Obama chides governors for education cuts

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama told U.S. governors attending a luncheon Monday that they are cutting too much funding for education and need to make reforms while continuing to invest in the future of America's students.
While acknowledging the tough economic climate for state governments, Obama cited the need to prioritize the long-range significance of a strong education system.
"We've all faced some stark choices over the past several years, but that is no excuse to lose sight of what matters most, and the fact is that too many states are making cuts to education that I believe are simply too big," Obama told a White House gathering with the National Governors Association that included some of his harshest Republican critics.
"Nothing more clearly signals what you value as a state than the decisions you make about where to invest," Obama said. "Budgets are about choices, so today I'm calling on all of you: Invest more in education, invest more in our children and in our future."
The luncheon is an annual affair that highlights the constant tension over funding issues between the federal government and states. One table included Republican governors and constant Obama foes Chris Christie of New Jersey, Jan Brewer of Arizona, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Nikki Haley of South Carolina.
Obama noted the economic outlook is improving from the early days of his administration, saying, "our recovery is gaining speed."
However, he warned that a failure to maintain significant government investment in education now would cause economic harm in the future by leaving U.S. workers unable to compete in a global marketplace.
"I realize everybody is dealing with limited resources. Trust me, I know something about dealing with tight budgets," Obama said before citing statistics on decreasing numbers of teachers and higher university costs.
"No issue will have a bigger impact on the future performance of our economy than education," Obama said, adding that the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree is roughly half the national average.
"Their incomes are about twice as high as those who only have a high school diploma," he added. "So this is what we should be focused on as a nation. It is what we should be talking about and debating. The countries who out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow. That's a simple fact."
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum called Obama a "snob" last week because the president advocates that American students to go to college.
Santorum framed the issue as Obama seeking to indoctrinate young Americans in what Santorum called the liberal leanings of a majority of U.S. colleges and universities over a four-year college career.
Obama, however, made clear Monday he was talking about all kinds of higher education, including community colleges and specialized training programs to help young people prepare to enter the modern workforce.
"When I speak about higher education, we're not just talking about a four-year degree," Obama said.
The first step is creating a national expectation that all students graduate high school, "at a minimum," the president said. At the same time, federal and state governments need to do what they can to make college affordable, he added.
"Americans now owe more in student loan debt than they do in credit card debt," Obama said, adding that "state budget cuts have been a major factor in rising tuition costs at state universities."
Insisting that "all of us have to do more," Obama said, "We can't allow higher education to be a luxury in this country.
"It's an economic imperative that every family in America has to be able to afford and, and frankly I don't think any of this should be a partisan issue," he continued to applause. "All of us should be about giving every American who wants to succeed that chance."

Reported by www.cnn.com

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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

WASHINGTON -- The $143 billion payroll tax cut won by President Barack Obama may be the last significant measure he receives from a deeply divided Congress that promises to only get more polarized as Election Day approaches.
Obama's coveted renewal of the payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for millions more caps a five-month campaign-style drive against reluctant Republicans.
Under the bill Congress approved Friday, workers would continue to receive a 2 percentage point increase in their paychecks, and people out of work for more than six months would keep jobless benefits averaging about $300 a week, steps that Obama says will help support a fragile recovery from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
It would also head off a steep cut in reimbursements for physicians who treat Medicare patients.
The tax cuts, jobless coverage and higher doctors' payments would all continue through 2012.
Passage of the legislation hands Obama a victory over objections from many GOP lawmakers who oppose it but were eager to wipe the issue from the election-year agenda.
It also clears away a political headache for House Republicans, who blocked a two-month extension of the tax cut and jobless coverage in late December, only to retreat quickly under a buzz saw of opposition from conservative and GOP leaders from around the country.
With that history, Republicans seemed ready to get the fight behind them and change the subject for the rest of this election year.
"We're dumb, but we're not stupid," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters after he voted. "We did not want to repeat the debacle of last December. It's not that complicated."

