Saudi Prince: Obama Let Palestinians Down At UN

While addressing an audience at the National Press Club (NPC) on Tuesday, Saudi Arabian Prince Turki Al Faisal called out President Obama for letting the Palestinians down at the UN General Assembly.

“When you have a president in the United States who calls for a two-state solution…and says, ‘within a year I hope to see a Palestinian state,’ [but] when the Palestinians during that year… go to the UN to get a state…[and] he stands up and says, ‘no I am going to veto that’,” Al Faisal remarked, “that is where not only disappointment, but… anger and frustration increased dramatically in people’s minds in the Arab world that they have been let down.”

Obama’s decision to veto the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood at the UN will have “devastating effects” on the U.S-Saudi Arabia relationship, according to al-Faisal

The Saudi Prince also expressed opposition towards Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and meddling in other Arab nations’ affairs.

“Saudi Arabia continues to insist that Iran’s leaders should give up their goal of acquiring nuclear weapons and create, by deed, the creation of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East,” Al-Faisal said. “This is clearly what is best for the people of Iran and the region.”

Al-Faisal said the he is fully supportive of the tightening of sanctions, assertive diplomacy and concerted action via the United Nations to encourage Iran to cease their nuclear weapons development. However, the Saudi Arabian prince said his country would not support a military attack on Iran.

“An attack on Iran, I think, would have catastrophic consequences not only in terms of human loss… but also because Iran can retaliate and the retaliation by Iran would be worldwide,” Al-Faisal expressed. “If anything, it will only make the Iranians more determined to produce an atomic bomb, it will rally support for the government among the population, and it will not end the program, it will merely delay it, if anything.”

Senate Votes Unanimously To Repeal 3 Percent Withholding Tax

The voices of the Senate rang in harmony Thursday as the legislative body unanimously voted to repeal a law that would require government agencies to collect a 3 percent tax on payments made to individual contractors.

The 95-0 vote sends the bill to the House for final approval. President Obama has already said he would sign the repeal into law after a similar version passed the House in October. 

The House must reconsider a Senate version that includes tax incentives for businesses who hire unemployed veterans. The Vow to Hire Heroes Act is the first of three pieces of Obama’s jobs package to garner bipartisan support in the upper chamber.  

Under the act, companies that hire veterans who have been out of work for more than 4 weeks but less than 6 months would be eligible for a $2,400tax credit. A tax credit of $5,600 would be allocated to companies who hire veterans who have been looking for work for more than 6 months and would double if the potential employee suffers from service-related disabilities.  

The rare portrayal of bipartisanship is a victory for both Republicans and Democrats as they have struggled to see eye to eye on a number of issues. 

“It was not politics as usual,” said House Veterans Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.). “As more and more of our servicemen and women come home, we need to ensure that they receive the homecoming they deserve, not an unemployment check.” 

President Obama released a statement applauding the upper chamber’s approval of the law and urged the House to act expeditiously in approval of the bill in the coming days.

“No veteran who fought for our nation should have to fight for a job when they come home, and I urge the House to pass these tax credits as well so I can sign them into law,” Obama said in a statement. “I also urge Congress to pass additional jobs proposals in the weeks ahead to help the millions of other Americans who are still looking for work.”

Cornyn: Defense Cuts Would Be 'Arbitrary And Reckless'

By Adrianna McGinley

At the Hudson Institute Wednesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) warned that sequestration following a possible supercommittee failure would have a disastrous impact on national security.

“I worry that our strategic thinking is being driven by dollars and cents more than common sense,” Cornyn said. “If this process fails, and I hope and pray it does not, then … the base defense budget would be cut 14 percent in real terms over just three years.”

Cornyn cited that the sequestration cuts would be in addition to $489 billion in defense cuts under the Budget Control Act and roughly $180 billion of efficiency cuts recommended by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“This should really be a time for rebuilding and retraining and not retreating,” Cornyn advised. “But retreat is the only way to describe what would happen if our military forces are required to live under this sequestration process.”

Cornyn said military leadership is trained not to panic, but “you can hear their frustration and you can hear grave concern in their voices that America’s strategic commitments are being defined not by the requirements but by budgets. They’re frustrated that under the sequestration process the cuts would be arbitrary and reckless.”

The Senator said however that concerns over how the Pentagon spends money should not be disregarded. Rather waste, fraud, and abuse should be aggressively fought. He specifically alluded to financial mismanagement at the Department of Defense citing that it has not been able to produce an “auditable financial statement,” and although the department is not required to do so until 2017, he said it was “shocking” that it could not do so now.

Cornyn joked that the twelve members of the “Super Committee” have more power than any group of Americans since those who wrote the constitution and said they must make use of that power.

“Failure really should not be an option,” Cornyn said. “What would it say to not only the American people…what would it say to the markets, what would it say to the world about America’s seriousness of dealing with these problems?”

Obama To Cut Federal Swag With Executive Order

President Obama will take matters into his own hands Wednesday by signing an executive order that will cut federal spending.

According to a statement released by the White House, the order will prevent federal agencies from “using taxpayer dollars to buy swag.”

The administration defines “swag” as “non-essential items used for promotional purposes.” Items like clothing, mugs, non-work related gadgets and “other unnecessary promotional items” will be removed from federal agency wish lists.

The order also puts limits on the number of “information technology devices” such as cell phones, smartphones, tablets and laptops federal agencies can provide for employees. Additionally, Obama will direct agencies to limit the amount of money spent on travel and will shrink the “executive fleet” of the federal government. The President takes cutting waste to a deeper level by stopping the unnecessary printing of documents and requiring agencies to post these documents online when possible.

“From the day I took office, I’ve said we’re going to comb the federal budget, line by line, to eliminate as much wasteful spending as possible… We can’t wait for Congress to act,” Obama said. “We’re cutting what we don’t need so that we can invest in what we do need.”

The White House has indicated that, within 45 days, agencies will begin to implement these changes, reducing costs up to 20 percent below FY2010 levels by FY2013.

Obama Moves Forward With Items To Help Jobless Vets

By Andrea Salazar

President Obama is using his executive authority to try and put veterans back to work with new tools to connect returning soldiers to civilian jobs.

Obama announced those tools during a Rose Garden speech today in which he called on Congress to pass two parts of his American Jobs Act - the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warriors Tax Credits.

“We’re here today to try to take some steps to better serve today’s veterans in a rough economy,” he said. “These are the kinds of Americans who every company should want to hire. And yet…more than 850,000 veterans remain unemployed.”

The White House initiatives include an online veteran’s jobs bank, a Veteran’s Gold Card that gives veterans six months of personalized counseling and case management and My Next Move For Veterans -  a website connecting veterans with civilian jobs.

“Having served and defended our nation, it just doesn’t make sense that many of these well-trained, highly-skilled and motivated individuals can’t find a job worthy of their incredible talent,” said Matt Flavin, director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy, on the increasing number of unemployed post-9/11 veterans.

Aneesh Chopra, U.S. chief technology officer, said Monday that the initiatives would use existing resources and would reduce veteran unemployment.

“These particular technology initiatives are meant to reduce the time it takes for a veteran to find an available job,” Chopra said. “That would reduce the unemployment rate, even if it hasn’t increased the net number of new jobs.

Flavin, however, emphasized that the initiatives are “not a substitute for robust congressional action” that would create jobs.

The Senate will debate the tax credits this week. The measures would give businesses up to $5,600 for hiring veterans who have been unemployed for longer than six months and up to $9,600 for hiring disabled veterans.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) followed the president’s remarks by saying that the House passed a veterans job training bill in October, which Senate has yet to act on it.