Romney announces Utah Senate bid

WASHINGTON - Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, announced on Friday he would run for a U.S. Senate seat in Utah, confirming months of speculation about a return to national politics.

"I've decided to run for United States Senate because I've decided I can help bring Utah's values and Utah's lessons to Washington," Romney, who is seeking to replace retiring Senator Orrin Hatch, said in a video posted to Twitter.

Much of Romney's video focused on Utah values versus the Washington culture.

"Utah has a lot to teach the politicians in Washington," he said. "... Utah welcomes legal immigrants from around the world. Washington sends immigrants a message of exclusion. And on Utah's Capitol Hill, people treat one another with respect."

Trump has called for building a wall on the country's border with Mexico and limiting legal migration.

Romney, the son of former Michigan Governor George Romney, served as governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. Before that, he helped found the buyout firm Bain Capital and gained prominence after stepping in to lead the organizing committee for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics after a bribery scandal.

Romney first sought the presidency in 2008 but lost the Republican nomination to Arizona Senator John McCain. Four years later, Romney won the party's nomination but was defeated by incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama.

Romney is the front-runner in the November election in Republican-dominated Utah. According to the Federal Election Commission, the field includes five other people, including a Salt Lake City councilwoman and a Marine Corps veteran.

The race will be Romney's second for the Senate. In 1994, he failed to oust Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy from his seat in Massachusetts.

Hatch, 83, the most senior Republican in the Senate, said last month he would not seek an eighth term. Trump had urged Hatch to run again in an apparent attempt to head off Romney.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Romney excoriated Trump as a "fraud" who was "playing the American public for suckers." Trump responded that Romney had "choked like a dog" in his race against Obama.

However, after Trump won the presidency in November 2016, he briefly considered whether to pick Romney as his secretary of state.

Trump had lobbied Hatch to run for re-election in 2018 in what was viewed as an effort to prevent Romney from getting into the Senate. Trump and Romney spoke in January after Hatch announced his retirement, a White House official said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who had been Romney's vice presidential running mate in 2012, said in a statement on Friday that he was thrilled with Romney's decision to run for Senate.

"His campaign has my unwavering support and the people of Utah will be getting an accomplished and decent man when they make him their next Senator," Ryan said.

Republicans hold 52 of the Senate's 100 seats but that majority is not always big enough to pass the Trump agenda.

Romney had successful treatment for prostate cancer in 2017, a source close to him said in January.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

FACTBOX: Republicans cut side deals to push through US Senate tax bill

WASHINGTON -- US Senate Republicans made last-minute changes to their tax bill to secure enough votes to pass the sweeping legislation on Saturday and move on to negotiations this week on a final measure with Republicans in the House of Representatives.

The deals enabled leadership to get 4 wavering Republican senators on board with the legislation by addressing issues such as deductions for state and local property taxes and the tax treatment of so-called pass-through enterprises.

Republicans also agreed to changes to help pay for the deals, including higher tax rates on the repatriation of US corporate profits held overseas.

Following are some of the changes:

* STATE AND LOCAL PROPERTY TAXES: Senator Susan Collins got Senate Republican leaders to include a federal deduction for up to $10,000 in state and local property taxes in the legislation, which eliminates a similar deduction for state and local income and sales taxes.

The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, or JCT, estimates that the change will mean the loss of an additional $148 billion in federal revenue over the next decade, compared with a legislative proposal approved earlier by the Senate Budget Committee.

* PASS-THROUGHS: Under pressure from Senators Ron Johnson and Steve Daines, Senate Republican leaders increased to 23 percent from 17.4 percent a deduction for the owners of pass-through enterprises including small businesses, S-corporations, partnerships and sole proprietorships.

JCT estimated revenue loss versus earlier legislative proposal: $114 billion.

* FULL EXPENSING: Senator Jeff Flake, who had been a holdout over deficit concerns, agreed to vote "yes" after Republican leaders did away with an abrupt end to the full business expensing of capital investments after five years. Instead, the bill phases out full expensing in 20 percent increments over 4 years, beginning in year 6. Flake said Congress would not have been able to suddenly eliminate full expensing and that benefit would have been left to bleed red ink for years to come.

JCT revenue loss estimate versus earlier legislative proposal: $34 billion.

* MEDICAL EXPENSES: Collins also added language to reduce the threshold for deducting unreimbursed medical expenses for 2 years to 7.5 percent of household income from 10 percent.

