Biden announces retirement savings safeguards

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Friday proposed new regulations aimed at protecting workers' retirement savings from unethical financial advisers.

The safeguards would protect workers from conflicts of interest on the part of advisers who manage their 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts. The administration estimates that the protections would affect 15 million workers.

The proposed regulations would require retirement investment advisers and money managers to either base their investment advice on objective computer models certified by independent experts, or refrain from steering workers into funds they are affiliated with or from which they are receiving a commission.

Vice President Joe Biden and Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris announced the proposal during a meeting of the White House Middle Class Task Force. Biden said the regulations meet the task force's goal of helping middle class families plan for a secure retirement.

"A lot of folks are not getting the best treatment, the best advice and the most help in figuring out how to deal with their retirement plans," Biden said.

If the Labor Department enacts the proposed regulations, the rules would apply to all financial institutions that offer 401(k) programs to employers and offer financial advice to their employees.

Obama launches health-care summit

U.S. President Barack Obama and politicians from both parties began a televised summit on Thursday in an attempt to kickstart legislation to overhaul the health-care system.

The purpose of the daylong policy discussion at Blair House, the White House guest residence, was to suggest ways to move forward with the legislation. The group was to consider ways to control health-care costs and expand coverage, as well as deficit reduction and insurance reform.

"We all know this is urgent. And unfortunately over the course of the year, despite all of the hearings that took place and all of the negotiations that took place and people on both sides of the aisle worked long and hard on this issue, you know, this became a very ideological battle," Obama said, as he led off a meeting with House leaders and Democratic and Republican senators and members of Congress.

"It became a very partisan battle and politics, I think, ended up trumping practical common sense. But what I'm hoping to accomplish today is for everybody to focus not just on where we differ, but focus on where we agree, because there actually is some significant agreement on a host of issues."

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, speaking on behalf of Republicans, said that lawmakers should scrap the health-care bill Senate Democrats passed on Christmas Eve and start from scratch.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi countered that it's too late to start over and that it is not an option.

Although the Democrats control both the House and the Senate, the two chambers have been unable to agree on health-care legislation, and Republicans have uniformly opposed it.

Obama's plan to reform health care was dealt another blow following the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown to the Senate, which gave the party enough votes to filibuster bills.

Earlier this week, Obama unveiled his own compromise health-care plan that attempts to bridge the differences between the stalled House and Senate bills. It would not include a publicly run insurance plan, but would allow the government to cap health insurance premiums "if a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified."

It would also require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage and bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more.

The proposal claims it will insure more than 31 million Americans who cannot afford health insurance and reduce the U.S. deficit over the next 10 years by $100 billion.

Obama urges repeal of insurers antitrust exemption

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to strip health insurers of their decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws - hardening his stand against the industry as he tries to revive his stalled health care overhaul.

The White House announced Obama's support for a House bill that would repeal the industry's antitrust exemption, saying that would foster a more competitive marketplace that benefits consumers. The announcement follows Obama's call for new federal rate-setting powers that would give the Health and Human Services department the power to deny excessive increases in health insurance premiums.

"Removing this exemption will allow appropriate enforcement and examination of potential policies that might prove uncompetitve, or might stifle competition," spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Obama has scheduled a health care summit with congressional leaders of both parties for Thursday, in a bid to rescue Democratic health care plans passed by both chambers that stalled after Democrats lost their 60-seat majority in the Senate. On Monday, he unveiled a proposal that sought to bridge the differences between the House and Senate bills.

Health insurance premiums have been climbing even as general inflation remains low. A spate of double-digit increases for people who buy their own policies has infuriated consumers, and the president is trying to tap the outrage to build support for his comprehensive remake.

Bipartisan jobs bill advances past GOP filibuster

WASHINGTON—A bipartisan jobs bill cleared a GOP filibuster on Monday with critical momentum provided by the Senate's newest Republican, Scott Brown of Massachusetts.

The 62-30 tally to advance the measure to a final vote on Wednesday gives both President Barack Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats a much-needed victory -- even though the measure in question is likely to have only a modest boost on hiring.

Brown and four other Republicans broke with GOP leaders to advance the measure. Most other Republicans voted in favor of the filibuster because of strong-arm tactics by Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. The bill is likely to enjoy far broader GOP support on Wednesday when it's put to an up-or-down vote.

The bill featured four provisions that enjoyed sweeping bipartisan support, including a measure exempting businesses hiring the unemployed from Social Security payroll taxes through December and giving them another $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year.

Though employers seldom make hiring decisions based on tax breaks, economist Mark Zandi says the measure could potentially create 250,000 new private-sector jobs. That's less than 4 percent of the 8.4 million jobs lost in the recession.

