Republicans 2012: National security focus at TV debate

The eight Republican presidential hopefuls have traded blows on national security at a wide-ranging debate in Washington DC.

Before an audience of foreign policy experts, candidates were probed on domestic and foreign issues including defence cuts, Iran and border security.

The latest debate put former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the spotlight after a recent surge in opinion polls.

The first Republican nominating contest will be on 3 January 2012 in Iowa.

Mr Gingrich is the latest in a series of Republican contenders to join former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at the top of the polls.

Analysts say the conservative Republican base is dissatisfied with the prospect of Mitt Romney as their nominee, and has been searching instead for a known conservative candidate capable of taking on Barack Obama in November 2012.

With few of the candidates boasting significant foreign policy experience, the latest debate offered a new challenge for the leading contenders.

Mr Romney criticised the defence cuts triggered by the failure to reach a deficit-reduction deal and mounted a strong defence of Israel, while Mr Gingrich and Texas Governor Rick Perry both spoke out on the emotive issue of immigration.

Mr Huntsman found more speaking opportunities than usual, but Herman Cain, a confident voice on domestic economic issues, was less prominent than in recent debates.

The likelihood of almost $1tn of defence and domestic spending cuts, now in prospect after Congress' failure to reach a deficit deal, was roundly criticised by most candidates.

Mr Romney said the potential costs of Mr Obama's healthcare bill matched the level of cuts to the Pentagon budget.

"We need to protect America and protect our troops and our military and stop the idea of Obamacare," he declared.

Mr Perry, once seen as Mr Romney's chief rival but whose campaign gaffes have seen him lose support, said Defence Secretary Leon Panetta should resign in protest at the cuts his department could face.

Mr Gingrich, though, took a contrasting view. "It's clear that there are some things you can do to defence that are less expensive," he said.

On Pakistan, Mr Perry and Michele Bachmann sparred over US involvement with Islamabad.

Mr Perry said he would "not send them a penny" as the country has shown the US "time after time they can't be trusted".

Ms Bachmann cautiously said she would continue sending aid to Pakistan, because they were still sharing intelligence. Pakistan, Ms Bachmann said, was "too nuclear to fail".

But Mr Romney described Pakistan as being in need of urgent development. "We need to bring Pakistan into the 21st Century - heck, into the 20th Century."

There were few sharp exchanges between candidates in the debate, which was staged and moderated by CNN.

In a rare back and forth, Mr Huntsman and Mr Romney argued about the planned US troop drawdown in Afghanistan.
Mr Huntsman said US troops should come home sooner than planned, with some acting as trainers to the Afghan army and a "drone presence" maintained in the country.

Mr Romney disagreed, arguing that leaving Afghanistan early would leave it open to more violence. The two former governors also argued over the president's role as commander-in-chief.

On Iran, Mr Gingrich said Tehran's leaders could be gone within a year if fuel supply to the government was restricted. A peaceful change of government in Iran would be vastly preferable to a war or military strikes, he said.

Mr Romney also said that his first international trip as president would be to Israel, to show US support for its long-term Middle Eastern ally.

On the question of the Arab Spring, Mr Huntsman said the US "did itself a dis-service" by acting too soon in Libya.

"Our interests in the Middle East is Israel and preventing from Iran from going nuclear," he said.

Mr Perry, who declared support for a no-fly zone over Syria earlier in the day, appeared to soften his line somewhat, saying it was just one of several actions that could be taken against the Assad regim

Obama pushes Congress' deficit panel to act

Sounding increasingly frustrated as a deadline for action approaches, President Barack Obama accused lawmakers on a congressional supercommittee of refusing to budge off their rigid positions and find a solution to the country's yawning deficit.

And with Republicans unwilling to cooperate on his jobs bill, Obama said it might take a new Congress to get his jobs package done.

"It feels as if people continue to try to stick with their rigid positions rather than solve the problem," Obama said of the 12 members of the bipartisan deficit committee, spreading criticism among Republicans and Democrats alike at a wide-ranging news conference Sunday capping an economic summit in his home state of Hawaii.

