Obamalog

January 18, 2012

1.     The Obama administrtion denied a permit for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, leaving the door open for the builder to reapply this year:

January 9, 2012

1.     President Obama announced that chief of staff William Daley is quitting and heading home, capping a short tenure that had been expected to last until Election Day--Obama budget chief Jack Lew will take over one of the most consuming jobs in America:

January 1, 2012     Iran said that its scientists have produced the country's first nuclear fuel rod and that its navy has test-fired a medium-range surface-to-air missile--Iran had said that it would be forced to manufacture the rods because it is barred from buying them on foreign markets:

December 26, 2011     According to an Associated Press survey of leading economists, the U.S. economy will grow faster in 2012--if it isn't knocked off the rails by upheavals in Europe:

• Still, the economists say, unemployment will barely fall from the current 8.6% rate by the time President Obama runs for re-election in November--the three dozen private, corporate, and acadenic economists expect the economy to grow 2.4% in 2012, while in 2011, it likely grew less than two percent.

December 27, 2011

December 18, 2011     A day after the Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation to extend a payroll tax cut for two months, House Republicans made clear that they would not support the measure:

December 12, 2011     President Obama heralded the end of the divisive Iraq war and warned Iraq's neighbors that the U.S. would remain a major player in the region, even as it brings its troops home:

December 5, 2011     Senate Democrats offered a new proposal to extend the payroll tax holiday, a strategy designed to attract Republicans who have been cool to continuing a tax break for working Americans that expires December 31st:

Novenber 28, 2011    

1.     Senate Democrats introduced legislation to extend and expand an expiring payroll-tax cut, setting the stage for a showdown with Republicans who are almost certain to reject the Democrats' proposal for paying for the cut:

November 21, 2011

1.     The failure of Congress' super-committee--the bipartisan panel that was supposed to cut at least $1.2 trillion from looming federal deficits--will trigger a fresh series of partisan clashes over taxes, spending, Social Security, and a host of other fiscal matters, clashes likely to begin immediately:

November 14, 2011     The Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the 2010 healthcare overhaul law, President Obama's signature legislative achievement, setting the stage for oral arguments by March and a decision in late June as the 2012 presidential campaign enters its crucial final months: