White House Week

This week, President Obama unveiled a proposal to make two years of community college free for responsible students across America.

By 2020, an estimated 35 percent of job openings will require at least a bachelor's degree, and 30 percent will require some college or an associate's degree. For more details on President Obama's announcement click here. 

Vice President Biden presided over the ceremonial swearing in over the 114th Congress earlier this week. Standing in the Old Senate Chamber, Vice President Biden -- who served as a senator himself for more than 30 years -- swore in senators both new and old, and met with their families. Check out his thoughts on this responsibility in the video below:

Facts from the Democrats

I love infographics, and this latest set that I received in an email from the Democrats certainly provided food for thought!

Democrats

White House Week

The White House

Earlier in the week, President Obama met with congressional leaders about Syria. President Obama said he is asking Congress for hearings and a vote on taking military action, and emphasized that the plan developed by the Joint Chiefs does not involve boots on the ground.

On Wednesday, President Obama arrived in Stockholm, ahead of the G20 Summit in Russia. On Thursday and Friday, he attended meetings and functions at the G20 Summit. You can read his schedule here.

Former President Bill Clinton spoke about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act in Little Rock, Arkansas earlier in the week. You can watch his remarks below.

White House Week

This week, President Obama delivered a speech from Knox College, Illinois about his vision of growing the economy from the middle-out and how he plans to rebuild the cornerstones of middle-class security.

The cornerstones of his plan are: 1) job security with good wages; 2) a good education; 3) a home to call your own; 4) a secure retirement; 5) affordable health care; 6) more opportunity and less inequality.

You can watch the speech below and also find out more information here. 



There was good news on student loans, as Senators from both sides of the aisle came up with a plan to reduce the interest rates on student loans. 11 million borrowers will save money once it becomes law.

Find out more about the plan here. 

Make sure you check out the White House White Board, an interactive feature that is explaining how the Senate's bipartisan immigration reform bill would work if it were signed into law. 

October at the White House

Meeting of Congressional leaders

White House South Side

Valerie Jarrett and Vice President Biden

Michelle Obama at a Secret Service picnic

The President delivers his remarks regarding the Nobel Peace Prize

Classified Briefing

Congressional Leaders

The President and Vice President

With Girl Scouts USA

The Vice President, President and Secretary Clinton

Cappy, Bo's brother celebrates his birthday

The President's staff watch him deliver remarks.

Images belong to The White House Flickr.

Wilson admonished

The House has voted to admonish Rep. Joe Wilson over his "You lie" outburst to President Barack Obama during the president's health care speech to Congress last week.

The 240-179 vote on the resolution of disapproval reflected the sharp partisan divide over the issue. Democrats insisted that the South Carolina Republican take responsibility for what they said was a serious breach of decorum. Republicans characterized the vote as a political stunt.
Wilson himself would not back down on his position that he owed the House no apology. Surrounded by Republican supporters, Wilson said Obama had "graciously accepted my apology and the issue is over."

Here is the vote tally:
Most Democrats -- 233 -- supported the resolution, while most Republicans -- 167 -- voted against it. Here are the other members of Congress who didn't vote with the bulk of their party (10 additional members did not vote at all):

DEMS WHO VOTED NO
Arcuri
Delahunt
Giffords
Hinchey
Hodes
Kucinich
Maffei
Massa
McDermott
Moore (WI)
Taylor
Teague

REPUBLICANS WHO VOTED YES
Cao
Emerson
Flake
Inglis
Jones
Petri
Rohrabacher

DEMS WHO VOTED 'PRESENT'
Engel
Foster
Frank (MA)
Shea-Porter
Skelton

Majority Leader Hoyer's response:

Democrats plan to admonish Wilson

WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders are planning to vote early next week to admonish Republican Rep. Joe Wilson if he does not apologize on the House floor for yelling "You lie!" at President Barack Obama.

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said party leaders decided at a meeting Thursday that they will likely move forward with a resolution of disapproval against Wilson absent another apology.

Wilson apologized to Obama after the incident on Wednesday, but he has refused requests to apologize to the House. Wilson's office says the congressman considers his initial apology sufficient.

Democrats say the insult clearly violated House rules of decorum.

President Obama to deliver healthcare speech to Congress

US President Barack Obama is to give a major address on healthcare reform to a joint session of Congress on 9 September. President Obama will use the speech to regain the initiative on healthcare, after a summer dominated by opponents.

The House of Representatives looks set to pass a bill, but US senators have yet to agree on the details of reform.

Although Mr Obama has given a number of speeches on healthcare reform at town hall meetings throughout the US, his address to Congress will be his most high-profile intervention in the healthcare debate since he entered the White House.

Mr Obama made a strategic decision to let lawmakers take the lead on drafting a healthcare bill, and urged each house of congress to pass a bill before the beginning of August.

But negotiations in the Senate stalled, and although Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives struck a deal with moderate Democrats, paving the way for passage of a bill, neither chamber managed to come up with a bill before the beginning of the August recess.
During the recess, the airwaves were dominated by angry scenes at healthcare town hall meetings, as opponents of the bill expressed their discontent with some of the proposals for reform.

Lawmakers are set to return to work on 8 September.
Some 46 million people in America currently do not have health insurance, and rising healthcare costs are a major contributing factor to America's spiralling budget deficit.

But there is disagreement about how to go about reforming the system.
The deal the Democrats in the House of Representatives reportedly reached would mandate all Americans to take out health insurance, with subsidies for the less well-off paid for by a tax on families earning more than $350,000 a year.

The House bill would also offer Americans who do not get coverage through their employer the chance to join a publicly-run scheme.

But in the Senate negotiations have stalled, with moderate senators expressing opposition to both the tax and the public plan proposed by the House.
Both chambers need to agree on a bill before it can become law.

C/O: BBC