Frank Wolf to retire after 17 terms in Congress; N.Va. seat will be a prime battleground in 2014

U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf announced Tuesday that he will not run for reelection in 2014, ending a distinctive three-decade career in Congress and instantly making his bellwether Northern Virginia seat a prime battleground in next year’s midterm elections.

Although the 74-year-old Republican has been a perennial subject of retirement rumors, his decision came as a surprise: As recently as last week, leaders in both parties fully expected him to run for an 18th term. But in a statement issued by his office, Wolf said he plans to turn instead to his longtime work on humanitarian issues.

 “As a follower of Jesus, I am called to work for justice and reconciliation, and to be an advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves,” Wolf said. “I plan to focus my future work on human rights and religious freedom — both domestic and international — as well as matters of the culture and the American family.”

Wolf has been a vocal and sometimes lonely advocate for oppressed religious minorities, particularly Christians in Egypt, Syria and Pakistan. And although he is conservative on many issues, he has been willing to defend federal workers, squabble with anti-tax activists and cooperate with Democrats, making him something of a rarity among modern House Republicans.

Wolf’s decision came just a week after Fairfax County Board of Supervisors member John W. Foust (D) said he would run for the House seat.

Obenshain concedes Virginia attorney general’s race to Herring

RICHMOND — State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (R) conceded the race for Virginia attorney general to Democrat Mark R. Herring on Wednesday, bringing the election to a belated end and giving Democrats a sweep of statewide offices — but throwing control of the state Senate into question.

The move allowed Herring to claim victory for the third time since Nov. 5 in a contest that on election night was the closest statewide race in Virginia history. It also spared a three-judge panel in Richmond from having to continue slogging through more than 100 ballots that one side or the other had challenged.

Attention turns to the state Senate seat being vacated by Attorney General-elect Mark R. He

The choice angers some abortion rights activists but is seen as the “best shot” for Medicaid expansion.

And for the first time since Election Day, speculation in Virginia political circles shifted from who would succeed Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) to how differently the new attorney general would lead.

Herring spent much of the campaign promising not to run the state’s law firm like Cuccinelli, a social conservative who waged high-profile battles against a climate scientist, “Obamacare” and universities with policies that protect gay people from discrimination.

“Virginians are looking for mainstream leadership,” Herring, a state senator from Loudoun County, said during an afternoon news conference in the Capitol on Wednesday. “They want good jobs. They want better education for their children. They want a good transportation system that will serve our growing economy.”

Obenshain conceded defeat after Herring’s attorney announced that his client’s narrow lead had grown to more than 800 in a statewide recount that began Monday and was scheduled to finish Wednesday.

Senate passes bipartisan budget agreement

Congress declared a holiday truce in the budget wars Wednesday, sending President Obama a blueprint for funding the government through 2015. But the next skirmish was already on the horizon: an election-year fight over the national debt.

The budget deal that passed the Senate on Wednesday amounts to a handshake agreement to avoid a government shutdown when a temporary funding measure expires Jan. 15. However, the accord does not address the need once again to raise the debt limit, setting up a potentially complicated confrontation in late February or early March.

That fight would come just months before midterm congressional elections, and the GOP is deeply divided over tactics to deal with the debt, a core issue for the Republican base. Some conservatives are calling for another showdown, insisting on an additional round of spending cuts in exchange for granting the Treasury Department more borrowing authority to pay the nation’s bills.

But GOP leaders, especially in the House, have no appetite for another Washington fiscal crisis that could destroy their popularity among voters, aides said. Instead, they are hoping for a more peaceful resolution modeled on the latest budget deal — a bipartisan compromise that solves small problems and aims to offend almost no one

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New Mexico Supreme Court legalizes Gay Marriage

The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that gay marriage is legal in the Land of Enchantment.

The court said in an unanimous decision that it is unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

"We hold that the State of New Mexico is constitutionally required to allow same-gender couples to marry and must extend to them the rights, protections, and responsibilities that derive from civil marriage under New Mexico law," Justice Edward L. Chavez wrote in the decision.Many counties in New Mexico had already been issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, setting up the state Supreme Court to decide whether it was legal or not. The state didn't explicitly ban or allow same-sex marriage, leaving the issue in limbo.

New Mexico becomes the 17th state to legalize gay marriage (map here) and the first in the American Southwest. Illinois and Hawaii did the same last month. Gay marriage is also legal in the District of Columbia.

Gay rights groups were quick to hail the ruling.

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Jang Song Thaek, Kim Jong Un's Ousted Uncle, Reportedly Executed

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea on Friday announced the execution of Kim Jong Un's uncle, calling the leader's former mentor a traitor who tried to overthrow the state.

The announcement came only days after Pyongyang announced through state media that Jang Song Thaek — long considered the country's No. 2 power — had been removed from all his posts because of allegations of corruption, drug use, gambling, womanizing and leading a "dissolute and depraved life."

The state news agency KCNA said a tribunal examined Jang's crimes, including "attempting to overthrow the state by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods with a wild ambition to grab the supreme power of our party and state."

The report called him "a traitor to the nation" and "worse than a dog."

Jang was seen as helping Kim Jong Un consolidate power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, two years ago. Jang was the latest and most significant in a series of personnel reshuffles that Kim has conducted in an apparent effort to bolster his power.

Some analysts see the purge as a sign of Kim Jong Un's growing confidence, but there has also been fear in Seoul that the removal of such an important part of the North's government — seen by outsiders as the leading supporter of Chinese-style economic reforms — could create dangerous instability or lead to a miscalculation or attack on the South.

Tensions are still high on the Korean Peninsula following a torrent of threats in March and April by Kim Jong Un's government against Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, including vows of missile and nuclear strikes and warnings that Pyongyang would restart nuclear bomb fuel production.