JCT estimated revenue loss versus earlier legislative proposal: $4.6 billion.

* RETIREMENT SAVINGS: Collins persuaded Republican leaders to retain catch-up contributions to retirement accounts for church, charity, school and public employees.

No immediate JCT revenue impact estimate.

* INDIVIDUAL ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX: Republicans rescinded an earlier provision to repeal the individual AMT but increased exemption amounts and phase-out thresholds to make the tax less onerous.

JCT estimated revenue gain versus earlier legislative proposal: $133 billion over a decade.

* REPATRIATION: Senate Republicans increased tax rates on the repatriation of US corporate profits held overseas to 14.5 percent for liquid assets and 7.5 percent for illiquid holdings, up from 10 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

JCT estimated revenue gain versus earlier legislative proposal: $113 billion.

* CORPORATE ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX: Republicans decided to retain this tax, after initially proposing its repeal.

JCT estimated revenue gain versus earlier legislative proposal: $40.3 billion.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Obama wants US to declare war on Islamic State

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama sent Congress his text on Wednesday for an authorization to use military force in the campaign against Islamic State, limiting operations against the militants to three years and barring use of U.S. troops in "enduring offensive ground combat."

According to the text, Obama also wants to repeal the 2002 measure that authorized the Iraq war. But his proposal leaves in place a 2001 authorization, passed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, for a campaign against al Qaeda and its affiliates.

Obama said he remained committed to working with Congress to "refine, and ultimately repeal" the 2001 AUMF. He said enacting a measure specific to the campaign against Islamic State fighters could serve as a model for revamping the 2001 measure.

"I have directed a comprehensive and sustained strategy to degrade and defeat ISIL," Obama wrote in a letter accompanying the draft, using an acronym for the Islamist militant group.

"Local forces, rather than U.S. military forces, should be deployed to conduct such operations," he said.

The White House said Obama would make a statement on his request at 3:30 PM EST (2030 GMT).

Obama's proposal must be approved by both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, where it is expected to provoke strong debate between Democrats, who are generally wary of another Middle East war, and Republicans, many of whom have been pushing for stronger measures against the militant fighters.

Obama has defended his authority to lead an international coalition against Islamic State since Aug. 8 when U.S. fighter jets began attacking the jihadists in Iraq. But he has faced criticism for failing to seek the backing of Congress, where some accuse him of breaching his constitutional authority.

Facing pressure to let lawmakers weigh in on an issue as important as the deployment of troops and chastened by elections that handed power in Congress to Republicans, he said in November he would request formal authorization for the use of military force (AUMF).

Secretary of State John Kerry, who spent nearly three decades in the U.S. Senate, said in a statement it was important that the administration work with Congress to secure its passage. The coalition fighting Islamic State will be stronger if it is passed, he said.

"The world needs to hear that the United States speaks with one voice in the fight against ISIL," he said. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Shutdown averted for now as Congress extends US funding

WASHINGTON -- The US Senate on Saturday gave itself four additional days to pass a $1.1 trillion federal spending bill, easing the threat of a government shutdown that was looming at midnight.

Amid deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats over how to proceed on funding government through September, feuding lawmakers unanimously passed a measure that extends funds to late Wednesday.

The extension was the second passed by Congress in as many days as leaders struggle to finalize the spending bill and bid farewell to the 113th Congress, one of the least productive sessions in modern history.

The funding has already been approved by the House of Representatives. It faces a procedural test vote at 1:00 am (0600 GMT) Sunday, and is then expected to pass the Senate on Monday and head to President Barack Obama's desk for his signature.

The battle over the bill has been a bruising one.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had expressed hope that a deal would be reached for a final vote Friday on funding nearly all federal operations through the end of fiscal 2015.

But that collapsed when conservative Republicans like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, furious that the legislation failed to roll back Obama's recent unilateral immigration action to shield millions from deportation, refused to cooperate.

"Regrettably, a small group of Senate Republicans has determined that it is in their political interests to hold this legislation hostage," Reid told the chamber at the start of a rare Saturday session.

- Obama's immigration order -

Cruz, widely accused by Democrats of causing last year's 16-day government shutdown, appeared in no hurry to ease passage of the spending bill Friday, giving a fiery floor speech attacking congressional leaders for their failure to stand up to Obama's immigration order.