Republicans said the final deal, significantly changed from a tea party-backed measure that passed in December, was the best Republicans could get.
"We don't control Washington. Democrats still control Washington – they control the Senate, and they control the White House," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., the top House negotiator on the measure. "A divided government must still govern." Camp cited stricter job search requirements for people receiving unemployment benefits and other changes in the program as wins for conservatives.
Extending the 2 percentage point cut in the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax would save around $80 monthly for someone earning $50,000 a year and give a maximum cut of $2,200 to high-end earners.
The reduction in the Social Security payroll tax, which is deducted from workers' paychecks, would cost $93 billion through 2022. In a sudden concession this week that made bipartisan agreement possible, House Republicans dropped their demand that the tax cut be paid for with spending reductions.
In a GOP win, coverage for the long-term unemployed would be cut from the current maximum of 99 weeks to a ceiling of 73 weeks by this fall in states with the worst job markets, with most topping out at 63 weeks.
Of the $30 billion cost of the extended unemployment benefits, half would be paid for by government sales of parts of the nation's broadcast airwaves, half by requiring federal workers hired after this year to contribute an additional 2.3 percent of their pay for their pensions, up from the current 0.8

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Obama Administration asks for delay in legal fight over contraception coverage

Washington (CNN) -- An ongoing political dispute over the Obama administration's new mandate on contraceptive coverage has reached the federal courts, with the Justice Department on Friday urging judges to stay out of the controversy until a compromise can be worked out.
At issue is whether religious institutions should be exempt from mandated employee coverage for birth control and other reproductive care. A North Carolina college has sued, saying it should not be obligated to provide such services in violation of its religious beliefs.
But the Justice Department told a federal judge in Washington on Friday that any coverage requirements won't be enforced until next January, essentially buying time to settle any differences between the parties out of court.
"Students may receive health coverage either by contracting directly with an insurance issuer (in which case plaintiff [college] does not itself provide the insurance), or from plaintiff through a self insured plan," said the filing. "In either event, plaintiff is under no federal obligation to provide its own plan that covers contraception or other recommended preventive services, and thus lacks standing" to sue.
The president announced a compromise last week in the dispute. Under the new plan, religiously affiliated universities and hospitals would not be forced to offer contraception coverage to their employees. Insurers will be required, however, to offer complete coverage free of charge to women who work at such institutions. Female employees at churches themselves will have no guarantee of any contraception coverage-- a continuation of current law.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops denounced Obama's compromise last week soon after the president's announcement, saying the proposal raises "serious moral concerns," according to a statement posted on its website.
Half of all Americans polled say they oppose the Obama administration's new policy, according to a new CNN/ORC national survey.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has filed a series of lawsuits, arguing that even the revised polices on contraception access would constitute a violation of their clients' faith.
Belmont Abbey College is a Catholic-affiliated liberal arts institution near Charlotte, North Carolina. The school claims that under current law, they are not free from the "religious exemption" and would be forced to provide contraception to its employees and students. They say the law, even with the compromise offered by the White House, does not address their First Amendment concerns.
The final version of the contraception requirement goes into effect next January. The administration argues Belmont and other institutions may be "grandfathered" out of current compliance, and that the school lacks "standing" or authority to press its claims now in federal court.
The administration said that under a safe harbor provision, no group can be forced to provide birth control at least until year's end. Federal officials said they are confident they could work out legal and philosophical differences to ensure broad compliance.
The case is Belmont Abbey College v. Sebelius (1:11-cv-1989).

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President Obama unveils $3.8 trillion budget

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget request Monday that hikes taxes on the rich, spends new money on infrastructure and education, but does little to reform the entitlement programs that pose the biggest long-term threat to the federal budget.
"We built this budget around the idea that our country has always done best when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same rules," Obama said in his budget message.
But the budget forecasts a deficit for fiscal year 2012 that will top $1.3 trillion, before falling in 2013 to $901 billion, or 5.5% of gross domestic product.
The deficit projections, which have hovered near $1 trillion for each year of the Obama presidency, mean that Obama will not satisfy his 2009 promise cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term.
The White House has billed the document as a "blueprint for how we can rebuild an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded."

