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Senate Republicans emerged from a lengthy meeting at the White House Thursday saying the president had indicated he was at least willing to talk about changes to his signature healthcare reform law. -snip- Among areas the president indicated a willingness to talk about are a repeal of the medical device tax, a proposal with bipartisan support, and how full-time versus part-time employment are defined in the law, which could provide relief to some businesses. -snip- A plan from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to raise the debt limit and reopen the government would roll back the medical device tax. Collins’s plan...

President Barack Obama spoke with House Speaker John Boehner on Friday but did not wholly accept the House Republican plan to open government, raise the debt ceiling and open budget talks, sources said. -snip- Senior Republican sources say Obama is amenable to changes to mandatory and discretionary spending, but needs Republicans to commit to increasing governmental revenue.

Senate Republicans met with President Obama for more than 90 minutes on Friday, as lawmakers search for a breakthrough agreement that could end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. Like House Republicans the night before, the GOP senators departed the White House without speaking to reporters. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tweeted shortly after the meeting that it was a "very good discussion." "Nothing obvious decided, but hope," he tweeted. "I'm surprised there may be progress."

House Republicans were awaiting a response Friday from the Obama administration to a proposal to lift the debt ceiling, end the government shutdown and set up six weeks of budget talks. -snip- Republicans are also aiming to replace steep sequester spending cuts with savings in other areas.

House Republican leaders are waiting to hear back from the White House after GOP staff sent over an informal proposal Thursday night that would raise the debt ceiling and create a process for reopening the government. Aides say President Barack Obama and Republicans are haggling over a deal that would lead to an end to the two-week-old government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling in exchange for a clear path to serious negotiations about spending and other fiscal issues. -snip- many Republicans are expected to still vote against such a deal. GOP leaders will likely need some Democratic votes to...

House Republicans, and notably Ted Cruz in the Senate, led the fight against Obama's signature health care law. They made defunding or delaying Obamacare a demand in legislation the House repeatedly sent to the Democratic-controlled Senate, only to see it die there. Apparently, it's now dead in the House, too. "That's currently off the table now," Republican Rep. James Lankford said in an interview on "The Lead with Jake Tapper." "That's obviously not going to happen at this point." Lankford did say that Republicans will now instead ask for a one-year delay on penalties for those who don't sign up...

House Republicans say they'll go for a temporary extension of the debt ceiling in exchange for a "real commitment" from President Obama and Democrats to talk about the nation's pressing problems. At a news conference Thursday morning, House Speaker John Boehner said Republicans are ready to "move half way -- half way to what (Obama's) demanded." [snip] - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/boehner-will-lift-debt-limit-now-if-obama-will-talk-later#sthash.vzfaeZe4.dpuf

House Speaker John A. Boehner said Thursday he’ll offer President Obama the short-term debt increase the White House has demanded in exchange for a framework that will open up negotiations on spending and broader budget issues — setting up a potential repeat of the 2011 debt talks. After conferring with fellow Republicans, Mr. Boehner said he will appoint conferees to negotiate a broader budget and will give Mr. Obama immediate debt authority, but said it’s possible all sides will be back in the exact same place weeks from now if they don’t strike a deal. He also declined to say...

Offering Obama a deal to reopen government. "It's time for leadership; time to move half-way to what Obama wants in order to have conversation. Ryan: Pleased to reopen talks by giving Obama some of what he wants. We cannot waste anymore time. We offer a temporary rise in the debt ceiling in return for a broad-ranging talk on the issues in a divided government. Rep. McCarthy: We come with the idea of solving the problems. We want a budget. We want to avoid any more problems with the debt. Boehner: nothing is on or off the table. I think Obama...

House conservatives are discussing a two-step plan outlined by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to lift the debt ceiling and reopen the government long enough for Congress to pass long-term entitlement reforms. Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, presented the idea on Wednesday afternoon at a meeting of the conservative Republican Study Committee. Lawmakers leaving the confab said the influential group had not reached a consensus position on the debt ceiling, or an end to the government shutdown. The plan appeared to be a more detailed version of a proposal that Ryan made Wednesday in an op/ed he penned in The...