Obama Details Plan to Expand Health Care to Uninsured

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday laid out for the first time a detailed legislative proposal for overhauling health care. His plan sticks largely to the approach passed by the Senate with unified Democratic support, but it makes concessions to the House version, which was more expensive and would have covered more people.

Mr. Obama’s proposal is the opening act to a week of high drama around health care that will culminate on Thursday, when the president convenes Democrats and Republicans at an all-day televised health care “summit” at Blair House. The White House is hoping the session can jump start the stalled health bill.

“We view this as the opening bid for the health meeting,” Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama’s communications director, told reporters Monday morning, adding, “We took our best shot at bridging the differences.”

The bill is intended to achieve Mr. Obama’s broad goals of expanding coverage to the uninsured while driving down health premiums and imposing what the White House calls “common sense rules of the road” for insurers, including ending the unpopular practice of discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions. The measure is posted on the White House Web site.

The White House projects that the bill would extend coverage to 31 million people who are currently uninsured, at a cost over 10 years of $950 billion — more than the $871 billion the Senate would have spent, but less than the $1.05 trillion for the version passed by the House. The administration estimates that its plan would reduce the federal deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years — and about $1 trillion over the second decade — by cutting spending and reining in waste and fraud.

But the measure has not yet been evaluated by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, and White House officials said they were open to adjusting it if it cost substantially more than they have estimated.

The proposal would provide more money to help cash-strapped states pay for Medicaid over the next four years and eliminate the unpopular “donut hole” coverage gap in the Medicare prescription drug program.

In many respects, Mr. Obama’s measure looks much like the version the Senate passed on Christmas Eve — and indeed, senior White House officials acknowledged on a morning conference call that they had used the Senate bill as a template. But there are several critical differences that appear designed to appeal to House Democrats, who have voiced deep concerns about the Senate measure and its effects on the middle class.

To begin with, Mr. Obama would eliminate a controversial special deal for Nebraska — widely derided by Republicans as the “cornhusker kickback” — that called for the federal government to pay the full cost of a Medicaid expansion for that state. Instead, the White House would help all states absorb the cost of the Medicaid expansion from 2014, when it begins, until 2017.

And while the president adopts the Senate’s proposed excise tax on high-cost, employer sponsored insurance plans, Mr. Obama makes some crucial adjustments based on an agreement reached in January with organized labor leaders, while also trying to avoid the appearance of special treatment for unions. Most crucially, the president would delay imposing the tax until 2018 for all policies, not just for health benefits provided through collectively-bargained union contracts.

Obama to tout housing help Friday in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- President Barack Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.

Obama's move, detailed by aides in advance of his town hall here Friday, is the latest by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession. The downturn is taking an election-year toll on Obama's party as voter frustration builds.

Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.

The policy wrinkle comes during a two-day Western trip with different agendas for the president. He will be back in town-hall mode, a venue that aides say allows him to connect with people and distance himself from the messy process of Washington governing.

The president is also out to help vulnerable senators protect their seats and, in turn, gain as much legislative leverage as he can.

At the town hall and a business speech he will be lending his support to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a top 2010 election target of Republicans.

Obama's political involvement comes as the Democrats' command of the Senate grows shakier, jeopardizing the president's agenda. The tide of change that Obama rode to office is threatening to slam against his own party.

The first day of the trip was all politics. Obama campaigned Thursday for Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado in Denver, then held a $1 million fundraiser for Democrats in Las Vegas.

Reid is one of Obama's allies, despite a flap over the president's tendency to refer to Las Vegas as a symbol of imprudent spending, which has the city's mayor fuming at the president.

For Obama, slowing the foreclosure rate is a key step in the recovery of the overall economy. Millions of people have lost their homes because they couldn't afford the mortgages anymore, and millions lost jobs because of the associated slowdown in new home building.

Reid's state leads the nation in home foreclosures; Las Vegas was the metro area with the highest foreclosure rate in January, with one in every 82 homes receiving such a filing.

The money for the new rescue effort will come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout program, according to a senior administration official who spoke anonymously Thursday night because the formal announcement had not been made.

Economic issues, such as unemployment or reduced income, are expected to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, subprime mortgages were mostly the culprit, but homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.

Obama will cap his Las Vegas trip with a speech to the city's Chamber of Commerce before returning to Washington later Friday.

Obama creates panel to tackle deficit, debt

With several strokes from several pens, President Obama created a fiscal commission this morning that's supposed to begin erasing $14.3 trillion in government red ink.

Well, not so fast. First the panel, headed by Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, must be fleshed out with 16 more members: four appointed by Obama, six by congressional Democrats and six by congressional Republicans (who have yet to say whether they'll play ball).

Then it must spend most of the year coming up with ways to slash the $1.6 trillion federal budget deficit and $14.3 trillion national debt. After that, it must get at least 14 of 18 "yes" votes to send any recommendations to Congress -- a process that guarantees bipartisanship or gridlock.