While the White House and Democrats are advocating a balanced approach to economic growth -- including spending cuts, increased tax revenue and investments in rebuilding infrastructure such as highways and bridges, Republicans will argue for deeper spending cuts and lower tax rates.
Both sides contend that their positions will bring the economic growth needed to stimulate significant reductions in the federal deficit and rising national debt.
Senior administration officials who discussed details of the budget with reporters said it reflects policy themes Obama presented in a major speech last year in Kansas and in his recent State of of the Union address.
In the Kansas speech, Obama presented Americans with a choice: a "fair shot" with him, or a return to "you're on your own economics" of the previous Republican administration under President George W. Bush.
Obama's 2013 budget proposal had to fit discretionary spending below the limits set in the Budget Control Act approved by Congress last summer.
Over a decade, the cuts enshrined in the Budget Control Act total in the neighborhood of $1 trillion in discretionary spending.
Under the White House plan, discretionary spending -- which generally means day-to-day government funding not including entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- is projected to fall from 8.7% of GDP in 2011 to 5.0% in 2022. However, details on specific program cuts were not immediately available.
A few areas of reduction are known: The Pentagon plans to spend $487 billion less over 10 years, a course that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has already laid out in some detail.
For example, Panetta has said the Army will save money by pulling two of its four brigades out of permanent bases in Europe to bases in the United States. Meanwhile, the Navy will be getting rid of older ships that don't have the latest ballistic missile defense.
The budget also raises taxes by $1.5 trillion, including a provision to allow the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts on families earning more than $250,000 a year, as well as incorporating the so-called Buffett Rule that requires households earning more than $1 million to pay a 30% tax rate.
Later this month, the president will unveil a plan to reform corporate taxes, including lowering rates, administration officials said.
The administration is also proposing a series of investments focused on infrastructure, education and domestic manufacturing, including $30 billion to modernize schools and an additional $30 billion to retain and hire teachers and first responders.
In addition, the budget will also offer details on what the White House calls a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee. The tax will raise $61 billion over 10 years from large financial institutions to help offset the cost of the TARP bailout and Obama's mortgage-refinance programs.
With a presidential and congressional elections coming in November, the hostile political environment in Washington is expected to prevent the president's budget plan from advancing in Congress.
Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell, delivering the Republican weekly address Saturday, said he expected Obama's budget proposal to "increase taxes, ignore entitlement reform and fail to address the federal debt."
"In short, we can expect that this will not be a proactive budget built to promote fiscal responsibility and future prosperity," McDonnell said. "Rather it appears we'll see a bloated budget that doubles down on the failed policies of the past."
In other budget matters, Obama's new chief of staff stopped short on Sunday of predicting Congress would agree to extend the payroll tax cut for the rest of 2012.
The issue, a top priority of the Obama administration and the focus of congressional negotiations in recent weeks, reflects the sharp partisan divide permeating Washington as Obama prepares to his budget proposal.
Jack Lew, the former White House budget director who just took over as chief of staff, told CNN's "State of the Union" that Congress should resolve the dispute over extending the lower payroll tax rate from 2011.
When pressed about whether a deal would get done, Lew refused to predict success.
"I believe it should get solved, and I know there are people working hard even this weekend trying to solve it," said Lew, who appeared on CNN and four other network and cable talk shows Sunday.
Both the budget proposal and the payroll tax issue continue a political debate over government spending that has dominated Washington since the 2010 congressional elections in which Republicans took control of the House and reduced the Democratic majority in the Senate.
A protracted political fight in December brought a two-month extension of the lower payroll tax rate from last year, giving Congress more time to work out a longer-term deal.
However, the same political arguments from December continue to stymie talks being held by House and Senate negotiators.
Obama and Democrats are pushing for an extension with no strings attached, while Republicans seek to tie more spending cuts and other priorities to the plan.
A 20-member House-Senate conference committee is working to extend the payroll tax cut for 10 months before the short-term extension runs out February 29.
The tax break is estimated to affect about 160 million Americans, saving the average family about $1,000 a year