"Before the United States Senate is a bill that does nothing, absolutely nothing to stop President Obama's illegal and unconstitutional amnesty," Cruz said.

The political tempest triggered by Cruz and fellow conservative Senator Mike Lee may have backfired for the Republican Party.

It enabled Reid to use a procedural maneuver to allow votes on up to 20 of Obama's nominees, some of them controversial, including the president's pick for surgeon general.

The Senate was grinding through a slog of nomination-related votes Saturday, and Republicans did not shy away from criticizing Cruz's tactics.

"It will have the end result of causing nominees whom I think are not well-qualified to be confirmed, so I don't understand the approach that he is taking, and I think it's very unfortunate and counterproductive," Senate Republican Susan Collins said, according to The New York Times.

"This reminds me very much of the shutdown last year, where the strategy made absolutely no sense and was counterproductive."

The spending bill funds all government agencies through September except the Department of Homeland Security, which is tasked with carrying out Obama's immigration order.

DHS funding would last until February, setting up another immigration-related fight but this time in a Congress under full Republican control.

Otherwise the bill leaves Obama's executive order intact.

It contains $1.014 trillion in discretionary domestic spending, plus $64 billion in military overseas contingency operations in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The measure provides $5 billion for operations to counter the Islamic State extremist group, and $5.4 billion in emergency funding was secured to respond to the Ebola crisis -- slightly less than the $6 billion requested by Obama.

Progressive Democrats have expressed outrage about the 1,603-page bill because of two policy riders inserted late in the negotiation process, including one that rolls back key financial regulations on Wall Street banks.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Did torture really help US find al Qaeda chief?

WASHINGTON - Hailed as a major success in the U.S. "war on terror," the capture of Indonesian cleric Hambali if often touted by the U.S. intelligence community as evidence that harsh interrogation produces results.

But the U.S. Senate report on CIA interrogation methods released this week suggests that more mundane steps - email monitoring, a tip off from a CIA source and help from Thailand - may have been what brought down Hambali, head of militant group Jemaah Islamiah.

"Frankly, we stumbled onto Hambali," the report quoted the head of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterterrorism center in southeast Asia as saying in 2005.

Conflicting stories about the trail of clues that led investigators to Hambali illustrate one of the main disputes over the U.S. interrogation of terror suspects: Awful as it was, did it actually work?

Senior CIA officials told Congress, the White House and the Justice Department for years that a snippet of information from the brutal interrogation of senior al Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed led to Hambali's capture.

Accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Mohammed was repeatedly subjected to some of the CIA's harshest methods after he was captured. He was waterboarded - a technique intended to simulate drowning - 183 times, and was slapped, grabbed and deprived of sleep, according to the Senate report.

Mohammed told CIA interrogators in early 2003 about a plan to have a former resident of Baltimore, Majid Khan, send $50,000 to southeast Asia to fund al Qaeda attacks.

The spy agency says that information helped investigators uncover a network of terror suspects in southeast Asia that led to Hambali himself. Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, was detained in Ayutthaya, Thailand, in 2003.

Described by former President George W. Bush as "one of the world's most lethal terrorists," Hambali is suspected of having been involved in plotting the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of a nightclub in Bali that killed more than 200 people. He has been held at the Guantanamo U.S. military prison in Cuba without trial since 2006.

TORTURE PLAYED "NO ROLE"

Although the CIA frequently presented the capture of Hambali as evidence that torture did produce valuable intelligence, the Senate report said that the harsh treatment of Mohammed, known as KSM, did not help catch Hambali.

In 2003, Hambali was among Asia's most wanted men. The main go-between for the Jemaah Islamiah group of Southeast Asia and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, Hambali was considered the only man from the region to win a place at al Qaeda's top table.

His capture was seen as a coup for the Bush administration and Southeast Asian governments fearful of Jemaah Islamiah's ability to launch attacks across the region.

The CIA gave "inaccurate representations regarding the capture of Hambali" in 18 documents sent to policymakers and the Department of Justice between 2003 and 2009, said the report, compiled by the Democratic majority on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"A review of CIA operational cables and other records found that information obtained from KSM during and after the use of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques played no role in the capture of Hambali," the report said.

Before Mohammed gave up information about Khan during interrogation, the CIA was already assembling leads that would eventually bring it and Thai investigators to Hambali, the report said.

Some clues came from monitoring emails between al Qaeda and Khan, who was later captured in Pakistan. He gave Pakistani investigators details about al Qaeda's links to Southeast Asia that eventually pointed to Hambali, the report said.

