Tag: President Obama

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President Obama Will Announce His Plans For Lawful Immigration Reform Tomorrow

President Obama will address the nation tomorrow to share his plan to address immigration reform in the US. From his remarks in the video below:

“Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately, Washington has allowed the problem to fester for far too long.

“And so what I’m going to be laying out is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as President to make the system work better, even as I continue to work with Congress to encourage them to get a bipartisan, comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem.”

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Post by The White House.

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White House Announces Coming Executive Order On Immigration Reforms

According to the New York Times, President Obama is preparing to issue executive orders concerning immigration which could affect up to 5 million people currently living in the United States.

One key piece of the order, officials said, will allow many parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents to obtain legal work documents and no longer worry about being discovered, separated from their families and sent away.

That part of Mr. Obama’s plan alone could affect as many as 3.3 million people who have been living in the United States illegally for at least five years, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration research organization in Washington.

But the White House is also considering a stricter policy that would limit the benefits to people who have lived in the country for at least 10 years, or about 2.5 million people.

The executive order by Obama would apparently take into account immigrants with strong family ties and no criminal background, placing those folks on the low end of the priority scale.

Two items of note here:

• Any executive order issued by Obama could be reversed with the stroke of a pen by a new president in 2017.

• The US Senate passed a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform bill last year, but the GOP led House has refused to bring the legislation to a vote.

White House officials say lawyers had been working for months to ensure any action by the president would be “legally unassailable.”

President Obama has publicly stated that he will reverse his executive orders should Congress pass meaningful immigration reform legislation.

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President Obama Announces Ambitious Climate Change Goals In Agreement With China

Photo: Greg Baker

From the AP:

The United States and China unveiled ambitious targets Wednesday to reduce greenhouse gases, aiming to inject fresh momentum into the global fight against climate change ahead of a make-or-break treaty to be finalized next year.

President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would move much faster in cutting pollution, with a goal to reduce by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025, compared with 2005 levels. Earlier in his presidency, Obama set a goal to cut emissions by 17 percent by 2020.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country’s emissions are still growing as it builds new coal plants, didn’t commit to cut emissions by a specific amount. Rather, he set a target for China’s emission to peak by 2030, or earlier if possible. He also pledged to increase the share of energy that China will derive from sources other than fossil fuels.

The unexpected breakthrough by the world’s two largest polluters reflected both nations’ desire to display a united front on climate change, blunting arguments from developing countries that have balked at demands that they get serious about cutting emissions. Yet it was unclear how feasible it would be for either country to meet their goals, and Obama’s pledge was sure to confront tough opposition from ascendant Republicans in Congress.

“This is, in my view, the most important bilateral climate announcement ever,” said David Sandalow, formerly a top environmental official at the White House and the Energy Department. “It sends the signal the two largest emitters in the world are working together to address this problem.”

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President Obama Says The Internet Should Be Open And Free

President Obama today urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take up the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality, the principle that says Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all internet traffic equally.

From USA Today:

In the statement, the president noted that “the FCC is an independent agency, and ultimately this decision is theirs alone.”

Obama urged an “explicit ban” on “paid prioritization,” agreements in which large content providers pay Internet companies for faster delivery. This involves such profitable, high-traffic sites such as Netflix, Amazon and YouTube.

He also called for banning the blocking of certain websites and the “throttling” of Internet service.

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President Obama To Nominate Loretta Lynch For US Attorney General

On Saturday, President Obama will nominate Brooklyn federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch for US Attorney General, replacing outgoing AG Eric Holder.

From Reuters:

President Barack Obama will nominate Brooklyn federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch to replace the retiring Eric Holder as U.S. attorney general and if confirmed, she would become the first black woman to serve in the post, the White House said on Friday.

The 55-year-old North Carolina native and Harvard-trained lawyer has deep experience in both civil rights and corporate fraud cases.

Lynch is known for a low-key personality and stirred little controversy during two tenures as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Her nomination requires Senate confirmation. The Senate twice previously has voted to confirm her to federal prosecutor jobs, the last time in 2010.

Bolding is mine.

This should be an easy confirmation in that the Senate has already confirmed her twice before.

Or will the now GOP controlled Senate decide to get unnecessarily political with this confirmation?

We shall see…

Two of Ms. Lynch’s cases to note:

• Lynch first gained attention for her work prosecuting members of the New York City Police Department for the 1997 beating and sexual assault of a Haitian immigrant with a broom handle. The case became a national symbol of police brutality.

• Lynch has led the prosecution of Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican congressman from Staten Island, for alleged tax fraud. Even under indictment, Grimm was reelected to the House this week.

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Poll Drops and President Obama’s Approval Rating

From Media Matters:

According to the cumulative ratings posted daily at Real Clear Politics, which averages together an array of national polls to come up with Obama’s composite job approval rating, the president’s approval on January 1, 2014 stood at 42.6 percent. The president’s approval rating on October 30, was 42 percent.

So over the course of ten months, and based on more than one hundred poll results in 2014, Obama’s approval rating declined less than one point.

One point.

I can safely say Obama is the only president in U.S. history whose approval rating dropped a single digit over a ten-month stretch and it was described as having “plummeted.”

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President Obama: “Equal Protection Clause Does Guarantee Same-Sex Marriage”

President Obama was asked by Jeffrey Toobin, writing for the New Yorker, to name the best Supreme Court ruling during his tenure as president so far.

His answer? The recent SCOTUS decision to not review same-sex marriage appeals which allowed marriage equality to move forward one state at a time.

“Ultimately, I think the Equal Protection Clause does guarantee same-sex marriage in all fifty states,” he said. “But, as you know, courts have always been strategic. There have been times where the stars were aligned and the Court, like a thunderbolt, issues a ruling like Brown v. Board of Education, but that’s pretty rare.

“And, given the direction of society, for the Court to have allowed the process to play out the way it has may make the shift less controversial and more lasting.”

When asked if he would consider a judgeship after the presidency: “When I got out of law school, I chose not to clerk. Partly because I was an older student, but partly because I don’t think I have the temperament to sit in a chamber and write opinions.”