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Obama In San Francisco: President's Major Fundraisers Feature Quince Dinner, Chris Cornell Show And Tobias Wolff Reading

The smear campaigns. The satirical candidates. The protests. It's officially 2012, and election season is in full swing.
On Thursday evening, Barak Obama himself will pay a visit to San Francisco. And while he's been here before, this time he's serious.
The President's first stop: a small, private literary-themed (!) fundraiser at the home of author Robert Mailer Anderson and Nicola Miner, including a dinner by Quince's own Chef Michael Tusk.
"We are so excited for the opportunity to showcase our favorite Northern California farmers and purveyors through this dinner for President Obama," said Tusk to The Huffington Post. "The Obamas' support of healthy, sustainable food is reflected in the evening's menu and we're honored to be a part of it."
On the menu: tortelloni filled with Barinaga Ranch basseri cheese and wild nettle; roast chicken with black salsify, savory cabbage, chanterelle mushrooms, sweet dumping squash puree and marble potatoes; and a chocolate cemeux with Strauss Family Creamery milk jam and chocolate caramel dentelle.
A ticket includes the aforementioned meal, a seat next to the President and in-person readings from Tobias Wolff, Michael Chabon, Anne Lamott, Tamim Ansary and Isabel Allende. And, according to Willie Brown, the Reverend Al Green will also be in attendance, sparking rumors of a duet.
The price tag? A cool $38,500 a plate supporting the Obama Victory Fund. (Holy Occupy, Barack!) That makes Mitt Romney's protested $2,500 per person dinner look like happy hour at El Rio. But, while such a price tag may raise eyebrows, the dinner is booked solid. And last time we checked, running a campaign isn't cheap.
After dinner, Obama will greet the 99 percent at the Nob Hill Masonic Center for a speech and a reception featuring a performance by Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, which sounds about 99 times cooler than any recent Republican fundraiser we've heard about yet. (Though even we will admit that the "A Day on the Road with Mitt" contest sounds a little tempting.)
Get pumped for the festivities with our all-time favorite Obama video below:

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Fox News Poll: Obama holds edge over Republicans in matchups

Barack Obama bests each of the Republican presidential candidates in hypothetical matchups. In addition, the president’s job approval rating hits its highest point in over six months -- despite a decline in optimism on the economy.

A Fox News poll released Friday shows 48 percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing as president. That’s up from 45 percent in January, and the highest positive rating Obama has received since June 2011. The president can thank his party faithful, as 85 percent of Democrats approve. Compare that to 33 percent approval among independents and 9 percent among Republicans.

Click here for full Fox News poll results.

Looking ahead to November, Obama edges Republican Mitt Romney by 5 percentage points (47-42 percent) in a hypothetical matchup today. In January, the president had a narrow one-point edge (46-45 percent). Both leads are within the polls’ margins of sampling error.

The president’s advantage widens against the other GOP contenders. Obama leads Ron Paul by 10 percentage points (48-38 percent), Rick Santorum by 12 points (50-38 percent) and Newt Gingrich by 13 points (51-38 percent).

Among independents, Romney tops Obama by 9 points. Last month, independents also broke for Romney (by 5 points).

More voters overall would be enthusiastic or pleased if Romney (28 percent) or Santorum (27 percent) were to become president than Gingrich (23 percent) or Paul (21 percent). Still, President Barack Obama tops them all, as 41 percent of voters would be enthusiastic or pleased if he were re-elected.

Twice as many voters overall would be enthusiastic if Obama were to be re-elected than if any Republican contenders were to win. And twice as many Democrats would be enthusiastic if Obama were re-elected than Republicans would feel enthused about a victory by any of the GOP candidates.