In contrast to the CIA's use of torture, Pakistani interrogators pried information from Khan with a soft questioning technique known as "rapport building," the report said.

A CIA source contributed to the capture of Hambali by identifying an associate of Khan in Thailand who gave information to Thai authorities that brought them closer to the Indonesian militant, the Senate document said.

After Hambali's capture, Thailand also claimed credit.

"We received tipoffs from local people that there were strange-looking people staying around there so we checked their background and passports and realized that they were the people we were looking for," then Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in 2003.

Former intelligence officials disputed the Senate committee's assertions that the CIA interrogation program played no role in the hunt for Hambali.

"The report errs in not recognizing that a piece of information can be useful and even critical to reaching an analytic conclusion, even if there also are other pieces of information that were at least as useful," said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA analyst.

They said the United States never would have tracked down and killed bin Laden in 2011 without information acquired in the interrogation program, although the Senate committee strongly refutes that.

The committee said the CIA misrepresented how it got useful information from a detainee that helped locate bin Laden.

The terror suspect, Hassan Ghul, did tell his captors the name of Bin Laden's courier as the CIA reported but he did so before undergoing torture, not during it, the report said

Hambali, the nom-de-guerre of Indonesian-born Riduan Isamuddin, was believed to be in the process of organizing a follow-up to the Sept. 11 attacks, possibly involving airplanes, but this time directed at the West Coast of the United States, former CIA officials say.

Michael Hayden, the ex-director of the CIA, told Fox News on Wednesday that the agency is still using information gleaned from harsh interrogations, which have since been banned.

"These interrogations of all the detainees gave us kind of a Home Depot-like storage of information on al Qaeda on which we relied, well we are still relying on it today."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Retired Fil-Am major general denounces CIA torture

REDWOOD CITY, California – The Filipino-American army general who wrote the official 2004 report on the abuses in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, sounded off on a scathing report on torture that was released by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

For the first time since the controversial report on the CIA’s torture of detainees was released, retired U.S. Army Major General Antonio Taguba admonished what he called "indefensible" acts cited in the report.

Here is the full transcription of Gen. Taguba’s statement, given Wednesday in an exclusive phone interview with Balitang America:

"It’s difficult to defend the indefensible, especially coming from senior government leaders who intentionally and purposely misled, deceived and lied about the torture program to the American people and Congress.

These are the same officials that took an oath, assumed their offices to defend the country and obey the Constitution of the United States to the best of their ability, to which they failed hugely in doing so.

The Senate’s report is one of several reports that have condemned torture, identified the CIA whose mission was not originally detaining and torturing detainees — because their mission was for espionage, selecting intelligence and defending our country.

So they extended that mission, thinking and believing that they had the legal authority when members of the executive offices of the White House, in stark violation of Constitution, the Geneva Convention, and laws of warfare to which the United States is a signatory.

The Senate’s report is one of many since the revelation of Abu Ghraib in 2004. The Senate Armed Services Committee report in 2008 had several findings and conclusions that the military, the CIA, and other element agencies committed the illegal detainee abuse, torture, and inhumane treatment.

However, the question that still requires answers is that who and what individuals will be held accountable for violating the rule of law? Even if they are not prosecuted, their reputation, character and identify will be known and they will not be able to hide from the truth.”

Gen. Taguba said his 2004 report played a major role in this latest report on what he calls violations of the rule of law.

Read more from Balitang America.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

CIA interrogation techniques 'amounting to torture' - report

WASHINGTON - The CIA misled the White House and public about its torture of detainees after the Sept. 11 attacks and acted more brutally and pervasively than it acknowledged, a U.S. Senate report said on Tuesday, drawing calls to prosecute American officials.

The Senate Intelligence Committee's five-year review of 6.3 million pages of CIA documents concluded that the intelligence agency failed to disrupt a single plot despite torturing al Qaeda and other captives in secret facilities worldwide between 2002 and 2006, when George W. Bush was president.

The CIA interrogation program was devised by two agency contractors to squeeze information from suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The interrogations took place in countries that included Afghanistan, Poland and Romania.

Some captives were deprived of sleep for up to 180 hours, at times with their hands shackled above their heads, and the report recorded cases of simulated drowning or "waterboarding" and sexual abuse, including "rectal feeding" or "rectal hydration" without any documented medical need.

