WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House, while advancing an aggressive public relations campaign to highlight the damaging effects of $85 billion in automatic spending cuts, is largely resigned to the fact that they will go into effect on Friday.

With no deal expected in the few days remaining until the cuts kick in, President Barack Obama is pursuing a strategy aimed at generating outrage among Americans that he hopes will force Republicans to come to the negotiating table and agree to his demand for higher taxes after the cuts go into place.

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – The White House, while
advancing an aggressive public relations campaign to highlight
the damaging effects of $85 billion in automatic spending cuts,
is largely resigned to the fact that they will go into effect on
Friday.

With no deal expected in the few days remaining until the
cuts kick in, President Barack Obama is pursuing a strategy
aimed at generating outrage among Americans that he hopes will
force Republicans to come to the negotiating table and agree to
his demand for higher taxes after the cuts go into place.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said he told President Barack Obama in a meeting that Japan would act calmly in its row with China over tiny islands in the East China Sea claimed by both Asian countries.

“I explained that we have always been dealing with this issue … in a calm manner,” he said through a translator, while sitting next to Obama in the White House Oval Office.

WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama
intends to nominate air quality expert Gina McCarthy to lead the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and nuclear physicist
Ernest Moniz to head the Department of Energy as early as this
week, according to a source familiar with the process.

McCarthy would likely become the face of Obama’s latest push
to fight climate change. Currently the assistant administrator
for the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, she would replace EPA
chief Lisa Jackson, who stepped down this month.

DECATUR, Georgia (Reuters) – President Barack Obama turned his State of the Union roadshow to the topic of education on Thursday with a trip to Georgia, where he touted proposals to provide preschool access to all four-year-olds across America.

Obama proposed in his annual address to Congress on Tuesday that the federal government work with states to improve and broaden early childhood education to make the United States more competitive worldwide.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama got help from a 102-year-old woman on Tuesday in his quest to make voting easier across the United States.

The president, whose ad-libbed comment about long voting lines the night he won re-election has turned into a policy push, announced during his State of the Union address the launch of a bipartisan commission to make voting easier.

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama
challenged a divided Congress on Tuesday to raise the minimum
wage and make government work for “the many” in a State of the
Union speech focused on economic fairness for the middle class
as the Democrat takes a more assertive tack in his second term.

Looking to use momentum from his re-election victory last
November, Obama vowed to turn much of his attention toward
economic troubles like the 7.9 percent unemployment rate, an
issue that dogged his first four years as president.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama sketched an ambitious second-term agenda in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, challenging a divided Congress to back his proposals to create middle-class jobs and overhaul gun and immigration laws.

Obama entered the well of the House of Representatives for his address to a joint session of Congress at a time when he is again locked in a bitter battle with Republicans over taxes and spending, and this tussle cast a heavy shadow over his appearance.

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will
give his State of the Union address on Tuesday with one eye on
the political calendar as time ticks down on his bid to advance
an agenda that will help shape his White House legacy.

Just three months after winning re-election on Nov. 6, the
Democratic president has a narrow window to push through policy
priorities on the economy, immigration reform, and gun control.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will give his State of the Union address on Tuesday with one eye on the political calendar as time ticks down on his bid to advance an agenda that will help shape his White House legacy.

Just three months after winning re-election on November 6, the Democratic president has a narrow window to push through policy priorities on the economy, immigration reform, and gun control.