Obama's Agenda Cartoon

Obama agenda status report: Did he meet State of the Union goals?

As President Obama prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address on Tuesday, voters might want to know: What ever happened to the president's proposals from last year? 
A look back shows the president has made headway toward fulfilling roughly half of his major goals from the 2015 address.
But some big ones remain unfulfilled, including enacting free community college and securing formal approval from Congress to use force against the Islamic State. And elsewhere, the president resorted to executive action when legislative proposals tanked.
The inbox is expected to pile up even more as the president delivers an address Tuesday expected to focus on gun control, national security and other final-year plans.
"The kinds of decisions that he will make over the course of next year, and that the next president will have to make during their tenure in office, will have a substantial impact on whether or not we pass on a country to the next generation of Americans that is ... as secure, that is as prosperous, and is as a fair as the United States has ever been," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday, previewing the speech.
One analysis by McClatchy, the details of which were confirmed by Fox News, shows the president so far has partly or fully achieved 11 of 20 major goals he outlined in his 2015 address. This includes big wins on identity theft, net neutrality, global warming and Iran, even as he fell short in other areas.
THE MISSES
Obama, though, missed the mark entirely on a $3,000 tax credit he said would make quality child care more affordable. Though he included an expansion of the Dependent Care Tax Credit in his budget proposal, and Democrats introduced a separate bill to do roughly the same thing, neither measure passed.
Obama also fell through on convincing Congress to approve an increase in the federal minimum wage, though various states and cities have done so on their own.
As for what was pitched as a “bold new plan” for free community college, Republicans didn't bite -- calling it an expensive proposal that didn’t have enough of a payoff.
Obama unveiled his America’s College Promise plan shortly after his State of the Union address last year and included it in his initial 10-year budget proposal. It did not pass. Instead, GOP leadership pushed for more access to Pell grants – money the government gives college students that, unlike a loan, does not have to be repaid.
And on the push for an authorization to use force against ISIS, congressional leaders remain divided on whether to even take that up.
THE HITS
Obama did, however, score a partial victory on trade authority. Congress approved the “fast-track” authority which gives the president the power to negotiate big trade deals without lawmakers changing the details.
Despite this win, the president faces a steep challenge in passing the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade pact among the United States and 11 other countries.
Obama scored his biggest foreign policy win after negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran; and getting help from Senate Democrats blocking a Republican resolution rejecting it. The key provisions of the deal could be implemented in a matter of weeks.
And late last year, Obama helped secure a new international agreement on climate change, a goal he laid out in his January 2015 address.
THE EXECUTIVE ACTIONS
Where Obama struggled to pass legislation, he turned to executive actions.
For instance, when Obama vowed to make paying back student loans easier, Democratic lawmakers introduced bills aimed at reducing debt for loan borrowers. A majority of Republican lawmakers rejected them. So Obama, through executive action, expanded the federal pay-as-you-earn program which allows borrowers to cap their payment at 10 percent of their income.
Obama’s push for seven days of paid sick leave also was met with congressional resistance. So Obama issued an executive order in September requiring federal contractors to grant at least seven days of paid sick leave to their employees beginning in 2017. While some states have paid-leave laws, the U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a federal family-leave law allowing workers paid time off to take care of themselves or family members.
Prior to Obama’s executive action, federal laws required companies give leave to workers but did not require the time off to be paid.
Obama has also, in the course of the last week, turned once again to executive actions to address gun control, an issue he hammered in several past State of the Union speeches.
Obama’s 2013 speech -- which took place two months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings that left 20 children and six adults dead -- focused heavily on that issue.
Since then, Obama has received strong pushback from Republican lawmakers on universal background checks as well as other gun-related measures. Last week -- in a move widely criticized by House Speaker Paul Ryan and several 2016 presidential candidates -- Obama used his executive authority to ensure background checks cover forums like gun shows and Internet sales.
Obama is likely to tout gun control changes again during Tuesday night’s address. Obama will leave a seat open next to the first lady during the address to symbolize victims of gun violence.
Yet more substantive congressional action on the subject still eludes the president. The same is true when it comes to immigration.
During his 2011 address, Obama said he was prepared to work with Republicans and Democrats “to protect our borders, enforce our laws and address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the shadows.” After legislation stalled in Congress, Obama in November 2014 used his executive powers to defer deportation for an estimated 5 million people living in the U.S. illegally.
Many GOP lawmakers criticized the move as another example of executive overreach while 26 states challenged the plan in court. The Supreme Court could consider the case later this year.

