President Obama on Finding a Balanced Approach to Deficit Reduction

Posted by White House

Today, President Obama held a gathering with Congressional leaders to talk about the ongoing efforts to find a balanced approach to decrease our deficit. Following the meeting, the President stopped by the press meeting to give a statement on the negotiations:

I just finished a meeting with all the congressional leaders from both chambers, from both parties, and I have to say that I thought it was a very positive meeting. People were frank. We discussed the various options obtainable to us. Everybody reconfirmed the significance of completing our work and raising the debt limit ceiling so that the full faith and praise of the United States of America is not impaired.

What we resolute was that staffs, as well as leadership, will be operational during the weekend, and that I will reconvene congressional leaders here on Sunday with the anticipation that, at that point, the parties will at least know where each other’s bottom lines are and will expectantly be in a position to then start engaging in the hard bargaining that’s necessary to get a deal done.

Obama to Christians: Forget you

Posted by White House

President Obama delivered authorized messages for Passover, Ramadan and Diwali. But for Easter? Not so much. The White House came under fire this week for neglecting to issue official statements for moreover Easter or Good Friday, though Mr. Obama did take time Friday to address Earth Day, a celebration experiential by tens of thousands of pagan worshippers of the earth goddess Gaia.

Mr. Obama clearly didn’t simply forget Easter. He and his family attended an Easter service. He presided over the annual Easter egg roll, a White House ritual dating back to the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes. Mr. Obama also hosted his second yearly Easter prayer breakfast, at which he said “as busy as we are, as many tasks as pile up, during this season, we are reminded that there’s something about the resurrection - something about the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts the whole thing else in perspective.” His brief breakfast address could well have served as the official Easter declaration, if the White House had consideration of it.

Mr. Obama has had a hard official relationship with Easter. His 2010 Easter proclamation was criticized because he attempted to comprise other faiths in what is a uniquely Christian holiday. This was not equal-opportunity multiculturalism; his Ramadan message did not take in a shout-out to American Jews, for example, even though his 2011 Passover message strangely related the holiday to the current Arab uprisings. Likewise, Mr. Obama’s 2009 message stated that, “while we worship in different ways, we also remember the shared spirit of civilization that inhabits us all - Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus, believers and nonbelievers alike.” He also quoted passages from a historic 1945 sermon delivered by a chaplain in the wake of the fierce fighting on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima but shortened out any mention of Jesus.