It described one secret CIA prison, its location not identified, as a "dungeon" where detainees were kept in total darkness and shackled in isolated cells, bombarded with loud noise and given only a bucket in which to relieve themselves.

Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, speaking on the Senate floor after releasing the report, said the techniques in some cases amounted to torture and that "the CIA's actions, a decade ago, are a stain on our values, and on our history."

The U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, said the report revealed a "clear policy orchestrated at a high level within the Bush administration" and called for prosecution of U.S. officials.

Civil rights advocates also called for accountability.

"Unless this important truth-telling process leads to prosecution of the officials responsible, torture will remain a 'policy option' for future presidents," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch in New York.

The CIA dismissed the findings, saying its interrogations secured valuable information. Many Republicans criticized the decision by Democratic lawmakers to release the report, which was put together by the committee's Democratic majority, saying it would put Americans at risk.

The report found the techniques used were "far more brutal" than the CIA told the public or policymakers. Before the report's release, the United States boosted security at its military and diplomatic facilities abroad.

The report said the CIA had tried to justify its use of torture by giving examples of what it called "thwarted" terrorist plots and suspect captures, but the "representations were inaccurate and contradicted by the CIA's own records."

CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS UNLIKELY

Despite the calls for accountability, there seemed little prospect of criminal prosecutions of those who implemented the program, or measures to hold politicians who authorized it accountable.

A law enforcement official said the U.S. Justice Department had no plans to conduct any investigation of the CIA's actions.

Intelligence officials said that at one point, the Justice Department, through a specially designated prosecutor, conducted a criminal investigation into around 20 cases of allegations the CIA abused detainees. However, that investigation was closed without charges being filed.

President Barack Obama signaled he was more interested in focusing on the future than reopening a dark and contentious period from the country's recent past.

While in office Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney, and other Bush administration officials said the "harsh interrogation" program was justified by results that included halting plots and catching terrorists.

Bush ended many aspects of the program before leaving office, and Obama swiftly banned "enhanced interrogation techniques" after his 2009 inauguration.

FAULTY INTELLIGENCE

The report says CIA records showed that seven of 39 CIA detainees subjected to harsh interrogations produced no intelligence at all while in CIA custody. Others made up stories, "resulting in faulty intelligence."

The CIA had failed to use adequately trained and vetted personnel, the report said. The two psychologists contracted to set up the program and run it had no experience in interrogation or specialized knowledge of al Qaeda.

The report accuses the CIA of failing to thoroughly brief Bush about the interrogation techniques. Senate investigators said official records suggested that while the CIA planned to brief Bush in 2002, the White House subsequently told the agency Bush was not getting the briefing.

Investigators say Bush was not fully briefed on the program until 2006, around the time he shut it down, and expressed discomfort at learning the full details. In his memoirs Bush said he had been briefed on the program.

Republican Senator John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam in the 1960s, said Americans were entitled to the truth about the program and its disclosure that such methods were ineffective.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

After midterms, race for the White House is on

Let the campaign begin.

Fresh off the resounding Republican win in midterm elections, all eyes -- and political minds -- in Washington are now narrowing in on the 2016 presidential election.

For the Democrats, smarting from a sound Republican beating, Hillary Clinton -- the former secretary of state and former first lady -- is not officially a candidate, but is the presumptive nominee.

For the Republicans, things are not as simple. A dozen names are in play, but no one has emerged as a favorite.

Voters will elect the 45th president of the United States of November 8, 2016. The two main parties will stage their primaries in the early part of that year.

But the months ahead are crucial -- candidacies will be announced, rallies will be held, horse-trading will happen behind closed doors... and campaign funds will be raised.

While Tuesday's big win for Republicans is a major slap in the face to Democrats, who lost control of the Senate, it is not necessarily bad news for Clinton if she decides to make another run for the White House, eight years after losing to Barack Obama in the primaries.

The Republicans about to reign supreme on Capitol Hill will provide the 67-year-old Clinton with strong fodder for her eventual campaign platform.

The former senator from New York will seek to exploit the internal rifts in a Republican party still struggling to assimilate a feisty Tea Party contingent with little desire to stay in line with veteran leaders.

Republican Senator Rand Paul, one of those weighing a White House run, did not wait long to launch the first salvo in the White House battle.

"Tuesday's biggest loser is @HillaryClinton," Paul said on Twitter soon after the Republican victory was clear.

