News Items

House Republicans have decided not to use the debt ceiling as a negotiating tactic right now.

They will vote Wednesday to raise America's borrowing limit without forcing a showdown over spending cuts.

Over the past few years the GOP has refused to raise the debt ceiling to try to force President Obama to rein in his annual trillion-dollar deficits.

Critics accused them of holding America's economy hostage by using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip.

But House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio...

TEL AVIV, Israel -- More Israelis went to the polls Tuesday than in more than a decade. They voted for a change in the government, but it's not the change most people anticipated.

Israeli TV channels released their exit polls at 10 p.m. local time. As expected, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's combined Likud-Beiteinu party received the most seats. But center-left parties received many more seats than anticipated.

The emergence of Yair Lapid and his center-left party will have a major impact on how Netanyahu will form the next Israeli government. It also...

The pastor of the Episcopal parish closest to the White House will give the benediction at President Obama's inauguration Monday.

Rev. Luis Leon of Saint John's Church replaces Atlanta evangelical Pastor Louie Giglio, who withdrew last week over a controversial sermon he gave in the 1990s criticizing gay relationships.

A spokeswoman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee said the person chosen to give the benediction would reflect the administration's position.

The Episcopal parish blesses gay and lesbian unions...

Rhode Island legislators could vote on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in a matter of weeks.

Supporters and opponents packed the statehouse Tuesday as a committee heard hours of testimony.

Rhode Island already allows civil unions. It is the only state in New England that does not allow gay couples to wed.

The state's Gov. Lincoln Chafee and Treasurer Gina Raimondo both spoke out in favor of gay marriage at the hearing.

Roman Catholic leaders are opposing it on religious and practical...

After coming under fire from the Obama administration, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is trying to explain away his racist remarks about Jews in a 2010 speech.

Morsi said his comments calling Jews "bloodsuckers and "descendants of apes and pigs" were aimed at Israeli policies and taken out of context.

The White House called the comments "repulsive" and "deeply offensive."

A congressional delegation to Cairo led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also expressed disapproval in a meeting with Morsi this week.

...

An Iranian-born American pastor imprisoned in Iran is set to go on trial Monday, Jan. 21.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers arrested Pastor Saeed Abedini, 32, in September, while he was in Iran to visit his family and work on a project for an orphanage.

His trial has been assigned to a judge who has been accused of human rights violations in the past for his prolific use of the death penalty.

Saeed became a U.S. citizen in 2010 when he married his American wife, Naghmeh Abedini. The Iranian government does not acknowledge his dual citizenship and the U.S. State Department has not taken any definitive action on his behalf.

In a recent...

The largest crowds of pro-lifers yet are expected to participate in the 40th anniversary of March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., Jan. 25.

Normally, the march is held on the actual anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. But the annual event has been pushed back this year to accommodate the presidential inauguration.

This year's march is expected to attract tens of thousands more than the record 400,000 two years ago and could actually rival President Obama's Inauguration Day crowd....

WASHINGTON -- He's one of the most important new faces of the Republican party and the first Hispanic senator from the Lone Star State.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is a rising star among conservatives. While he's still getting used to the title, the Lone Star State's new senator is already making waves.

"Anytime anyone says senator I turn around and try to find out who on earth they're talking to," Cruz said.

The Tea Party favorite told CBN News that people should not expect his conservative principles to waver now that he's...

President Barack Obama is busy assembling his administration's cabinet for his second term in office.

On Thursday, he nominated Jack Lew to replace Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Lew is currently serving as the White House chief of staff.

He is said to be an expert on the federal budget and a tough negotiator. But Some Republicans accuse Lew of not compromising in past battles over fiscal policy.

Lew's nomination is also drawing a different kind of criticism against the Obama administration.

...

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Israelis like Americans two months ago are being bombarded by political ads, including messages with an edge for the young generation.

Instead of a two-party system, more than 30 jam Israel's political landscape. They compete for 120 seats in Israel's parliament.

Whoever wins the most seats must hammer together a coalition of 60 or more players to form the next government.

Like the United States, Israeli parties fall into the left or right. Dominating the right is the joint party of current...