Gingrich has the highest number of voters -- 33 percent -- saying they would feel scared if he were to become president. Almost as many -- 27 percent -- would feel that way if Obama were re-elected.

At least half of all voters think Romney (55 percent), Paul (51 percent) and Santorum (50 percent) have the integrity to serve effectively as president, while a slim majority says Gingrich doesn’t (52 percent). A 63-percent majority says Obama has the integrity to serve.

The Economy

The poll shows fewer voters are optimistic about the economy. Forty-two percent say the worst is over. That’s down from 48 percent a year ago. Some 48 percent say the worst is yet to come.
Who can fix it? Almost twice as many voters are “very” confident in Obama’s ability to fix the economy as in Romney’s (21 percent and 11 percent respectively). Still, equal numbers of voters are at least somewhat confident in Obama (51 percent) and Romney (51 percent). For Gingrich, 43 percent are very or somewhat confident he can improve the economy.
Other findings from the poll:

-- About half of Republican primary voters would still like to see someone else jump in their race. Would former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush help them oust Obama in November? Not if the election were held today. In an Obama-Bush matchup, the president comes out on top by 50-36 percent. Moreover, Bush receives less backing among Republicans than the other Republican contenders with the exception of Paul.

-- Voters remain overwhelmingly unhappy with lawmakers in Washington: 13 percent approve of the job Congress is doing and 79 percent disapprove. In December, it was 12-83 percent.

-- By a 67-25 percent margin, voters support building the Keystone XL pipeline. That includes: 87 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of independents and 50 percent of Democrats say build it.

-- The poll asked about the Obama administration requiring all employer health plans to provide birth control coverage as part of preventative services for women. (This includes Catholic and other religious-affiliated hospitals and universities that oppose doing so because it violates their religious rights.) A majority sides with the administration: 61 percent of voters approve of the requirement, while 34 percent disapprove. There’s a wide gender gap, as women (67 percent) are significantly more likely than men (53 percent) to approve. Catholics (58 percent) and Protestants (57 percent) alike approve of the requirement. And a majority of Catholic women (65 percent) as well as half of Catholic men (51 percent) also back the mandate.

-- By 60-30 percent, more voters support than oppose the U.S. taking military action to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Still, support for taking action is down from 65 percent when the question was last asked in April 2010. Fewer voters (45 percent) think the U.S. should use force to help the nation’s close ally Israel, if Iran and Israel were to get in a war, while nearly half think the U.S. should stay neutral (48 percent).

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,110 randomly-chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from February 6 to February 9. For the total sample, it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/10/fox-news-poll-obama-holds-edge-over-republicans-in-matchups/#ixzz1m3FkbQHc

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Obama Tells Gay Donors More Work To Be Done

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama told gay and lesbian supporters at a big-ticket fundraiser Thursday that there's more work to do to ensure fairness for all, but he said he "couldn't be prouder" of his track record for them.
Citing accomplishments like overturning the ban on gays serving openly in the military, Obama said the remarkable thing is how readily the public has gone along.
"The perception was somehow that this would be this huge ugly issue," Obama said of his decision to undo the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military.
"Since it happened – nothing's happened," he said.
Obama made the remarks to around 40 gay and lesbian donors who paid $35,800 each to see him speak at a private home in Washington.
The event came on the heels of a decision by a federal appeals court in California to strike down that state's ban on gay marriage. Obama, who supports civil unions but has stopped short of embracing gay marriage, made no reference to that development or his own views on the matter, which he's said are "evolving."
He boasted of his track record for gays and lesbians, mentioning promoting hospital visitation rights and equality in federal hiring in addition to "don't ask, don't tell."
"In some ways what's been remarkable is how readily the public recognizes this is the right thing to do," Obama said. But he said that "There's still areas where fairness is not the rule and we're going to have to keep on pushing in the same way – persistently, politely."
Co-hosts for the event included James Hormel, a gay activist appointed by President Bill Clinton as ambassador to Luxembourg, and Laura Ricketts, a Chicago Cubs co-owner who is gay. It was at the home of Karen Dixon and Nan Schaffer.

