Politics

Secret Service Investigating How Couple Crashed White House State Dinner Secret Service agents failed to follow established protocols that should have prevented a Washington-area couple from crashing a state dinner at the White House, the director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, said.

Feinberg Stumping Helps White House Skirt Public Outcry on Executives' Pay Kenneth Feinberg’s decision to slash executive pay at taxpayer-rescued companies was “sheer stupidity,” says Home Depot Inc. co-founder Kenneth Langone. Not so, says compensation analyst Paul Hodgson: If anything, Feinberg is a “pay kitten” soft on Wall Street.

Obama to Offer 17% Emissions-Cut Goal at UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen President Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen for climate-change talks, where he’ll offer to cut U.S. emissions about 17 percent by 2020 in an effort to help break a deadlock between rich and poor nations.

Obama Will Lay Out Afghan War Strategy in Speech at West Point on Dec. 1 President Barack Obama will lay out his strategy for the war in Afghanistan on Dec. 1 in a nationwide address from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Health Insurance, Finance Lobbyists Visited White House, Records Show President Barack Obama and top administration officials met at the White House this year with lobbyists and advocacy groups on both sides of the health-care overhaul debate, records show.

Health-Care Bill Faces Traffic Jam as Senate Weighs Debt, Tax Legislation Raising the U.S. government’s $12.2 trillion borrowing limit tops an agenda of must-pass legislation that imperils Senate Democrats’ ability to pass a health-care bill this year.

Obama Vows to `Finish Job' in Afghanistan as Decision on Troop Level Nears President Barack Obama is preparing to lay out for the American public his strategy for the Afghanistan war next week and said he intends to “finish the job” there.

Obama, Singh Pledge Deeper Economic Cooperation Amid India's `Rising' Role President Barack Obama and India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vowed to deepen trade and investment ties between their two nations as the Indian leader was honored at the White House with a formal state visit.

Clinton Makes Women's Economic Power, Personal Security Key Policy Goals When Hillary Clinton heard that an 8-year-old Saudi girl had been sold to a man in his 50s to pay off her father’s debt, the U.S. secretary of state telephoned Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal to protest.

White House, AARP Seek to Capitalize on Senate Health-Care Vote The Obama administration and two major lobbying groups are seeking to spur momentum for a health- care overhaul after the U.S. Senate cleared the way for a floor debate that is likely to extend to Christmas or beyond.

States May Try `Plan B' Carbon Market to Help Revenue as U.S. Bill Falters Cash-strapped states in search of new revenue may establish their own “cap-and-trade” program for greenhouse gases covering more than half the U.S. economy if Congress doesn’t set up a federal emissions market.

Democrats Show Signs of Disunity as Senate Health-Care Bill Debate Looms Democrats who united last week to bring a sweeping health-care plan to the U.S. Senate floor still need to settle disagreements in their own ranks to pass President Barack Obama’s top domestic initiative.

Senate Begins Debate Next Month on $848 Billion U.S. Health-Care Overhaul Democrats united to bring a sweeping health-care plan to the U.S. Senate floor in a party-line vote that kept Republicans from blocking debate on President Barack Obama’s top domestic initiative.

Tax on High-Income Americans May Be Needed for Afghan War Cost, Levin Says Higher-income Americans should be taxed to pay for more troops sent to Afghanistan and NATO should provide half of the new soldiers, said Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Paterson Prods N.Y. Lawmakers With Letter Seeking $3.2 Billion Budget Deal New York Governor David Paterson, in a letter to lawmakers, said education and health-care expenditures must be cut as part of any plan to close this fiscal year’s $3.2 billion budget deficit.

Clinton Sees Encouraging Karzai Signs as U.S. Plots Afghanistan War Plan Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she is encouraged by Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s promises to fight corruption and build up Afghan security forces to replace U.S. troops by the end of his new five-year term.