To say that Cruz is not held in high regard by Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill is an understatement. ...That lack of strategy certainly rankled one influential Republican member of Congress, who bemoaned President Obama’s disinterest in rescuing the GOP from itself to a bunch of reporters last Thursday, speaking on the condition that he not be quoted by name: “[L]ook, Cruz and company lost a lot of influence in the House when he gave them exactly what they asked for and [Senate Republicans] couldn’t produce what they promised. Most of us thought they never were going to be...

U.S. Representative Dennis Ross, a Florida Republican, said he would support a broad spending deal that didn’t include changes to the health-care law, becoming the first Tea Party-backed House lawmaker to publicly back off the fight that has shut down the government for five days. Ross, ranked among the House’s most conservative members by both the Club for Growth and the American Conservative Union, said he shifted his position because the shutdown hasn’t resulted in changes to the Affordable Care Act, which started Oct. 1, the same day government funding ran out. The shutdown also could hurt the party, he...

NEW YORK (CNN Money)-- The head of Barilla pasta issued a new apology and said he will meet with gay groups, adding he "has much to learn" about the evolution of the family. Guido Barilla, president of Barilla, said on an Italian radio program last week that he wouldn't feature same-sex couples in his company's commercials because he prefers the "traditional" family. The company quickly issued a statement apologizing for the comment. Now Barilla has posted a video of him apologizing in English on its Facebook page. "Through my entire life I have always respected every person I've met, including...

RINO Scott Riggell has surrendered. Calls for clean CR.

GOP senators tell me House Republicans may pass a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government into early October. “It’d be a short-term, clean CR,” says one senator. “It’d fund the government for a week or so and keep us talking,” says another senator. “I think that’s where they’re moving.” Conservatives sources in both chambers say their bosses are increasingly open to the idea. An extra week of debate, they argue, may enable conservatives to have more say over the final legislative product. House Republican aides say the leadership is still considering several options and would not confirm the report....

...some parents objected to the trips and wondered why the school would tour a mosque but not a Christian church or a Jewish synagogue. ...There was one page on the sayings of Jesus, two-thirds of a page on the sayings of Gandhi, and five pages on Muhammed. ...The author also stated that minorities conquered by the Muslims were treated better than minorities living in the United States.

Maybe Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin really did discuss the idea of putting Syrian chemical weapons under international control last week on the sidelines of the G20 conference. Putin sure doesn’t care that Obama’s taking credit for the proposal, or that the administration is posturing like a Mob enforcer. “The only reason why we are seeing this proposal,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney, “is because of the U.S. threat of military action.” Right, Putin is laughing to himself. Whatever. If Obama wants to sell it like a Christmas miracle on Pennsylvania Avenue that’s fine with Putin, because Putin won....

At some point, rank-and-file conservative activists will have to confront an inconvenient reality.  The Republicans in Washington are not just dumb or spineless – they are the problem.  They don’t share our values and seek to undermine our beliefs.  The only way that will change is if we return the favor and thwart their political careers.Earlier this evening, Speaker John Boehner announced his grand plans for fighting Obamacare in the budget.  He will pass a short-term continuing resolution (CR) until some time in December, grouping the new budget deadline with the debt ceiling date, and create another grand end-of-year...

The State Department has evacuated non-emergency U.S. government personnel from the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, and has warned Americans to defer all non-essential travel to Pakistan due to 'specific threats' to that mission, a U.S. official said. In the travel warning issued Thursday night, the State Department advised Americans to defer all nonessential travel to Pakistan. “The presence of several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups poses a potential danger to U.S. citizens throughout Pakistan,” the statement read. “The Government of Pakistan maintains heightened security measures, particularly in the major cities. Threat reporting indicates terrorist groups continue to seek opportunities...

The United States told its citizens in Yemen on Tuesday to leave immediately and ordered the evacuation of non-essential U.S. government staff because of the threat of terrorist attacks. The State Department announcement was the latest warning since Washington issued a worldwide travel alert on Friday that prompted the closure of several Western embassies in Yemen and U.S. missions across the Middle East and Africa. Based on intelligence including intercepted communication between al Qaeda leaders, Washington has warned of possible attacks in the region. Some officials pinpointed Yemen, home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the...