The Kentucky senator then posted a series of photos on Facebook showing Clinton stumping for Democratic candidates who lost on Tuesday -- with the hashtag #HillarysLosers.

Will she or won't she?

"After a historic rebuke in yesterday’s midterms, the Obama-Clinton policies will be on the ballot again in 2016," the Republican National Committee said in a research memo listing how the former rivals are inextricably linked.

The RNC went on to argue that the numbers don't add up for sending another Democrat to the White House.

Indeed, rarely does one party win three consecutive terms at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In the past 60 years, it has only happened once, when George H.W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan.

Clinton is expected to make her intentions known in early 2015. While her actions seem to telegraph her plans to run, some doubt remains.

The wife of former president Bill Clinton has said she plans to enjoy her new role of grandmother -- her daughter Chelsea gave birth to Charlotte in September -- before making any decisions on her future in politics.

If she decides not to run, the Democrats could find themselves in a tough spot, as she has so dominated the 2016 conversation for the past year.

Vice President Joe Biden, who is five years older than Clinton, has left his options open and made it clear he would like another crack at the White House, but Washington insiders think it's unlikely.

Tuesday's shock election of a Republican governor in Maryland has weakened the chances of outgoing Democrat Martin O'Malley, another hopeful.

Jeb Bush on the fence
On the Republican side, rarely has a race been as open.

First question mark: former Florida governor Jeb Bush, the son of George H.W. Bush and the brother of George W. Bush. After 41 and 43, the Bush family could see president number 45.

But Jeb -- more of a centrist than his brother -- is hesitant.

Earlier this year, his mother Barbara made known her mixed feelings about political dynasties -- the Kennedys, the Bushes, the Clintons.

"This is a great country. And if we can't find more than two or three families to run for higher office, that's silly," she said.

Since then, she hasn't said much.

A bunch of other names are in the mix: Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, and a host of governors -- Chris Christie (New Jersey), Rick Perry (Texas), Scott Walker (Wisconsin) and Bobby Jindal (Louisiana).

Former Arkansas governor Mick Huckabee is also regularly listed as a possible candidate.

Mitt Romney, who lost the Republican primary to Senator John McCain in 2008 and the election to Obama in 2012, has resurfaced.

Romney has initially ruled out another run, but lately has been more vague in his public comments on the matter.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama digs in even as he vows to work with Republicans

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to work with Republican lawmakers after their midterm election win but warned he would act without them to protect his core agenda, starting with immigration reform.

The US leader stopped short of accepting direct responsibility for his Democratic party's colossal defeat at the hands of opponents who successfully turned the election into a repudiation of his policies.

The GOP snatched control of the Senate, tightened its grip on the House of Representatives and won key Democrat governorships, in an election Obama admitted was "a good night" for Republicans.

Democrats suffering from the whiplash of their overwhelming defeat were left to contemplate what went wrong.

Some Republicans nevertheless acknowledged they need to find avenues of cooperation with Obama so they are seen as capable congressional stewards ahead of the 2016 presidential race.

In a lengthy White House news conference, Obama insisted he was "eager to work with the new Congress to make the next two years as productive as possible."

Both sides have pointed to the passage of tax reform and approval of two stalled international trade agreements as potential areas of cooperation between the camps.

Obama said he would also ask the new Congress for help in battling the spread of Ebola in West Africa and beyond, and to endorse US-led military action gainst jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

But, in the absence of a strong legislative base for the remaining two years of his presidency, Obama said he would press ahead with plans on immigration reform.

He said he would take executive action this year, without waiting to see whether the new Congress makes progress toward a comprehensive bipartisan immigration reform bill.

"My executive actions not only do not prevent them from passing a law that supersedes those actions, but should be a spur for them to actually try to get something done," Obama insisted.

'Red flag' on immigration

That sets up a potential firestorm with congressional leaders, notably incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who just minutes before Obama spoke expressed an eagerness to cooperate with the president but warned against such a unilateral move.

Taking executive action on immigration, without votes in Congress, would be "like waving a red flag in front of a bull," McConnell told reporters in Kentucky.

Despite Obama insisting he was optimistic about America's future, exit polls Tuesday confirmed the pessimistic mood that several Republican winners had capitalized on during the campaign.

Voters are convinced the nation is headed in the wrong direction and are skeptical of the abilities of the president and his Democrats to turn things around.

