed to derail Obama's controversial healthcare law, which passed a milestone on Tuesday when it began signing up uninsured Americans for subsidized health coverage.

Though some moderate Republicans have begun to question their party's strategy, Boehner so far has kept them united behind a plan to offer a series of small bills that would re-open select parts of the government most visibly affected by the shutdown.

The Republican-controlled House passed and sent to the Senate a funding bill that would re-open the National Institutes of Health, which conducts medical research, and another bill to reopen shuttered federal parks and museums, such as the Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery of Art and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Both bills passed with the support of about two-dozen Democrats, who joined Republicans. The House was expected to vote Thursday on measures to fund veterans' care, the District of Colombia and the Army Reserve.

The measures are likely to be defeated in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Obama said he would veto them if they reached his desk.

Still, they allowed Republicans to charge that their adversaries are standing in the way of help for elderly veterans and young cancer patients. "Will they now say 'no' to funding for veterans, our National Parks and the National Institutes of Health?" asked Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

Reid told Republicans he would engage in talks about tax reform, farm policy and other pressing issues that Congress has failed to address once Republicans agreed to re-open the government without conditions. Republicans dismissed that idea.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll indicated that 24 percent of Americans blamed Republicans for the shutdown, while 19 percent blamed Obama or Democrats. Another 46 percent said everyone was to blame.

Bigger fight ahead

The shutdown fight is rapidly merging with a higher-stakes battle over the government's borrowing power that is expected to come to a head soon.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said the United States will exhaust its borrowing authority no later than October 17.

The government could have difficulty paying pension checks, interest charges and other bills after that point.

Many Republicans see the debt limit vote as another opportunity to undercut Obama's healthcare law or extract other concessions -- an approach that business groups say could lead to disaster.

"You can re-litigate these policy issues in a political forum, but they shouldn't use the threat of causing the US to fail on its ... obligations to repay on its debt as a cudgel," Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein told reporters after he and other financial-industry executives met with Obama.

Some Democrats have begun to consider asking Obama to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling on his own -- a move that could lead to years of court battles. The White House has said that approach is not feasible.

Asked whether there is a push underway among Democrats to convince Obama that he should use this power, a senior House Democrat who asked not to be identified said: "No, not at this point."

Stock investors on Wednesday appeared to show growing anxiety over the standoff after taking the news in their stride on Tuesday. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both closed down 0.1 percent.

Obama said Wall Street should be worried about the debt ceiling. "I think this time's different. I think they should be concerned," Obama told CNBC. "When you have a situation in which a faction is willing potentially to default on US government obligations, then we are in trouble."

A short-term shutdown would slow US economic growth by about 0.2 percentage points, Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday, but a weeks-long disruption could weigh more heavily -- 0.4 percentage points -- as furloughed workers scale back personal spending.

The last shutdown in 1995 and 1996 cost taxpayers $1.4 billion, according to congressional researchers.

source: interaksyon.com

Obama warns Wall Street over fiscal crisis

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama sent Wall Street a blunt warning Wednesday that it should be very worried about a political crisis that has shut down the government and could trigger a US debt default.

Obama said he was "exasperated" by the budget impasse in Congress, in an interview with CNBC apparently designed to pressure Republicans by targeting the financial community moments after markets closed.
 




The president then met Republican and Democratic leaders for their first talks since the US government money's ran out and it slumped into a shutdown now well into its second day.

But few informed observers held out much hope for a sudden breakthrough.

Obama was asked in the interview whether Washington was simply gripped by just the latest in a series of political and fiscal crises which reliably get solved at the last minute.

In unusually frank comments on issues that could sway markets, Obama warned that investors should be worried.

"This time's different. I think they should be concerned," Obama said, in comments which may roil global markets.

"When you have a situation in which a faction is willing potentially to default on US government obligations, then we are in trouble," Obama said.

Obama said he would not negotiate with Republicans on budget matters until House lawmakers pass a temporary financing bill to reopen federal operations and raised the $16.7-trillion debt ceiling.

If the borrowing limit is not lifted by the middle of the month, the US government could default on its debts for the first time in history.

"If and when ... that vote takes place and the government reopens, and if and when they vote to make sure Congress pays our bills on time so America does not default on costs it's already accrued, then I am prepared to have a reasonable, civil negotiation around a whole slew of issues," Obama said.

The president said he had "bent over backwards" to accommodate Republicans -- a statement his foes would dispute -- but warned it would set a terrible precedent to allow lawmakers of any party to hold a White House to ransom over raising the debt ceiling.

Exasperated

"Absolutely I am exasperated, because this is entirely unnecessary," Obama said.

The government shutdown has sent 800,000 federal workers home, closed museums, national parks and monuments and crippled government services.

Obama wants a straightforward temporary spending bill to end the first shutdown in 17 years, while Tea Party Republicans have repeatedly tied the measure to a dismantling or delay of his signature health care law.

With neither side willing to budge, hopes of an early exit to the shutdown are fading.

"Most of the time you can see an end game," Republican Senator Johnny Isakson told MSNBC. "Right now there's no end game in sight."

Some signs of incremental movement emerged, with Democrats pledging to appoint negotiators to thrash out a long-term budget -- provided that the Republicans agree to an immediate six-week federal spending measure with no anti-Obamacare provisions.

Obama met at the White House with his chief political rival, House Speaker John Boehner, as well as top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell to address the standoff.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi were also there.

