WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will project lower deficits and request billions of dollars for infrastructure and jobs in his 2013 budget, laying out a plan he will sell to voters in November, despite Republicans criticism of rising federal debts.

Obama’s budget proposal, which he will submit to Congress on Monday, will project a $901 billion deficit for fiscal 2013, a sharp drop from the $1.33 trillion funding gap that is predicted for this year, a senior administration official said on Friday.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will host China’s likely next leader, Vice President Xi Jinping, at the White House on February 14, in a visit set to boost Xi’s credentials as the man who will steer Beijing’s close but quarrelsome ties with Washington.

Obama and Xi will discuss “a broad range of bilateral, regional, and global issues,” the White House said in a statement on Monday announcing the visit, when Xi will be hosted by Vice President Joe Biden.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will release his 2013 budget proposal on February 13, the White House said on Monday, delaying by a week the outline of his spending priorities as he gears up for an election-year campaign dominated by taxes, jobs and the U.S. deficit.

Congress is free to ignore Democrat Obama’s suggestions and Republicans, who control the U.S. House of Representatives, are likely to declare it dead on arrival.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, offering a first glimpse of next week’s State of the Union address, made clear Saturday that the speech will deliver a starkly partisan election-year call for a “return to American values.”

“I’m going to lay out a blueprint for an American economy that’s built to last,” Obama said in a campaign video sent to supporters. “And most importantly, a return to American values of fairness for all, and responsibility from all.”

ORLANDO (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Thursday ordered the streamlining of applications for foreign tourist visas to the United States, focused on increasingly affluent Chinese and Brazilian visitors, in an effort to boost tourism and create jobs.

Obama announced the modest package of reforms at the Disney World theme park in Florida, a state whose economy is heavily dependent on the tourist industry.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When President Barack Obama unveils his annual budget next month, the blueprint will reveal a lot about his re-election strategy but probably little about the spending and tax policies the Congress will adopt in the coming year.

Obama’s budget for the 2013 fiscal year will be declared “dead on arrival” in a gridlocked Congress, where lawmakers who control the U.S. purse strings are focused squarely on their own campaigns and the contest for the White House in November 2012.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, on the attack against Republicans, visited his new consumer financial protection agency chief on Friday to praise the agency’s mission while urging Congress to extend a payroll tax cut through the end of the year.

On the offensive in the first week of the presidential and congressional election year, Obama has sought to use the financial watchdog agency he created to underpin his campaign platform as a champion of the middle class running against a gridlocked Congress.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For President Barack Obama, it was a political victory that has given his 2012 re-election campaign an identity: champion of the middle class.

In facing down Republicans over a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans, Obama managed to cast conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives as symbols of the dysfunction that often has paralyzed a divided Congress.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States hopes to prevent and defuse conflicts by getting more women seated at negotiating tables around the world, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.

Clinton said a new U.S. plan, signed by President Barack Obama, would help train and give more voice to female community members who often have a strong sense of how to address dangers and strains in conflict zones.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Monday pledged that Washington would remain a strong partner for Iraq as U.S. troops exit by year-end, and played down the risk this departure creates a power vacuum Iran can exploit.

The withdrawal of almost all U.S. troops from Iraq by December 31 has created uncertainty at a time the region remains roiled by the Arab Spring, and amid fear Syrian instability could spread sectarian strife into neighboring Iraq.