At least one senior Democratic official, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's chief of staff, suggested Obama came up short in encouraging voters to back his own party.

Instead of providing a direct mea culpa for the election losses, Obama noted that Americans of all stripes have grown frustrated with Washington, "and as president they rightly hold me accountable to do more to make it work properly."

"Obviously Republicans had a good night and they deserve credit for running good campaigns," Obama said. "Beyond that I'll leave it to you and professional pundits to pick through the results."

The tone was a world away from president Bill Clinton's acceptance of "responsibility" the day after his Democrats lost control of both chambers of Congress 20 years ago.

While Obama said he would "measure ideas not whether they're from Republicans or Democrats but whether they work for the American people," he reiterated he would use his veto powers on any bill that repealed his landmark health care reform that he insists has begun to work well for millions.

"There certainly are some lines I'm going to draw. Repeal of the law I won't sign," he said.

"Efforts that would take away health care from the 10 million people who now have it and the millions more who are eligible to get it, we're not going to support."

But he acknowledged he would study Republican proposals to make "responsible changes" to the law.

Obama's occasionally aloof 70-minute press conference earned a swift rebuke from the Republican National Committee which suggested the president was "in denial" about the election.

"Today, in word and tone he refused to take responsibility or even express humility," RNC chairman Reince Priebus said.

"He seemed to suggest the only ideas he's willing to listen to are his own, old, failed ones," he added.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Tough road ahead for Obama after Republicans seize US Senate

WASHINGTON - Republicans rode a wave of voter discontent to seize control of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, dealing a punishing blow to President Barack Obama that will limit his legislative agenda and may force him to make a course correction for his last two years in office.

The Republican rout was wide and deep in what was bound to be seen as a sharp rebuke to Obama, who has lurched from crisis to crisis all year and whose unpopularity made him unwelcome to Democratic candidates in many contested states.

The Republicans also strengthened their grip on the House of Representatives. When the new Congress takes power in January, they will be in charge of both chambers of Congress for the first time since elections in 2006.

The Republican takeover in the Senate will force Obama to scale back his ambitions to either executive actions that do not require legislative approval, or items that might gain bipartisan support, such as trade agreements and tax reform.

It will also test his ability to compromise with newly empowered political opponents who have been resisting his legislative agenda since he was first elected. And it could prompt some White House staff turnover as some exhausted members of his team consider departing in favor of fresh legs.

Obama, first elected in 2008 and again in 2012, called Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress to the White House on Friday to take stock of the new political landscape.

He watched election returns from the White House, and saw little to warm his spirits.

Before the election results, the White House had signaled no major changes for Obama. Officials said Obama would seek common ground with Congress on areas like trade and infrastructure.

"The president is going to continue to look for partners on Capitol Hill, Democrats or Republicans, who are willing to work with him on policies that benefit middle-class families," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Tuesday.

Obama, a one-term senator before he became president, has often been faulted for not developing closer relations with lawmakers.

He will find one familiar face in a powerful new position. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who won a tough re-election battle against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, will replace Democrat Harry Reid as Senate majority leader. Reid has been one of Obama's top political allies and helped him steer the president's signature healthcare law through the Senate in 2010.

"Some things don't change after tonight. I don't expect the president to wake up tomorrow and view the world any differently than he did when he woke up this morning. He knows I won't either. But we do have an obligation to work together on issues where we can agree," McConnell said in his victory speech in Louisville.

TOSS-UPS BECOME REPUBLICAN WINS
In Tuesday's comprehensive rout, Republicans won in places where Democrats were favored, taking a Senate race in North Carolina, pulled out victories where the going was tough, like a Senate battle in Kansas, and swept a number of governors' races in states where Democrats were favored, including Obama's home state of Illinois.

Of eight to 10 Senate seats that were considered toss-ups, Republicans won nearly all of them. They needed six seats to win control of the 100-member Senate, and by late evening they had seven.

The winning margin came when Iowa Republican Joni Ernst was declared the winner over Democrat Bruce Braley and Republican Thom Tillis defeated incumbent Democratic Senator Kay Hagan in North Carolina.

The Iowa race was particularly indicative of Republican fortunes. Ernst came from behind and surged in recent weeks despite herculean efforts by powerful Democratic figures to save Braley, including a campaign visit by Obama's wife, Michelle.

Republican Senate candidates also picked up Democratic seats in Montana, Colorado, West Virginia, South Dakota and Arkansas.