"My hope is that over the next several days, the congressional leadership on the supercommittee go ahead and bite the bullet and do what needs to be done, because the math won't change. There's no magic formula," Obama said. "There are no magic beans that you can toss on the ground and suddenly a bunch of money grows on trees. We got to just go ahead and do the responsible thing."

Obama spoke as lawmakers on the specially created committee appeared deadlocked with a Nov. 23 deadline fast approaching to find more than $1 trillion in deficit cuts or trigger harsh spending cuts across federal programs including the Pentagon. The president rejected the idea of softening the triggering mechanism, as some have proposed, though he stopped short of threatening to veto such a move.

Obama also defended his policies on Iran, struck back at criticism from the GOP presidential field, and addressed the fate of his stalled jobs bill as Washington politics followed him to Hawaii, where he's on the first part of a nine-day trip aimed at building ties and finding economic opportunities in the fast-growing Asia Pacific. Obama, who played host to the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit here, leaves Tuesday for Australia before ending his trip in Indonesia.

Along the way, he's not neglecting his re-election campaign: the president was scheduled to raise money Monday at a campaign event at the Aulani Disney Resort in Kapolei, Hawaii.

Once he returns to Washington Nov. 20, the president will grapple once again with Republicans who've agreed to only one sliver so far of his $447 billion jobs package of tax credits and public works spending — a measure passed by the Senate last week to boost hiring of veterans. But Obama contended Sunday that any failure of the jobs package would hurt Republicans more than him, and he said he'd continue promoting it even if it takes him past next year's elections.

"I'm going to keep on pushing," Obama said. "My expectation is that we will get some of it done now, and I'll keep on pushing until we get all of it done. And that may take me all the way to November to get it all done. And it may take a new Congress to get it all done."

Obama said he hoped Republicans would "recognize that doing nothing is not an option ... And that should be their hope, too, because if they don't, I think we'll have a different set of leaders in Congress."

With jobs at the top of the agenda for voters heading into the 2012 presidential election, Obama's sought to connect his travels to the domestic economy, and he renewed the point at the news conference held outdoors Sunday evening against a spectacular Hawaii backdrop of palm trees and rolling waves.

"No region will do more to shape our long-term economic future than the Asia Pacific region," Obama said.

Obama also defended his efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear threat, saying that the economic sanctions against the country have had "enormous bite," and that he is united with Russian and Chinese leaders in ensuring Iran does not develop an atomic weapon and unleash an arms race across the Middle East.

Republican presidential contenders, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, have assailed Obama for not doing more to keep Iran from getting nuclear weaponry. Said Obama: "Is this an easy issue? No. Anyone who claims it is is either politicking or doesn't know what they're talking about."

Obama declares September as Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

US President Barack Obama has declared September as the National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month as part of his administration`s efforts to address the challenge of a "dramatic rise" in obesity among American children.

"Since the 1970s, the rate of childhood obesity in our country has tripled, and today a third of American children are overweight or obese. This dramatic rise threatens to have far-reaching, long-term effects on our children`s health, livelihoods, and futures," Obama said in his proclamation in this regard.

He said, "Without major changes, a third of children born in the year 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes during their lifetimes, and many others will face obesity-related problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma,"

As a nation, Obama said, the greatest responsibility is to ensure the well-being of American children. "By taking action to address the issue of childhood obesity, we can help America`s next generation reach their full potential."

Taking the lead, First Lady Michelle Obama has also launched a series of steps to fight increasing obesity among children and promote healthy food.

"Together, we can stop this epidemic in its tracks. Over the last year and a half, the First Lady`s Let`s Move! initiative has brought together Federal agencies and some of the biggest corporations and nonprofits from across our country, working to meet our national goal of solving the problem of childhood obesity within a generation.

"Let`s Move! aims to help ensure we can make healthy choices about the foods we eat and how much exercise we get, while building the habits necessary to tackle one of the most urgent health issues we face in this country," Obama said.