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Obama unveils $5 billion veterans jobs proposal

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama unveiled a new $5 billion veterans jobs plan Friday that the administration says will put thousands of men and women who once wore their country's uniform back to work.
The new Veterans Jobs Corps initiative, first mentioned in the president's State of the Union address last week, involves partnerships with the Veterans Administration and the Interior Department, as well as state and local law enforcement agencies.
Under the blueprint, the administration will award $166 million in grant money to communities that show a preference for hiring post-9/11 veterans for new law enforcement positions. In addition, $320 million in grant money will be awarded to various fire departments who pledge to hire and train new veterans.
Money for those grants has already been appropriated by Congress. The president, however, will now seek an additional $4 billion in his upcoming budget to expand both programs. Congress last fall rejected a similar proposal that was part of the president's broader jobs initiative.
The president rolled out the new plan during a speech at an Arlington, Virginia, firehouse.
"This has been a top priority of mine," he declared. "These are Americans that every business should be competing to attract. These are the Americans that we want to keep serving here at home as we rebuild this country. So we're going to do everything we can to make sure that when our troops come home they come home to new jobs and new opportunities and new ways to serve their country."
The president's upcoming budget will also include a $1 billion proposal to create as many as 20,000 new jobs for veterans relating to conservation efforts on America's federal and state public lands.
That initiative, to be overseen by the Department of Interior, would put veterans to work in visitor and tourism-related jobs as well as positions that will assist in general upkeep and maintenance roles throughout the country's public parks and nature preserves.
It is unclear what type of reception the overall proposal will receive on Capitol Hill, particularly among Republicans who have been complaining about rising deficits.
"These are commonsense initiatives to serve our 9/11 veterans who are coming home," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar told reporters on a conference call. "We hope Congress does its job (in approving the funding)."
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said Thursday the president will also propose expanding training programs for entrepreneurial veterans seeking to start their own businesses. This program would include online training seminars conducted by the Small Business Administration lasting as long as eight weeks and could serve as many as 10,000 veterans annually, according to administration estimates.
"Our country owes them a debt of gratitude and we must ensure that veterans who come home from Afghanistan and Iraq get the opportunities they deserve," Shinseki said.
The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans is 11.1%, nearly 3 percentage points higher than the country's overall unemployment rate. Among the president's few jobs proposals to clear Congress last year were new tax credits for businesses that hire recent veterans.

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Obama announces contraception compromise

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama announced a compromise Friday in the dispute over whether to require full contraception insurance coverage for female employees at religiously affiliated institutions.
Under the new plan, religiously affiliated universities and hospitals will not be forced to offer contraception coverage to their employees. Insurers will be required, however, to offer complete coverage free of charge to any women who work at such institutions.
What's in White House compromise plan
Female employees at churches themselves will have no guarantee of any contraception coverage -- a continuation of current law.
There will be a one-year transition period for religious organizations after the policy formally takes effect on August 1.
"No woman's health should depend on who she is or where she works or how much money she makes." Obama said at the White House. But "the principle of religious liberty" is also at stake. "As a citizen and as a Christian, I cherish this right."
The president briefed New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, on the decision Friday morning. He also discussed the decision with Sister Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association and Cecile Richards, head of Planned Parenthood.
News of the compromise came after days of escalating partisan and ideological rhetoric over the divisive issue. The White House originally wanted to require hospitals and schools with religious ties to offer full contraception coverage. Many Catholic leaders and other religious groups strongly oppose any requirement for contraception coverage on theological grounds.
The question of whether institutions with religious ties should be required to offer insurance plans covering birth control and the so-called morning after pill, among other things, hits a number of political hot buttons. Liberal groups have pushed for an expansive contraception coverage requirement on grounds of gender equality in health care. Conservatives generally consider it a violation of the First Amendment and an infringement on religious liberty.
Some political analysts believe the controversy could cost Obama votes in politically critical states like Pennsylvania and Ohio in November, while others insist it will ultimately hurt Republicans with suburban women.
Mixed reaction among Catholics to revised plan
Reaction to Friday's decision fell largely along predictable party lines. Democratic leaders embraced the revised rule, while Republicans called it inadequate.
"The rule announced by President Obama today guarantees that all women will have access to free contraception coverage through their employers, while protecting the religious freedom of faith-based institutions," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
"I strongly support the rule announced today because in the year 2012, women should not be denied access to contraception. ... Whether women choose to use contraception should be their decision, not the decision of their employers or politicians in Washington."