'RESPONSIBILITY ... TO LEAD'

Once the euphoria of their victory ebbs, Republicans will be under pressure to show Americans they are capable of governing after drawing scorn a year ago for shutting down the government in a budget fight. That will be a factor in their ambitions to take back the White House in 2016.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a conservative firebrand who may run in 2016, told CNN: "The American people, they're frustrated with what's happening in Washington, but now the responsibility falls on us to lead."

While there was talk of conciliation, no major breakthrough in Washington's chilly climate is expected soon.

Partisan battles could erupt over immigration reform, with Obama poised to issue executive actions by year's end to defer deportations of some undocumented immigrants, and over energy policy, as Republican press the president to approve the Keystone XL pipeline carrying oil from Canada.

Jay Carney, Obama's former spokesman, said he expects Obama to make an "all-out push" on his priorities regardless of the makeup of Congress.

Whatever the case, Obama will face pressure to make changes at the White House. A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 75 percent of respondents believe the administration needs to "rethink" how it approaches major issues facing the United States. Sixty-four percent said Obama should replace some of his senior staff after the election.

The Republican victory had been widely predicted ahead of Tuesday's voting to elect 36 senators, 36 state governors and all 435 members of the House of Representatives.

Obama and other White House officials blamed the electoral map - noting that many key Senate races took place in conservative states that Obama lost in 2012.

Election Day polling by Reuters/Ipsos found a dour mood among the electorate with less than one-third of voters believing the country is headed in the right direction.

Roughly 40 percent of voters said they approved of the job Obama is doing as president, though they were split over whether they expected the economy to improve or worsen in the coming year.

In a consolation for Democrats, Jeanne Shaheen won re-election over Republican Scott Brown in New Hampshire in what polls had forecast as a tight race.

In Virginia, heavily favored Democratic incumbent Senator Mark Warner found himself in a surprisingly close fight against Republican challenger Ed Gillespie, with much of the vote counted. By late evening, he claimed victory but Gillespie had not yet conceded.

In the most closely watched governors' races, Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott edged out Democrat Charlie Crist, and Republican Scott Walker survived a challenge from Democrat Mary Burke in Wisconsin.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Will the Fil-Am vote have an impact in US midterm polls?

OAKLAND, California – There are only a few days to go before the midterm elections and people in America are about to cast their votes for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate.

Current forecasts show that Democrats are struggling to save the Senate majority, while trying to prevent more losses in the House, which the GOP already controls by a 234 to 201 margin.

The Democrats control the Senate by a 55 to 45 margin.

The question is: will the immigrant vote have an impact on the elections?

Asians are now the largest immigrant group in the state. And community leaders say they’re really becoming more politicized and more aware of the benefits of being politically empowered.

The group, Filipino Advocates for Justice, which is part of the Mobilize the Immigrant Vote Campaign, believes Filipinos are a force to reckon with in the midterm elections.

In California, more than 417,000 Filipinos are registered to vote, comprising two percent of the state’s registered voters.

“California is still where almost half of the Filipino population, and that’s without even counting the undocumented reside,” said Lillian Galedo, of Filipino Advocates For Justice. “So there’s a long history of Filipinos being active politically in California, which continues to this day.”

The Filipino Party affiliation in California is 40 percent Democrats, 26 percent Republicans, 31 percent non-partisan or decline to state, and three percent other.

“Here in California, we’re seeing a new trend,” said Galedo. “There’s almost as many people who are declining to state. They’re neither declaring themselves Republican or Democrats. They’re wanting to sort of keep their options open and not declaring allegiance to the party system and beginning to look at what people have to say.”

Christina Halog has been a U.S. citizen since 1973 and has never missed voting in any U.S. election since. More than casting her vote, she encourages other kababayans to vote through phone.

She is also a poll worker.

“It’s important so I can have a voice and to be able to contribute,” she said. “To give back.”

Mona Dating has practiced her right to vote since she became a U.S. citizen in 1982. She says being too busy is not an excuse to cast your ballot.

“Sa Filipino community, tayo ang largest, one of the largest minorities in the U.S.,” said Dating. “We need to exercise our right to vote.”

So are Filipinos politically empowered? These community leaders and volunteers say we’re getting there. But there needs to be more effort and more work if Filipinos truly want their voices heard and their votes to count in this adopted country.

Read more from Balitang America.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com