As the next debt ceiling battle rolls around in a few months, Democrats have come up with a plan to help President Obama completely bypass Congress so he won't have to negotiate with House Republicans on the issue.

Their plan involves using the U.S. Treasury to print a $1 trillion coin.

Liberals like Paul Krugman, with The New York Times believe there is a loophole that would allow the Treasury to print a single commemorative coin worth $1 trillion.

The president would then deposit the coin in the Federal Reserve, supposedly...

Part of President Obama's health care law was repealed as a result of last week's fiscal cliff deal.

Congress overturned what's called the CLASS Act, which stands for Community Living Assistance Services and Supports. The measure was basically a new entitlement program for long-term care.

"The program was so poorly designed that one of its own administrators warned Congress in 2011 that the program could collapse," The Heritage Foundation said.

Meanwhile, five new taxes instituted by Obamacare are still...

WASHINGTON -- When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Barack Obama's health care law was "constitutional," most Americans thought the legal case against the law was settled.

But even now, there are a growing number of legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act.

"There are going to be legal challenges continuing for quite some time," John Malcolm, a senior legal fellow with The Heritage Foundation, predicted.

If they succeed, one by one, they could unravel parts of Obamacare.

The legal argument gaining the...

A federal judge in Chicago has granted an Illinois company temporary relief from having to provide birth control coverage for its workers.

Judge Amy St. Eve granted a preliminary injunction to Triune Health Group.

Christopher and Mary Anne Yep, the company's owners, say the law's contraception mandate violates their Roman Catholic beliefs.

Their claim is one of dozens of similar lawsuits filed across the country.

Mandatory coverage for contraception has been among the most controversial...

Tens of thousands of supporters were called on to shop online or at a store in support of Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day, Saturday.

The show of solidarity was in response to the Supreme Court's recent refusal to issue a ruling stopping the Obamacare contraception coverage mandate.

Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned business, is the largest company fighting what many believe to be a violation of their freedom of religion.

Store supporters nationwide rallied in their defense, one supporter even going viral with a Facebook campaign.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee helped promote the day, as he did with last summer's Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day...

The Supreme Court will hear two days worth of arguments at the end of March concerning gay marriage laws.

One case involves California's Poposition 8, where a voter-approved constitutional amendment defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

The second will look at the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which is aimed at protecting that traditional definition.

Justices will hear one hour's worth of arguments on both laws in March.

The president, as expected, nominated former Sen. Chuck Hagel as his next defense secretary on Monday.

Hagel is a decorated Vietnam veteran who served two terms in the Senate as a Nebraska Republican.

Still, the 66-year-old is already facing stiff opposition from some former GOP colleagues for his views on Israel and Iran. Several Republican senators say a stormy confirmation process is inevitable.

"If Hagel is nominated, it is very difficult to imagine the circumstance in which I could support his confirmation," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said.

"It's interesting. The president seems bound and determined to proceed down this path despite the fact that Hagel's record is...

President Barack Obama says he is willing to consider more spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the deficit.

With the "fiscal cliff" crisis barely over, Obama faces new battles in Congress over raising the country's $16.4 trillion borrowing limit, as well as more than $100 billion in automatic spending cuts for the military and domestic programs which were delayed by two months under the compromise.

Lawmakers promise to replace those across-the-board cuts with more targeted steps that could take longer to implement.     ...

CAPITOL HILL - On a bright and sunny day inside the Washington Beltway, lawmakers old and new alike took the oath of office Thursday as the the first day of the new 113th Congress began.

Lawmakers officially kicked off the start of the new session by electing their leaders, including Rep. John Boehner, who will keep his job as Speaker of the House.

While some appeared hopeful, others were not, especially in light of what's on their plate and current public sentiment about politics in Washington.

With a meager 18 percent...

President Obama criticized a conscience clause in a defense bill that protects military chaplains who object to performing gay marriage.
    
The president signed the $633 billion bill into law on Thursday. It contains a clause exempting chaplains from having to perform same-sex weddings if they object because of their faith.

At the signing, the president said the conscience provision is 'unnecessary and ill-advised."

"The military already appropriately protects the freedom of conscience of chaplains...