Santorum: Contraception 'a few dollars'

Lines drawn in contraception debate

Religious freedom or women's health?

Planned Parenthood's Richards also praised the decision, arguing that "in the face of a misleading and outrageous assault on women's health," it "does not compromise a woman's ability to access these critical birth control benefits."
But conservative Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, insisted the revised rule still violates the Constitution.
"This ObamaCare rule still tramples on Americans' First Amendment right to freedom of religion," Jordan said in a written statement. "It's a fig leaf, not a compromise. Whether they are affiliated with a church or not, employers will still be forced to pay an insurance company for coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs."
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Michigan, said the revised rule "simply pretends to shift costs away from religious employers, but it doesn't fix the problem and is another call for individuals and institutions to compromise on principle."
Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Friday's decision guarantees congressional action on the matter.
"The Constitution does not compromise; those rights are inalienable and cannot be bartered away for political expediency and convenience," he said. "The administration has simply reaffirmed that congressional action to permanently reverse this mandate is necessary."
Published polls show a slight majority of U.S. Catholics actually favored the administration's original proposed rule. Catholic leaders were divided by Friday's announcement. Dolan released a statement after Obama spoke declaring that "while there may be an openness to respond to some of our concerns, we reserve judgment on the details until we have them."
But "today's decision ... is a first step in the right direction," he added.
"I think (Obama's) punting, just kicking the can down the road," Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenkis told CNN. "He's hasn't really addressed our concerns. I think the only thing to do is... to take back the whole thing."
Sister Keehan from the Catholic Health Association said she was "very pleased" with the White House.
Sources familiar with White House thinking on the matter have said the administration is convinced approval from conservative Catholics is out of reach, and is trying to win over more progressive Catholics.
Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the administration was deeply divided over how to handle the issue. Vice President Joe Biden -- who is Catholic -- and former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley warned Obama about the possibility of negative political repercussions in swing states if the White House moved ahead with the initial rule.
Several female members of the administration -- including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius -- urged the president to move forward with the initial rule, Bloomberg said.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney denied the report, though he declined to offer any details.
"A lot of these accounts are overdramatized," a senior administration official insisted Friday.
On the presidential campaign trail, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney pledged earlier to eliminate the original version of the rule on his first day in office.
Both the White House and Romney's Republican opponents, however, noted a Massachusetts law in effect while Romney was governor that required hospitals -- including Catholic ones -- to provide emergency contraception to rape victims.
It's ironic for Romney to criticize "the president for pursuing a policy that is virtually identical to the one that was in place when he was governor of Massachusetts," Carney said Wednesday.
Romney, in turn, said Carney needs to "check his history."
In 2005 then-Gov. Romney vetoed a bill that would have required all hospitals -- including Catholic hospitals -- to provide emergency contraception. The heavily Democratic state legislature overrode his veto.
According to news reports at the time, Romney initially said his administration would not enforce the law at Catholic hospitals. But he later reversed course, saying all hospitals would have to supply the morning-after pill.
Romney was quoted at the time as saying, "My personal view in my heart of hearts is that people who are subject to rape should have the option of having emergency contraception or emergency contraception information."
"I worked very hard to get the legislature to remove all of the mandated coverages, including contraception," Romney told reporters Wednesday. This "was a provision that got there before I did, and it was one that I fought to remove."
Romney's campaign released a statement from former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Mary Ann Glendon on Thursday defending Romney's past stance on the issue.
"The charge that Mitt Romney has not stood tall to defend freedom of religion is preposterous," Glendon said. "He has shown backbone on every critical issue at every juncture when it counted."