Bush super PAC slams Rubio on illegal immigration, amnesty

Jeb Bush's super PAC is slamming Republican rival Marco Rubio on the contentious issue of illegal immigration and amnesty. 
The 30-second ad by Right to Rise USA, called “Vane,” depicts Rubio as a weather vane turning in the wind.
“Marco Rubio. He ran for Senate saying he opposed amnesty, then he flipped and worked with liberal Chuck Schumer to co-author the path to citizenship bill," the narrator says as the Rubio animation swivels around.
“He supported his own Dream Act and then he abandoned it,” the ad continues. ”Marco Rubio: Just another Washington politician you can’t trust.”
 
A source with the PAC told Fox News that the ad was intended to point out that Rubio has been a  “political chameleon” and lacked the leadership backbone of Bush, who governed Florida for two terms.
“No one in this race has flip-flopped on immigration more than Jeb,” said Alex Conant, communications director for Rubio’s presidential campaign.
“Jeb used to lecture Republicans about the need to support a pathway to citizenship--and then he changed his position. When Marco is president, there will be no amnesty. “
Starting Monday night, the spot will run in the early voting states of Iowa and South Carolina and on Fox News and digital platforms.

A PAC spokesman said that Right to Rise USA will spend nearly $2 million in Iowa and over $1 million in the Palmetto state in the next two weeks.

GOP candidate lineup announced for Fox Business Network debate

Fox Business Network on Monday announced the candidate lineup for the Jan. 14 Republican presidential debates – and already one candidate has said he will not participate after not qualifying for the prime-time event.
The participants qualifying for the prime-time, 9 p.m. ET debate are:
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
The participants qualifying for the earlier, 6 p.m. ET debate are:
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; former HP CEO Carly Fiorina; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
However, the Paul campaign said Monday night it does not plan to participate.
This is the first time Paul has not qualified for a prime-time debate and his campaign, within minutes of the announcement, issued a statement complaining about the criteria.
“By any reasonable criteria Senator Paul has a top tier campaign,” his campaign said. “He will not let the media decide the tiers of this race and will instead take his message directly to the voters of New Hampshire and Iowa.”
The FBN debate lineup was decided based on the results of national, New Hampshire and Iowa polling. To qualify for the prime-time debate, a candidate had to place in the top six in an average of recent national polls, or in the top five in an average of recent Iowa or New Hampshire polls. ‎
The debate comes as front-runner Trump faces a rising challenge from Cruz, particularly in the caucus state of Iowa where the two are effectively tied for the lead.
The changing dynamic has fueled new tensions in the race, with Trump now openly questioning whether Cruz’ Canadian birth complicates his eligibility to run.
Trump’s comments have opened the door to other candidates and lawmakers exploring the issue – though Trump insists he’s only bringing it up because he’s concerned Democrats could use the issue against his GOP rival.
“I really don't know,” Trump told “Fox News Sunday.” “Does natural born mean born to the land? In that case he's not. But nobody knows what it means. … I speak well of Ted. I'm only saying that Ted has to get this problem solved because if he's running against a Democrat, and they bring a lawsuit, he's got a hell of a thing over his head.”
Cruz has brushed off calls to seek a court judgment on the issue.
“The son of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural-born citizen,” Cruz said in a CNN “State of the Union” interview aired Sunday. “The internet has all sorts of fevered swamp theories.”
Legal scholars have backed Cruz in saying he would qualify as a natural-born citizen, and therefore be eligible to run, because his mother is an American citizen.
Nationally, Trump enjoys a more comfortable lead, but an interesting and fluid race is developing in early-voting New Hampshire where several candidates are in a tight battle for the No. 2 slot behind Trump – and many voters remain undecided.
The latest Fox News poll showed Trump leads with 33 percent among New Hampshire Republican primary voters – behind him are Rubio at 15 percent, Cruz at 12 percent, Bush at 9 percent and Kasich at 7 percent.
The Thursday debates will be held at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center in North Charleston, S.C.
Anchor/Managing Editor of Business News Neil Cavuto and Anchor/Global Markets Editor Maria Bartiromo will moderate the prime-time debate; anchors Trish Regan and Sandra Smith will moderate the first debate.