Boehner's office said the fact the talks were taking place was a victory in itself and had the potential to lead to "serious talks between the two parties."

A risk if protracted

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi warned Wednesday that a US shutdown "is a risk if it is protracted."

"It would be a risk not only for the US, but also the world economy," Draghi said.

Obama on Wednesday gathered a group of high flying CEOs, apparently hoping they would pressure Boehner to pass a straight temporary funding bill.

Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein warned that America was getting onto dangerous ground by flirting with not raising the debt ceiling. A previous period of brinkmanship on the issue badly hit the US credit rating.

"There's a precedent for a government shutdown, there's no precedent for a default," he said after meeting Obama.

Furious tourists meanwhile are locked out of Washington museums and monuments, as well as national parks and landmarks like the Statue of Liberty in New York. Cancer research and treatment at the world-class National Institutes of Health has ground to a halt.

The fallout has already caused Obama to shorten his long-planned Asia trip, scrapping stops in Malaysia and the Philippines that were due to begin this weekend, so he could attend to the crisis at home.

The president's attendance at regional summits in Indonesia and Brunei was also in doubt.

A no show in Asia would be seen as a blow to Obama's policy of rebalancing US diplomacy and military might towards the fast growing region.

But James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence warned lawmakers that US security was already being compromised.

Seventy percent of the intelligence workforce had been furloughed, potentially offering an opening to foreign recruiters in the field, Clapper said.

"This seriously damages our ability to protect the safety and security of this nation," Clapper said.

source: interaksyon.com

US govt shuts down

The United States lurched into a dreaded government shutdown early Tuesday for the first time in 17 years, triggering agency closures and hundreds of thousands of furloughs as Congress missed a deadline to pass a budget.

Ten minutes before midnight bells rang throughout a deeply divided Washington, and after a day of furious brinkmanship President Barack Obama's Democrats and rival Republicans, the White House ordered federal agencies to initiate their shutdown procedures.

"We urge Congress to act quickly to pass a Continuing Resolution to provide a short-term bridge that ensures sufficient time to pass a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year," Management and Budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in a memo to agencies.

Lawmakers had hardly haggled over budgetary matters in the final frantic hours before the deadline -- the end of the fiscal year. Instead, they argued over whether to link the budget pact with efforts to delay Obama's health care law.

"This is an unnecessary blow to America," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor two minutes after the witching hour.

As a mood of crisis enveloped Washington no compromise emerged to head off the first such disaster since 1996.

Instead, the Democratic-led Senate and Republican House of Representatives played a futile game, sending funding bills between them that were doomed to fail.

Obama accused Republicans of holding America at ransom with their "extreme" political demands, while his opponents struck back at his party's supposed arrogance.

Around 800,000 government workers are expected to be sent home, government services are to be slashed and monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and national parks will close.

The crisis is rooted in an attempt by "Tea Party" Republicans in the House to make passage of a new government budget conditional on thwarting Obama's signature health reform law.

The Democratic-led Senate and the president have repeatedly rejected this strategy and urged Republicans to pass an extension to government funding to temporarily stave off the shutdown.

In a deeper sense, the shutdown is the most serious crisis yet in a series of rolling ideological skirmishes between Democrat Obama and House Republicans over the size of the US government and its role in national life.

"One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to re-fight the results of an election," Obama said, referring to his own re-election.

"You don't get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you're supposed to be doing anyway," he said, in a stern televised statement at the White House.

But on a day of accelerating brinkmanship, Republicans doubled down on their bid to gut Obamacare, as the health care law, the most sweeping social legislation in decades, is known.

With just three hours to go, House lawmakers passed a bill that would delay the individual mandate, which forces all Americans to buy health insurance under the new law, for a year.

"It's a matter of fairness for all Americans," said Republican House speaker John Boehner, who has struggled to control the riotous anti-government Tea Party faction of his caucus.

But the Senate, which must also sign off on budget measures, immediately rejected the bill.

That led House leaders, less than an hour before midnight, to move to go to conference, meaning the two chambers would appoint formal negotiators to thrash out a budget deal.

That process was already showing signs that it would take hours to coordinate, and Reid sent the Senate into recess until 9:30 am Tuesday.

"We said we'd go to conference if they wouldn't shut the government down, but they're shutting the government down," number two Senate Democrat Dick Durbin told AFP.

Obama warned that a government shutdown could badly damage an economy which has endured a sluggish recovery from the worst recession in decades.

"A shutdown will have a very real economic impact on real people, right away. Past shutdowns have disrupted the economy significantly," Obama said.

Consultants Macroeconomic Advisors said it would slow growth, recorded at a 2.5 percent annual pace in the second quarter.

A two-week shutdown would cut 0.3 percentage point off of gross domestic production.

It would also have a painful personal impact on workers affected -- leaving them to dip into savings or delay mortgage payments, monthly car loan bills and other spending.

Stocks on Monday retreated as traders braced for the shutdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 128.57 points (0.84 percent) to 15,129.67.

Markets are likely to be even more traumatized if there is no quick solution to the next fast approaching crisis.

Republicans are also demanding Obama make concessions in the health care law to secure a lifting of the current $16.7 trillion debt ceiling, without which the United States would begin to default on its debts for the first time in history by the middle of October.

Polls show more Americans would blame Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats, leaving Boehner torn between his party's wider political interests and a vocal section of his own party.

source: interaksyon.com