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Obama budget: $901 billion deficit in 2013

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- President Obama will propose a budget on Monday that forecasts a $901 billion deficit in 2013, and includes plans to make targeted investments in areas like infrastructure while hiking taxes on the rich.
The White House bills the document as a "blueprint for how we can rebuild an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded."

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But given the intense acrimony in Washington, especially on budget issues, few provisions in the document are likely to ever become law.
The budget will project that the deficit for fiscal year 2012 will top $1.3 trillion, before falling in 2013 to $901 billion, or 5.5% of gross domestic product.
By 2022, the deficit is forecast to fall to $704 billion, or 2.8% of GDP, according to the White House.
Senior administration officials discussed details of the budget with reporters on Friday night. The full budget will be released Monday morning.
The administration officials said the budget is very much a continuation of two previous Obama keystones.
This first is a speech delivered last year in Kansas where he presented Americans with a choice: a "fair shot" with him, or a return to "you're on your own economics."
The second is last month's State of the Union address, which focused on the broad themes of income inequality.
The 2013 budget is somewhat limited in scope because the White House had to fit spending on discretionary accounts below the limits set in the Budget Control Act approved by Congress last summer.
Over a decade, the cuts enshrined in the Budget Control Act total in the neighborhood of $1 trillion in discretionary spending.
That means it's no easy feat to find room for additional spending on infrastructure, research and development and education -- investments Obama says are critical.
The White House said that in order to fit under the caps, it had to lower spending in certain areas. To that end, discretionary spending is projected to fall from 8.7% of GDP in 2011 to 5.0% in 2022.

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The details on specific program cuts were not immediately available.
A few areas of reduction are known: Military spending will be reduced. The Pentagon plans to spend $487 billion less over ten years, a course that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has already laid out in some detail.
For example, Panetta has said the Army will save money by pulling two of its four brigades out of permanent bases in Europe to bases in the United States.
And the Navy will be getting rid of older ships that don't have the latest ballistic missile defense.
Of course, the budget doesn't just cut spending -- it also raises taxes.
The White House included $1.5 trillion in tax hikes, including a provision that will allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for high-income earners, a long-held Obama position.

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The budget also incorporates the Buffett Rule, a guideline to ensure that the wealthiest do not pay a lower overall tax rate than those who earn substantially less money.
Specifically, no household making more than $1 million will be a allowed to pay less than 30% of its income in taxes.
In addition, the White House wants to reform the individual tax code in a way that "eliminates inefficient and unfair tax breaks for millionaires while making all tax breaks at least as good for the middle class as for the wealthy."
Later this month, the president will unveil a plan to reform corporate taxes, including lowering rates, administration officials said.
The budget to be released Monday will include many of the job creation provisions laid out in the American Jobs Act, a piece of legislation Obama delivered last year with great fanfare but was almost totally ignored by Congress.
The administration is also proposing a series of investments focused on infrastructure, education and domestic manufacturing, including old favorites like $30 billion to modernize schools and an additional $30 billion to retain and hire teachers and first responders.

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The budget will also offer details on what the White House calls a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee. The tax will raise $61 billion over 10 years from large financial institutions to help offset the cost of the TARP bailout and Obama's mortgage refinance programs.
The release of Obama's budget comes just as both political parties are ramping up efforts to fundraise and compete in both the presidential contest and crucial down-ballot races that will shape the next Congress.
That spells dysfunction on Capitol Hill.
Congressional Republicans have displayed no willingness to consider most of the president's proposals and are not likely to start now

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