Hillary Clinton comes out against deportation raids in break with Obama

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton joined her rivals Monday in opposing the Obama administration's deportation raids targeting Central American immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally and ignored deportation orders.
Speaking at a forum aimed at young and minority voters in Iowa, Clinton said the raids had "sown fear and division in immigrant communities across the country. People are afraid to go to work. They are afraid to send their kids to school. They are afraid to go to the hospital, or even the grocery store."
Clinton had previously drawn criticism from pro-immigration groups in 2014 when she said that unaccompanied Central American minors who had crossed the southern border should be returned to their home countries.
However, on Monday she called for government-funded counsel for unaccompanied minors in immigration court, as well as more funding for asylum officers, translators and immigration judges.
"We have laws and we must be guided by those laws,' Clinton said earlier, "but we shouldn’t have armed federal officers showing up at peoples’ homes, taking women and children out of their beds in the middle of the night."
The comments marked Clinton's clearest break with Obama, whom she served as secretary of state during the president's first term.
Clinton's rivals, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, had come out strongly against the raids when their planning was first reported last month. At the time, Sanders said he was "very distubed" by the reports, while O'Malley called the raids "mindless deportations" that were "at odds" with America's character.
The first of the raids reportedly were conducted last week in Texas and Gerogia, with more expected across the country. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the raids were designed to deter immigrants from illegally entering the U.S.
"As I have said repeatedly, our borders are not open to illegal migration," Johnson said last week. "If you come here illegally, we will send you back consistent with our laws and values."

Rock star David Bowie dead of cancer at age 69

David Bowie, a rock and roll icon who sustained a chart-topping career for five decades with hits including "Fame", "Heroes" and "Let's Dance", has died at the age of 69, his family and representative confirmed Monday.
Spokesman Steve Martin said in a statement that the "Ashes to Ashes" singer was surrounded by his family when he died Sunday after an 18-month battle against cancer.
"While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family's privacy during their time of grief," Martin's statement concluded. No further details were provided.
The singer's son, filmmaker Duncan Jones, issued a confirming statement of his own on Twitter.

Tributes poured in on social media from, among others, British Prime Minister David Cameron and comedian Ricky Gervais, who hosted Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards show in Los Angeles.


