The Rich and Taxes – Clinton’s lament
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took what appeared to be a coded swipe at Republican refusals to consider raising taxes in U.S. debt limit talks, saying on Tuesday that all leaders must make hard decisions to put their countries on the right track.
Clinton, a Democratic candidate for president in 2008 but now “out of politics” as top diplomat for her one-time rival President Barack Obama, sounded pointedly political as she recounted a meeting with an unnamed president facing serious fiscal challenges.
“Often times leaders are struggling to get the political support they need to make the hard decisions,” Clinton said at meeting on government transparency at the State Department.
“I met with a president of a country who’d been trying so hard to raise the tax revenues of his country and basically the rich of his country refused to pay anything for schools, for hospitals, for infrastructure. They just said no,” Clinton said.
“And this president is trying so hard because he knows that he will never be able to lift his people out of poverty, put them on the right track, give them opportunities, have an open opportunity society, unless he can deliver results.”
Clinton’s comments came as Obama and U.S. lawmakers wrestle over spending cuts and tax hikes to reach a formula that will allow a deeply divided Congress to increase the government’s borrowing authority by Aug. 2.
Republicans, under pressure from fiscal conservatives in their party, have rejected any tax hikes, complicating efforts to make a deal to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.
“Deceased” bin Laden opens up slot on FBI’s 10 most wanted list
The FBI’s list of “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” has a new opening now that Osama bin Laden is dead.
The bureau wasted no time at all slapping the word “Deceased” in big white letters on a red background at the bottom of his photograph less than 12 hours after President Barack Obama announced to the world during a dramatic late-night statement.
The al Qaeda leader, killed in a U.S. helicopter raid on a mansion compound near the Pakistani capital Islamabad, was among those on the “Most Wanted Terrorists” list when then-President George W. Bush went to FBI headquarters for its unveiling after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Bin Laden already had been on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list and the U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to his capture. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to say whether any of the reward would be paid out.
He was added in 1999 after the al Qaeda bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and in Kenya a year earlier. Bin Laden has been the only person on both lists, which appear on the FBI’s Web site.
An FBI spokesman said bin Laden will be replaced. FBI field offices will submit possible candidates to headquarters for the fugitives list, a process in which FBI Director Robert Mueller gives final approval.
Here’s the FBI’s criteria:
Washington Extra – Changing hats
The national security musical chairs was made official today by President Barack Obama.
On stage was a daisy-chain of Washington insiders who have worn many hats over the years and criss-crossed different administrations. They all report to Commander-in-Chief Obama, who by comparison appeared a relative newcomer.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a former senator and first lady, was there to welcome back into the fold Ryan Crocker, who was chosen to be ambassador to Afghanistan.
Crocker, a former ambassador to Iraq, had worked closely with General David Petraeus, who was nominated to be CIA director to replace Leon Panetta.
Panetta — a former congressman, White House chief of staff, and director of the Office of Management and Budget — was chosen for Secretary of Defense to replace Robert Gates, a former CIA director.
“Given the pivotal period that we’re entering, I felt that it was absolutely critical that we had this team in place,” Obama said.
If everyone remembers which building to go to on the first day of work, it’ll be a good start.
With this game of musical chairs this is just another example of that change we were supposed to believe in.
Clinton doesn’t want Iran taking ‘one iota of credit’ for Mideast revolutions
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says when it comes to the pro-democracy movements sweeping through the Middle East give credit where credit is due. And that means not to Iran.
The United States has long been at loggerheads with Iran over its nuclear program — the West suspects Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, Iran says it is trying to provide energy for its people.
Now the United States, which sees Iran as a major threat to the region, is also suspicious that Tehran is trying to capitalize on the Middle East revolutions.
“We see Iran trying to take advantage of what is going on, which is the height of hypocrisy, but that has never stopped the regime before,” Clinton said. “And what they are doing is trying to somehow connect their failed revolution in 1979 with the movements for aspiration and change that are now moving through the region.”
The United States has a lot of friends in the region, she said at the State Department in a conversation with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger moderated by Charlie Rose which will be broadcast later Wednesday on PBS.
“What we are saying both publicly and privately is don’t do anything that gives any ammunition, so to speak, to the Iranians,” Clinton said.
“Because we don’t want the Iranians to be given one iota of credit for what is a non-Iranian phenomenon. It is an Egyptian phenomenon, a Tunisian phenomenon, a Libyan phenomenon.”
Riiiiight. And Russia “invaded” Georgia. Might she be a pathological liar?
Obama defends Libya policy during hectic New York day
President Barack Obama followed up his speech to the nation defending his Libya policy on Monday night with a whirlwind visit to New York City. He explained the policy in three network news interviews (ABC, NBC, CBS) — at the city’s famed Museum of Natural History.
Then he made a quick visit to a kids’ science fair, joking to the high school students that they are smarter than he is, before dedicating the new Ronald H. Brown U.S. Mission to the United Nations building.
There his Libya strategy was applauded by a roomful of diplomats and endorsed by a Democratic predecessor, ex-President Bill Clinton, the husband of his secretary of state.
“I had to apologize to President Clinton before we walked out because he never sees his wife,” Obama joked as he began his remarks. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was flying back from her latest overseas mission — a quick trip to London for an international conference on Libya.
Bill Clinton got big applause at the dedication of the new U.S. Mission to the UN when he said Brown, who was his commerce secretary and died in a plane crash while traveling to the Balkans, would have approved of the action in Libya.
“He would be very proud that Barack Obama became president of the United States, and very proud of you, Mr. President, for what you are doing in Libya, with the international community.”