Obama optimistically called it a "thankless task" in thanking the two men who will take it on. He singled out Simpson, who at 6'7" should be able to take on any tall order, as "flinty" -- an understatement for those who covered the Wyoming lawmaker in the Senate before he abdicated for the ivory towers of Harvard.

"If you look in the dictionary, it says 'flinty' and then it's got Simpson's picture," the president said. Simpson, wearing a wild tie, just grinned.

Obama was more reverential in noting that Bowles, as White House chief of staff for Bill Clinton, helped broker the 1997 deficit reduction law that was followed by four years of budget surpluses.

The two men "are taking on the impossible," Obama said. "They're going to try to restore reason to the fiscal debate."

The panel is Obama's second choice, following the Senate's defeat of a tougher one that could have assured congressional action. This one, like countless others in the past, can be ignored if lawmakers -- even after the 2010 elections -- don't have the nerve to cut spending and, possibly, raise taxes.

Mayor Bloomberg's approval rating at lowest in more than 4 years: poll

Mayor Bloomberg's approval rating has fallen to its lowest point in the last 4-1/2 years - just one of the elected officials to feel the wrath of New York voters.

Voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, support Bloomberg's plan to balance the budget by freezing city workers' wages, but are mixed on his push to trim city services instead of raising taxes.

Just 43% of voters would raise taxes to balance the budget, down 10 points from a year ago.

About 45% would cut services, up 6 points from a year earlier. While 63% of voters would support a wage freeze, 63% are also opposed to laying off city workers.

Bloomberg's proposed budget eliminates raises for most city workers, and lays off 834 of them.

Just 61% of New Yorkers surveyed approve of the job Bloomberg is doing, down from 67% in September and 75% in October 2008.

The last time he was at that level was July 2005, when he had a 60% approval rating heading into his first re-election bid.

Bloomberg won re-election last fall by a 4.4-point margin, and said he was hurt by the same anti-incumbent sentiment that has tossed pols from office around the country.

Quinnipiac pollster Mickey Carroll said the voter dissatisfaction is real - and Bloomberg has suffered from it.

"For Mayor Mike, 60 is the new 70," Carroll said. "The man who cruised through his second term with 70 percent approval ratings should be happy if he can stay above 60 percent in his third term."

Other city leaders don't even fare that well.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has a 44% approval rating after four years of running the Council.

New Controller John Liu also is at 44%, and new Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has 37%.

Controversial schools Chancellor Joel Klein is the only one in the poll more loathed than loved: 39% of voters approve of the job he's doing, and 40% disapprove.

The declines mirror a similar decline for President Obama, whose approval rating in the five boroughs is 72% - an enviable number for other pols, but the lowest since he took office.

Biden and Cheney spar over anti-terrorism policies

WASHINGTON -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney says his successor, Joe Biden, is "dead wrong" about terrorist threats facing the United States. Biden says Cheney is "misinformed."

And the feud goes on.

Highly partisan public skirmishes between President Barack Obama's White House and Cheney have become standard fare. And the back-and-forth on the Sunday morning talk shows did not disappoint.

Biden struck first, declaring that Cheney's attacks on Obama's commitment to fighting al-Qaida ignored the facts.

"We've eliminated 12 of their top 20 people. We have taken out 100 of their associates," said Biden. "They are in fact not able to do anything remotely like they were in the past. They are on the run. I don't know where Dick Cheney has been. Look, it's one thing, again, to criticize. It's another thing to sort of rewrite history. What is he talking about?"

Cheney insisted Biden was "dead wrong" to assert that a fresh Sept. 11-style strike was unlikely, calling a nuclear or biological attack by al-Qaida "the biggest strategic threat the United States faces today."

Cheney then again took on Obama's decision to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In doing so, the former vice president acknowledged he had been at odds with the majority of Bush administration officials on the decision to release prisoners from the military lockup to their home countries when cases against them were determined to be legally untenable.

Obama to deliver commencement at University of Michigan

President Obama last year at the Notre Dame commencement.

Yes, it's cold now, but soon comes the warmth of spring with fresh flowers, thoughts of love, and college commencements -- and presidential college commencement speeches as well.

President Obama will address graduates of the University of Michigan on May 1, school president Mary Sue Coleman announced.

"President Obama has captured the imagination and enthusiasm of many students with his inspiring words of hope and change," Obama said.

In addition to being a fine school, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has seen its fair share of presidential history.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined his vision of "the Great Society" at a Michigan commencement. Four years before that, candidate John F. Kennedy proposed creation of the Peace Corps from the steps of the Michigan Union.

President Gerald Ford, an alumnus who played football for the Wolverines in the 1930s, launched his 1976 election bid at a commencement address in Ann Arbor.

Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush have also delivered Michigan commencements.

Senate banking chief hopeful for financial reform bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd voiced optimism on Thursday that his committee could craft a bipartisan financial reform bill.

Dodd said he would negotiate the financial regulation legislation with Republican Senator Bob Corker, six days after saying bipartisan efforts had failed.

"I am more optimistic than I have been in several weeks that we can develop a consensus bill to bring about the reforms the financial sector so desperately needs to prevent another economic crisis," Dodd said in a statement.

Last Friday, Dodd said he was at an impasse with the top Republican on the banking committee Richard Shelby.

Dodd said he asked Corker to negotiate the bill with him. "We met in my office on Wednesday and given the importance of these issues he agreed," Dodd said.

Dodd, the chief architect on financial regulation in the Senate, introduced a draft reform bill in November. But that bill was met with stiff opposition from Republicans. Dodd then formed bipartisan groups to work on the most controversial parts of the bill, such as oversight of the $450 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market, corporate governance and banking regulation.

Corker had been working with Democratic Senator Mark Warner on new banking rules and a way to resolve large troubled financial firms.

Obama softens stance on Wall Street bonuses

President Barack Obama has praised the bosses of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan as "very savvy" and insisted he does not "begrudge" them their success and wealth, in a significant softening of the White House's attitude towards multimillion-dollar Wall Street bonuses.

Once a staunch critic of outsized pay packets, Obama adopted a strikingly consensual tone when asked this week about a $9m (£5.8m) bonus awarded to Goldman's Lloyd Blankfein and a $17m (£11m) payday granted to JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon.

"I know both those guys, they are very savvy businessmen," Obama said in a interview with Bloomberg's BusinessWeek magazine. "I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system."

Equating the banking bosses with top sports stars, Obama agreed that Dimon's $17m pay packet was "an extraordinary amount of money" in high-street terms, but added: "There are some baseball players who are making more than that and don't get to the World Series either, so I'm shocked by that as well."

Speaking more broadly about Wall Street rewards, Obama said: "I do think that the compensation packages that we've seen over the last decade at least have not matched up always to performance."

But he praised the fact that Goldman and JP Morgan were using long-term share awards, rather than cash, to pay bonuses to their senior executives. He said this "requires proven performance over a certain period of time as opposed to quarterly earnings", adding that it was a "fairer way of measuring CEO success and ultimately will make the performance of American businesses better".

Although the White House denied any changed in direction on the issue of bonuses, Obama's comments were far less strident than his past condemnations of rewards on Wall Street. Shortly after taking office last year, he described bonus payouts by banks as "the height of irresponsibility" and said it was "shameful" that banks were paying "lavish" compensation in the middle of an economic crisis.

Obama sets up task force on childhood obesity

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama signed a memorandum Tuesday establishing a new federal task force to tackle the growing problem of childhood obesity.

The task force, according to the memorandum, will have 90 days to craft a plan encouraging "optimal coordination" between the federal government and both the private and non-profit sectors, according to Obama.

Several Cabinet members, including the secretaries of Interior, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services, will serve on the task force. Its work will complement an aggressive public relations effort led by first lady Michelle Obama to raise public awareness of the issue.

Childhood obesity is "one of the most urgent health issues that we face in this country," the president said at the White House.

"We think that this has enormous promise in improving the health of our children, in giving support to parents to make the kinds of healthy choices that oftentimes are very difficult."

The administration, according to the memo, "is committed to redoubling our efforts to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation through a comprehensive approach that builds on effective strategies, engages families and communities, and mobilizes both public and private sector resources."

The memo notes that almost one-third of American children are overweight or obese -- a rate that has tripled among adolescents and more than doubled in younger children since 1980.

About one-third of Americans born in the year 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lifetime, according to the memo.

Michelle Obama will launch a national campaign against childhood obesity at noon at the White House.

Mayors, doctors and leaders in sports, entertainment and business will join the first lady as she kicks off the campaign. Members of President Obama's Cabinet will also be there.

As part of the campaign the first lady is urging families to turn off the television, drink more water and serve smaller portions.

During a speech last month at a Virginia YMCA, the first lady spoke about health issues caused by childhood obesity.

"We've seen the surge in obesity in this country is nothing short of a public health crisis, and it's threatening our children, it's threatening our families, and more importantly it's threatening the future of this nation," she said. "Higher rates of obesity are directly linked, as you've heard, to higher rates of chronic illnesses like heart disease and cancer and diabetes."

During her speech at the YMCA, Michelle Obama shared strategies she has used with her own children.

She helped her daughters stay active by limiting television watching, she said. The first lady also cut back on meal sizes and sugary drinks, and added more fruits, vegetables and water to their diet.

"It was really very minor stuff. But these small changes resulted in some really significant improvements," Obama said.