Bowie died two days after the release of "Blackstar", his 29th album, which had been timed to coincide with his birthday. The singer had kept a low profile in recent years after reportedly suffering a heart attack in the 2000s, and it had not been widely known that he was struggling with cancer.
Long before alter egos and wild outfits became commonplace in pop, Bowie set the music world on its ear with the release of the 1972 album, "The Rise of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars," which introduced one of music's most famous personas. Ziggy Stardust was a concept album that imagined a genre-bending rock star from outer space trying to make his way in the music world. The persona -- the red-headed, eyeliner wearing Stardust -- would become an enduring part of his legacy, and a touchstone for the way entertainers packaged themselves for years to come.
Bowie, who was born David Jones in the Brixton area of South London, came of age in the glam rock era of the early 1970s. He had a striking androgynous look in his early days and was known for changing his looks and sounds. The stuttering rock sound of "Changes" gave way to the disco soul of "Young Americans," co-written with John Lennon, to a droning collaboration with Brian Eno in Berlin that produced "Heroes."
He had some of his biggest successes in the early 1980s with the stylistic "Let's Dance," and a massive American tour. Another one of his definitive songs was "Under Pressure," which he recorded with Queen; Vanilla Ice would years later infamously use the song's hook for his much maligned smash "Ice Ice Baby."
Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, but he didn't attend the ceremony. Madonna, another artist who knew something about changing styles to stay ahead of the curve, accepted for him and recounted how a Bowie concert changed her life when she attended it as a teenager. David Byrne, of the art rockers Talking Heads, inducted Bowie and said he gave rock music a necessary shot in the arm.
"Like all rock `n' roll, it was visionary, it was tasteless, it was glamorous, it was perverse, it was fun, it was crass, it was sexy and it was confusing," Byrne said.
"My entire career, I've only really worked with the same subject matter," Bowie said in a 2002 interview with The Associated Press. "The trousers may change, but the actual words and subjects I've always chosen to write with are things to do with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety -- all of the high points of one's life."
His performance of "Heroes" was a highlight of a concert for rescue workers after the 2001 World Trade Center attacks.
"What I'm most proud of is that I can't help but notice that I've affected the vocabulary of pop music. For me, frankly, as an artist, that's the most satisfying thing for the ego."
However, Bowie felt uneasy about some of his greatest material, once embarking on a "greatest hits" tour saying it would be the last time performing much of his old material. He later relented, however.
"I'm not a natural performer," he said in the 2002 AP interview. "I don't enjoy performing terribly much. Never have. I can do it and, if my mind's on the situation, do it quite well. But five or six shows in, I'm dying to get off the road and go back into the studio."
Bowie was awarded a Grammy lifetime achievement award in February 2006 and his final performance on stage was later that year when he sang alongside Alicia Keys at the Black Ball in New York. He made a surprise comeback in 2013 when he suddenly released a new single on his 66th birthday, with his first new album in 10 years, "The Next Day," following just weeks later.
"Blackstar," which earned positive reviews from critics, represented yet another stylistic shift, as Bowie gathered jazz players to join him. He released a music video on Friday for the new song "Lazarus," which shows a frail Bowie lying in bed and singing the track's lyrics. The song begins with the line: "Look up here, I'm in heaven."
Bowie was married twice, to the actress and model Mary Angela "Angie" Barnett from 1970-80, and to international supermodel Iman since 1992. He had two children -- Duncan Jones and Alexandra Zahra Jones -- one with each wife.

Obama will not endorse candidate in Democratic primary race

President Obama will not endorse a Democratic candidate in the 2016 presidential primary race, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said Sunday.
"That's not our job,” McDonough said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “That's the job of the party to make those decisions and then they'll take a look at the agendas and the positions of those candidates."
McDonough said that Obama, in the final 11 months of his presidency, will wait until voters pick a nominee, as he has in the past.
“When the nominee will be set, then the president will be out there," McDonough said.
Obama undoubtedly will back a fellow Democrat -- either front-running Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders or former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
The president has recently suggested that he will nevertheless get involved in 2016 Senate races in which gun control is an issue, following his recently announced plans to tighten federal gun laws through a series of executive orders that side-step Congress.
Obama’s decision not to issue an endorsement, however, has
some precedent among recent two-term presidents.
George W. Bush didn’t endorse his party’s nominee in 2008 until March 5, by which point Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had just about locked up the bid.
Ronald Reagan didn’t endorse his sitting Vice President, George H. W. Bush, as the Republican nominee until May 1988. Reagan said he wanted to wait until the outcome of the nomination race was clear.
Bill Clinton was the only two-termer in the past 30 years to break with the tradition. He endorsed his sitting vice president, Al Gore, in December 1999.

Carson prays with Clemson coach ahead of college football title game

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson isn't taking sides in Monday night's college football national championship, but he prayed with one of the coaches for a solid performance, his campaign said Sunday. 
Carson had a private phone call with the Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney to pray for the Tigers when they take on the Alabama Crimson Tide in the national championship football game, according to the campaign.
Carson and Swinney prayed together for the team "to do very well,” and the two men also reminisced about their childhoods and the struggles of growing up in poverty.
The campaign also said Carson was happy to pray for the Clemson team because he felt they too were the underdogs and that Carson believes in the underdogs.
Carson campaign staffers in South Carolina were told that the Clemson coach was a “fan” of the presidential candidate and helped to organize a phone call between the two. The men spoke for a short while before praying together over the team and the game.
However, Carson's senior communications strategist, Jason Osborne, is an Alabama fan so Carson  wasn’t quick to completely back either team.
Clemson is ranked No 1. and Alabama is ranked No 2.