Posts Tagged ‘Obama’
Obama administration backs FAA despite uproar (Reuters)
Last Updated on Thursday, 21 April 2011 05:35 Written by admin Thursday, 21 April 2011 05:35
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration has full confidence in the top U.S. aviation security official and his agency following a string of very publicized lapses by air site visitors controllers, which includes 1 this week involving a plane carrying very first woman Michelle Obama.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood advised Reuters on the sidelines of a transportation conference on Wednesday that he supports Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Randy Babbitt “1,000 %.”
He also stated he noticed no want for an independent evaluation of the FAA’s performance beyond the investigations already under way.
LaHood said the FAA has started off nine investigations into embarrassing disclosures of controllers sleeping on the task and other security-connected incidents and is doing work as rapidly as achievable to locate out what went wrong in every scenario.
“We are undertaking a leading-to-bottom evaluation,” LaHood mentioned. “We feel we’re searching into this as completely as we perhaps can.”
On the PBS “NewsHour” program, LaHood mentioned the FAA had fired two controllers who had been on suspension –including 1 who had been sleeping on the work in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“A controller actually manufactured a bed in the management tower, brought a pillow, brought blankets, he’s been fired,” he stated. “We’re not going to sit by and allow that kind of conduct take place in control towers.”
A 2nd controller, in Miami, was violating methods by directing a 737 to fly also closely to a more compact plane to check it, LaHood stated.
Hank Krakowski, the FAA official in cost of day-to-day operations involving the nation’s fifteen,000 air targeted traffic controllers, resigned last week more than the uproar accompanying disclosures of controllers sleeping on the job in several locations, including Washington.
The National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) is also seeking into controller problems and tiredness. The board, which is an independent agency, said on Wednesday it would investigate Monday’s incident involving Michelle Obama’s jet.
Representative John Mica, chairman of the House of Representatives Transportation Committee, told Reuters in a separate interview that he also supported Babbitt, a previous airline pilot and fiscal advisor who took the work in 2009.
“He still has my self-assurance,” Mica said. “I assume he inherited a mess and he’s attempting to kind via it.”
LaHood explained he had not spoken with the White Property about the newest mishap involving a authorities jet carrying Mrs. Obama and Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, on a flight from New York.
NEW POLICY
The first lady’s plane was ordered to abandon its landing tactic to Andrews Air Force Base outdoors Washington soon after controllers at a Virginia radar middle permitted the Boeing 737 to get too close to a military cargo plane flying about 3 miles ahead.
There was a concern that the lumbering Air Force C-17 would not distinct the runway ahead of Mrs Obama’s plane, the following in line on the method route, was ready to land.
The Boeing jet made a sequence of subtle maneuvers before generating a new tactic with out incident. Neither plane was actually in any imminent hazard and both landed securely, the FAA mentioned.
The mistake, known as an operational error, is not unheard of and generally they are corrected simply and rapidly with little, if any, exterior observe.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Jackie Frank)
Tags: Administration, backs, Despite, Obama, Reuters, uproar | Posted under U.S. News | No Comments
Obama denies his global footprint has shrunk – AFP
Last Updated on Friday, 12 November 2010 09:26 Written by admin Friday, 12 November 2010 09:26
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
 Moneycontrol.com |
Obama denies his global footprint has shrunk
AFP SEOUL — US President Barack Obama insisted on Friday that he now had more clout on the world stage — not less — dismissing comments that a mid-term election rout at home had shaved his power abroad. Obama also mused that talking to the Chinese was … South Korea upbeat on resolving US trade deal soon G-20 Refuses to Back US Push on China's Currency Trade-Offs Of Korea-U.S. Impasse |
Obama: Extend tax cuts for middle class, not the wealthy – USA Today
Last Updated on Friday, 12 November 2010 07:07 Written by admin Friday, 12 November 2010 07:07
Nov 12, 2010
Obama: Extend tax cuts for middle class, not the wealthy
06:18 AM
‘;document.write(sclListTop);
‘;document.write(sclListBottom);
President Obama said today his top priority is to extend the George W. Bush tax cuts for middle class Americans, and he will talk with Republicans next week about what to do with the tax rates for wealthier Americans.
“I continue to believe that extending permanently the upper-income tax cuts would be a mistake and that we can’t afford it,” Obama told reporters at the G-20 summit in Seoul, South Korea. “And my hope is, is that somewhere in between there we can find some sort of solution.”
He added: “I’m not going to negotiate here in Seoul. My job is to negotiate back in Washington with Republican and Democratic leaders.”
The tax cuts expire at the end of the year, and are the top priority of the lame duck Congress that meets next week.
Obama said the Bush tax cuts should lapse for individuals who make more than $ 200,000 a year and couples who make more than $ 250,000.
Republicans, including incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, say no one’s taxes should be increased in a bad economy, and that many wealthy people also create jobs.
Obama and aides have said they oppose a “permanent” extension of tax cuts for the wealthy, suggesting he may be open to a temporary extension.
That possibility has angered some of Obama’s liberal supporters.
“The White House and congressional leaders need to say we are scheduling one vote, one vote only, and that vote is on renewing the middle class tax cuts,” said Adam Green, co-founder, Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “And if Republicans want to oppose tax cuts for 98% of Americans, we dare them to and will pummel them politically if they do. That’s how you fight and put Republicans on defense.”
In Seoul, Obama said his top goal is “to make sure that taxes don’t go up for middle-class families” next year, “not only because they need relief after having gone through a horrendous recession, but also because it would be bad for the economy.”
Obama also said tax cut extensions for the wealthy would exacerbate the nation’s budget deficit problems:
I also believe that it would be fiscally irresponsible for us to permanently extend the high-income tax cuts. I think that would be a mistake, particularly when we’ve got our Republican friends saying that their number-one priority is making sure that we deal with our debt and our deficit.
So there may be a whole host of ways to compromise around those issues. I’m not going to negotiate here in Seoul on those issues. But I’ve made very clear what my priorities are.
(Posted by David Jackson)
US, China Stay Firm On Positions As Obama, Hu Meet – Wall Street Journal
Last Updated on Thursday, 11 November 2010 11:26 Written by admin Thursday, 11 November 2010 11:26
SEOUL (Dow Jones)–A key bilateral meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao appeared unlikely to ratchet back tensions between the two countries over global imbalances and foreign exchange policy.
The highly anticipated face-to-face discussion between the two global leaders comes at a time of increasing discord over a range of issues between the two countries. But officials from both the U.S. and China suggested the meeting did not break new ground, with both sides reiterating their concerns about the other’s policies.
A U.S. Treasury official told pool reporters that Obama used the bulk of the meeting …