Mohammed Albdel-Rahman Shalgam, who was Libya’s UN ambassador until he spoke out against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and all of the ambassadors from UN Security Council member countries were in the audience.
Washington Extra – Consequential choice
Truth or Consequences?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s message on Libya’s ceasefire declaration was basically: she’ll believe it when she sees it.
“We are going to be not responsive or impressed by words. We would have to see actions on the ground. And that is not yet at all clear,” she said.
President Barack Obama put it in starker terms: “Muammar Gaddafi has a choice.”
The Libyan government must comply with the U.N. resolution or face the repercussions, Obama said. “Let me be clear, these terms are not negotiable.”
And if Gaddafi doesn’t comply? “The international community will impose consequences, and the resolution will be enforced through military action,” Obama said.
He also sought to reassure an American public weary of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that any military action on Libya would not include U.S. boots on the ground. Of course that also told Gaddafi where the limits were.
Washington Extra – Say it ain’t so
The White House says it knows that just telling Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to go, doesn’t make it so.
Gaddafi “has clearly shown that he doesn’t intend to leave just because we said so,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
The head of intelligence told it like it is, Carney said. “Director (James) Clapper stated what is true, that Colonel Gaddafi is hunkering down, we all know that.”
It appears the Gaddafi family would agree. “We will never ever give up. We will never ever surrender,” one of the Libyan leader’s sons told Reuters.
In fact, Clapper says Gaddafi’s forces are better-equipped than the rebels and will prevail over the long run. (Not words the administration wants to hear).
The State Department took some action. “We are suspending our relationships with the existing Libyan Embassy, so we expect them to end operations as the embassy of Libya,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. Note that the Libyan ambassador has already denounced Gaddafi.
What that means, Carney said, is, “we will not accept representatives put forward by Muammar Gaddafi in Washington, we will not recognize them as representing Libya.”
Washington Extra – Women of power
Were the cosmic pranksters having a laugh when the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day happened to fall on the same date as Fat Tuesday?
Washington showed off its woman power. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard expressed their delight at meeting on such an auspicious day.
Britain’s former first lady Cherie Blair was also at the State Department for the 2011 International Women of Courage Awards ceremony.
And the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, started her remarks with high praise for Hillary Clinton: “She is one heck of a Secretary of State. She has been an amazing gift, not just to our country but to the rest of the world.”
Clearly bygones are bygones when it comes to the woman who tried to beat her husband in the 2008 presidential race.
Looking ahead to the 2012 election, very few women are mentioned as potential presidential candidates. Republican Sarah Palin is the one who usually pops up in the mix of who might try to challenge President Barack Obama.
Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party favorite, told CNN today that she will make a decision early this summer.
Washington Extra – Oil up
How high is it? A 2-1/2 year high.
How high can it go? No one knows.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu expressed what is on many minds – that the oil price jump can hurt the economy. “We have a very delicate recovery going on and an increase in prices will make that vulnerable.”
Even with all options on the table, U.S. officials expressed great caution about imposing no-fly zones over Libya. “I think we are a long way from making that decision,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
Some Republicans saw the oil price scare as an opportunity to push again for expanding off-shore oil drilling. “To end this dangerous over-reliance on oil imports, we must find more domestic resources, improve our efficiency and improve international cooperation,” Senator Dick Lugar said.
We had the chance at the Reuters finance summit to ask CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler what a regulator does when a market takes a sharp turn, like oil has in response to Libya.
He asks the surveillance staff to do a briefing. “And I ask questions about whether there’s any concentration, and whether the surveillance staff is seeing any manipulation or trade practice violations, and get into a dialogue about what the exchanges are seeing.”
Tweet like an Egyptian — Hillary Clinton tries it out
Young Egyptians, who famously used Internet services like Facebook and Twitter to launch their recent revolution, turned their focus to Hillary Clinton on Wednesday. They peppered the top U.S. diplomat with skeptical questions about longtime U.S. support for former President Hosni Mubarak and what many felt was its slow embrace of the movement to topple him.
Clinton, taking a personal spin at what she has called “21st Century Statecraft”, fielded a selection of some 6,500 questions that young Egyptians posed through Twitter, Facebook and the Arabic-language website www.masrawy.com — and many reflected deep suspicions about the U.S. role in Egypt.
“My question is: Does America really support democracy? If yes indeed, why the U.S. was late in its support of the Egyptian revolution?” one questioner asked Clinton.
“The attitude of the U.S. during the Egyptian revolution was to support the Egyptian regime first. Then, when the revolution turned successful, the U.S. switched sides and supported the Egyptian youth and the youth revolution, and the U.S. said that we learn from Egyptian youth. Why was such delay?” another wondered.
Clinton gamely took them on, stressing that the United States used its influence in Egypt to help press for a peaceful resolution to the crisis and the launch of a reform process that would lead to “an Egyptian model of democracy.”
“So I think that we were walking a balance, because we wanted to be sure that our messages did not push anyone into doing something that we disagreed with, namely violence, which we tried to, in every way possible, prevent,” Clinton said.
Young people think they are invulnerable. They do not understand that if we had moved in too fast it could have triggered a response not only from Mubarak & company but also from other Dictators such as Iran.
When we end Bush-era tax cuts (we will) just on the $250,000-a-year set, after 2012, we raise only $700 billion over a decade (today’s Wall street journal FYI)-less than half of this years deficit spending!! Also, the deficit projection for the next 10 years are $10 Trillion and cutting even 4 Trillion means we end up 125% (see Greece) of GDP-probably best case too (falling revenue everywhere)!There is no substitute for deep spending cuts for years-wish there was! Republicans are far from perfect (understatement), but they’re the party of less government! Big government is the problem, not the solution! Honesty is the best policy and time for change!