Barack Obama

Obama: I'll Veto Any Effort To Avoid Automatic Cuts

David Taintor | November 21, 2011, 6:11PM

President Obama on Monday threatened to veto any effort to avoid the automatic spending cuts triggered by the deficit super committee's failure to reach a deal.

Obama -- who spoke for about four minutes and took no questions -- placed the blame for the committee's failure to reach a deal on Republicans, saying that Democrats offered concessions on entitlement programs, but Republicans wouldn't budge. Obama added that, one way or another, the U.S. will trim the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years -- a goal the super committee originally sought to achieve.

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Super Committee

FLASHBACK: Boehner Says He's 'Bound' By Defense Cuts In Super Committee Penalty

Brian Beutler | November 16, 2011, 11:38AM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Republicans on the Super Committee are openly toying with the idea of reneging on the debt limit deal, which created a penalty designed to get panel members of both parties to compromise on cutting the deficit. If they actually try, though, they'll be rebuking House Speaker John Boehner, who only two weeks ago said he's obligated to follow through on his commitment.

The penalty, which will be triggered if the Committee fails, would cut hundreds of billions of dollars from both defense programs and Medicare providers. The former was designed to bring Republicans to the table, the latter, Democrats. Now even the committee's GOP co-chair is saying that if there's no agreement, he and congressional Republicans will fight to change the defense cuts -- in other words, he and others in the Republican will go back on their commitment.

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Super Committee

Hoyer Optimistic Super Committee Will Succeed -- Even Though GOP Way Off The Mark On Taxes

Brian Beutler | November 15, 2011, 12:22PM

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) And Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)

It's hard to reconcile Steny Hoyer's optimism about the Super Committee with his own assessment of the GOP's allergy to tax increases.

The top Democratic vote counter in the House says he thinks that far-reaching legislation to reduce deficits over 10 years can both pass the lower chamber and meet the terms of President Obama's veto threat -- that every dollar of cuts to Medicare benefits must be matched by a dollar in new revenue taken from wealthier Americans. But it's hard to square that with the facts on the ground.

At his weekly Capitol briefing with reporters I asked Hoyer if deficit Super Committee legislation that meets President Obama's standard could pass the House.

"Yes I do," Hoyer said. "I think that if we work together in a bipartisan way, as frankly we have on all the fiscal issues that before the Congress in the House of Representatives: The first CR, the second CR, the debt limit.... I think it can, with bipartisan votes."

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Barack Obama

Obama Would Veto Latest GOP Assault On Pollution Controls

Susan Crabtree | October 3, 2011, 6:42PM

The Obama administration is rejecting House GOP leaders' latest attempt to box him into a corner on environmental protections.

Late Monday afternoon the Office of Management and Budget recommended the President veto two bills House Republicans are planning to bring to the floor for a vote later this week.

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Veto

Don't Even Think About It: Obama Would Veto Boehner Debt Plan

Susan Crabtree | July 26, 2011, 3:41PM

The Obama administration is making its opposition to Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) two-step approach to raising the debt-ceiling crystal clear.

President Obama not only only dislikes the Boehner plan, but if somehow it defied all odds and got through the Senate and reached his desk, he would veto it. In a brief yet pointed Statement of Administrative Policy released by the White House Office of Management and Budget Tuesday afternoon, Obama's senior advisors said they strongly oppose the Boehner plan.

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Planned Parenthood

NC Gov. Bev Perdue Vetoes Abortion Restricting Bill

Jessica Kim | June 28, 2011, 3:58PM

Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC)

Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC) on Monday vetoed a bill that would have required women seeking abortions to wait for 24 hours and receive ultrasound images of the fetus along with descriptions of what they are seeing before having the procedure.

"This bill is a dangerous intrusion into the confidential relationship that exists between women and their doctors. The bill contains provisions that are the most extreme in the nation in terms of interfering with that relationship," Perdue said in a statement to the Raleigh News & Observer.

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