The US President said everyone has a role to play in preventing and reversing the tide of childhood obesity. "This year, we announced groundbreaking partnerships with grocery stores and other retailers to increase access to healthy food in under-served areas."

The stores have pledged to increase their fruit and vegetable offerings and to open new locations in communities where nutritious food is limited or unavailable, he said.

Federal Judge Rules Against U.S. Plan for Salmon

A federal judge has found that the Obama administration’s attempt to make federal hydroelectric dams in the Northwest safer for protected salmon violates the Endangered Species Act.

Judge James Redden of Federal District Court in Portland ruled Tuesday that the plan, known as a biological opinion, is too vague and uncertain on specific steps that will be taken in future years to improve salmon habitat.

He added that he did not think the government could meet the standards of the Endangered Species Act by habitat improvements alone, and that it was time to consider new options, including removing some of the dams.

The judge left the plan in place through 2013, when federal agencies must come up with more specific projects to help salmon.

US House passes Republican debt bill

 The U.S. House of Representatives passed a debt ceiling plan in a vote on Friday evening, but the bill was quickly killed in the Senate, which further dampened hope for a bipartisan deal before the Aug. 2 deadline.

Under the newly modified two-step plan outlined by Boehner, a Republican, the Congress would immediately raise the federal government's borrowing capacity by 900 billion U.S. dollars extending to early next year and cut spending by 917 billion dollars over a decade.

According to the legislation rewritten overnight, the second tranche of debt limit increase next year would be contingent on Congress approving a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and sending it to the states for ratification.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said, To amend the Constitution or default is a "highly dangerous game" to play.The Democrat-controlled Senate scuttled the Boehner bill two hours after the House passage.

The House bill is "flawed", Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said, adding that the U.S. economy could not bear the kind of uncertainty any longer.

"The House of Representatives is still trying to pass a bill that a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have already said they won't vote for," U.S. President Barack Obama said hours before the House voting.

Obama said, Any debt ceiling compromise plan to avert an unprecedented debt default should be bipartisan in order to win support from both Democrats and Republicans. 
A lower credit rating would result in a "tax increase" on Americans in the form of higher interest rates on their mortgages, their car loans and their credit card.

It not only achieves more deficit reduction than the bill passed in the House today and puts a process in place to achieve even more savings, it also removes the uncertainty surrounding the risk of default.

According a report, The U.S. economy slowed to an annualized growth rate of 1.3 percent during the second quarter of 2011, far short of market expectations of around 1.7 percent, fresh evidence to a softer economy, the Commerce Department.The weakest since the recession ended two years ago, as flat consumer spending and spending cuts from state and local governments undermined the economic recovery.

Obama urged, "On a day when we've been reminded how fragile the economy already is, this is one burden we can lift ourselves. We can end it with a simple vote, a vote that Democrats and Republicans have been taking for decades, a vote that the leaders in Congress have taken for decades."

Obama: offered condolences after Norway Blast

Obama, who visited Oslo in 2009 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, fondly recalled his welcome in the NATO ally and he wanted to personally extend my condolences to the people of Norway.

US President Barack Obama offered condolences to Norway after deadly twin attacks Friday and urged countries around the world to step up cooperation to combat terror.

During a meeting with New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key, Obama called the attacks “a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring.”

The president said, “We have to work cooperatively together on intelligence and in terms of prevention of these kinds of horrible attacks,”

A blast tore through government buildings and a gunman opened fire at a youth meeting of the ruling party, leaving at least 17 people reported dead.

Clinton said,We stand with the people of Norway in this moment of sorrow and offer our deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those injured and killed.

State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke Fulton called the attacks “despicable” and said the embassy in Oslo has urged all US citizens to avoid the center of the Norwegian capital.

New Zealand’s prime minister, in his meeting with Obama, also voiced his “sympathies and concerns” over the attacks in Norway.

He said, “And that’s why New Zealand plays its part in Afghanistan as we try and join others like the United States in making the world a safer place,”