WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will
call on Monday for a one-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for
families earning less than $250,000 a year, seeking to put
Republicans on the defensive and reinforce his campaign mantra
of being a middle-class champion.

Obama’s proposal is unlikely to sway his opponents in
Congress, who have argued consistently that the Bush tax cuts
should be extended for everyone, including higher earners.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iraq questions the continued presence of large numbers of Americans on its soil, U.S. lawmakers were warned on Thursday, even as the State Department plans to shrink the size of its mission by almost a third over the next 16 months.

Government experts told Congress that Iraq makes life difficult for the embassy in ways large and small, signaling ambivalence toward relations with Washington at a time when critics fear that the country is moving closer to Iran.

, June 25 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack
Obama accused his November election rival Mitt Romney on Monday
of having outsourced jobs to India and China and sought to
convince voters that the former private equity executive is out
of touch with their economic concerns.

In remarks to a rally in New Hampshire, the Democratic
president seized on a Washington Post report that Bain Capital,
the firm that Romney founded and led, had helped U.S. companies
become “pioneers” in shipping work overseas.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, beset by a faltering economic recovery five months before he seeks re-election, said on Friday European leaders must act urgently to resolve the region’s financial crisis and stem the threat of recession.

Obama said decisions about how to solve the euro zone crisis were fundamentally in the hands of Europe’s leaders and their political commitment would be a “strong step.” He was speaking a week after a dismal U.S. jobs report heightened concerns about the impact of Europe’s crisis on U.S. growth.

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has
been battered by bad news dimming the outlook for his
re-election, but he might find hope in an unlikely place: the
aisles of Wal-Mart.

Female shoppers at the big-box superstore are viewed as
crucial swing voters in the closely fought 2012 election, and a
pair of recent focus groups suggest that Obama’s attempts to
portray Republican rival Mitt Romney as a ruthless corporate
raider might bear fruit.

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama
said on Friday that European leaders face an “urgent need to
act” to resolve the region’s financial crisis as the threat of a
renewed recession there spells dangers for an anemic U.S.
recovery five months before elections.

Speaking a week after a dismal U.S. jobs report, Obama said
decisions about how to solve the euro zone crisis are
fundamentally in the hands of Europe’s leaders and that showing
political commitment will be a “strong step.”

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama told his supporters on Friday he could break Washington’s gridlock in a second term, and pushed Congress to enact his “to-do list” prescriptions to heal the economy in spite of it being an election year.

At a political fundraiser in Minneapolis, Obama said that if he won re-election in November, Republicans in Congress who now oppose his every move would be more inclined to work with him.

, June 1 (Reuters) – President Barack
Obama said on Friday the U.S. economy was still fighting its way
back to full health and was not yet growing or creating jobs
fast enough, blaming high gasoline prices and headwinds from
Europe’s economic crisis for the lag.

“The economy is growing again but it’s not growing as fast
as we want it to grow. Our businesses have created almost 4.3
million new jobs over the last 27 months, but as we learned in
today’s job report, we are still not creating them as fast as we
want,” he told several hundred workers and supporters at a
Honeywell factory in Minnesota.

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama,
hoping to spur U.S. innovation in the explosive field of mobile
communications, on Wednesday ordered all major federal agencies
to make many more of their services available on mobile phones
within the next year.

“Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime,
anywhere, and on any device,” Obama said in a statement.

JOPLIN, Missouri (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Monday praised the community spirit that helped a small town overcome devastating loss as he marked the anniversary of the most deadly U.S. tornado in six decades.

Recalling the kindness of strangers shown Joplin, Missouri, after the tornado killed 161 people a few hours after Joplin High School seniors had attended their graduation ceremony, Obama said the outpouring of help was a source of national inspiration.