Jang was married to Kim Jong Un's aunt, Kim Kyong Hui, the younger sister of Kim Jong Il. He was earlier described by state media as "abusing his power," being "engrossed in irregularities and corruption," and taking drugs and squandering money at casinos while undergoing medical treatment in a foreign country.

Rivers' garbageman named CNN Hero of the Year

CNN) -- Chad Pregracke, an Illinois man who has dedicated his life to cleaning the Mississippi River and other U.S. waterways, is the 2013 CNN Hero of the Year.

Pregracke organizes community cleanups across the country through his nonprofit, Living Lands & Waters. About 70,000 volunteers have pitched in, helping Pregracke collect more than 7 million pounds of trash in the past 15 years.

"The garbage got into the water one piece at a time," Pregracke said earlier this year. "And that's the only way it's going to come out."

Pregracke was recognized during Sunday night's airing of "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" along with the rest of this year's top 10 CNN Heroes -- everyday people doing extraordinary things to help change the world. He was chosen as Hero of the Year through a five-week public vote on CNN.com.

"I'll just keep on cleaning up America's rivers and loving every minute of it," said Pregracke when he accepted the award.

For being named CNN Hero of the Year, Pregracke receives $250,000 to continue his work. That is in addition to the $50,000 that each Hero receives for making the top 10.

During the show, Pregracke pledged to spread some of his Hero of the Year money to the rest of the top 10 Heroes: "I've met so many great people today, the other Heroes, and I'm really moved by all their stories and all the things they do around the world. ... I'm going to give 10 grand to each of them, because they're awesome."

Pregracke, 38, grew up in East Moline, Illinois, where the Mississippi River was in his backyard. As a teenager, he worked as a commercial shell diver and began to notice the heaps of debris in the fabled waterway, which supplies drinking water to 18 million people in more than 50 U.S. cities.

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5 reasons why Congress might (finally) pass a budget

Washington (CNN) -- (CNN) -- The words "budget" and "compromise" haven't been connected in Congress in recent years.

But legislators stunned observers and perhaps each other this week when Republicans and Democrats proved that they can, indeed, agree on government spending.

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray worked out a budget framework to fund the government into 2015.

The House approved the compromise agreement Thursday. The measure now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to pass as early as next week. The White House supports the proposal.

It was the first full budget agreement by a divided Congress -- in which different parties control the House and Senate -- since 1986, Ryan boasted in announcing the deal.

After years of bruising political fights over spending and the federal borrowing limit, dysfunction reigned supreme in October when the government shut down for 16 days.

A short-term spending plan got it going again, but a CNN/ORC International poll found that 71% of Americans thought another shutdown would occur when the money ran out in January.

Instead, such repeated budget brinksmanship would be put on hold if Congress passes the Ryan-Murray proposal. While neither side loves the compromise legislation, it appears to be on a path to approval.

So, what changed this time?

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Raising the Minimum Wage Is Good for Business (But the Corporate Lobby Doesn't Think So)

As soon as President Barack Obama called on Congress to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour in his State of the Union address last week, you could see Speaker John Boehner, seated behind the president, uttering his religious mantra: "Job killer." And even if you couldn't read his lips, you could read his mind: "Campaign contributions." He and his Republican colleagues could expect huge donations from business lobby groups -- especially those that depend on low-wage workers, like the hotel industry, restaurants and fast-food chains, nursing homes and hospitals and big-box retailers -- to keep Congress from embracing Obama's modest proposal.

Boehner's "job killer" grumble should come as no surprise. Business groups and their political allies have been "crying wolf" about the minimum wage ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed it during the Depression to help stimulate the economy. The critics warned that enacting a minimum wage would destroy employees' drive to work hard and would force many firms out of business. The minimum wage law, warned the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in 1937, "constitutes a step in the direction of communism, bolshevism, fascism, and Nazism." Congressman Edward Cox, a Georgia Democrat, said that the law "will destroy small industry." These ideas, Cox claimed, "are the product of those whose thinking is rooted in an alien philosophy and who are bent upon the destruction of our whole constitutional system and the setting up of a Red Labor communistic despotism upon the ruins of our Christian civilization." Roosevelt and most members of Congress ignored these warnings and adopted the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, establishing the federal minimum wage of 25 cents an hour.

Since then, each time Congress has considered raising the minimum wage, business groups and conservatives have repackaged the same arguments. In 1945, NAM claimed that, "The proposed jump from an hourly minimum of 40 to 65 cents at once, and 70 and 75 cents in the following years, is a reckless jolt to the economic system. Living standards, instead of being improved, would fall -- probably to record lows." Instead, the next three decades saw the biggest increased in living standards in the nation's history.

In 1975, economist Milton Friedman, a conservative guru, said: "The consequences of minimum wage laws have been almost wholly bad, to increase unemployment and to increase poverty. In my opinion there is absolutely no positive objective achieved by minimum wages." While campaigning for president, Ronald Reagan said, "The minimum wage has caused more misery and unemployment than anything since the Great Depression." In 2004, David Brandon, the CEO of Domino's Pizza, declared: "From our perspective, raising the minimum wage is a job killer." Earlier this month, Jason Riley, aWall Street Journal editorial writer, called the minimum wage a "proven job killer" on the newspaper's cable talk show.

Following Obama's State of the Union address, business representatives and conservative media pundits echoed the same talking points. Analyzing Obama's speech for Fox News, Nina Easton, an editor for Fortune magazine, repeated the claim that increasing the minimum wage is a "job killer." Michael Saltsman, research director at the business-backed Employment Policies Institute, told Fox Business News that "minimum wage hikes lead to job losses." Bill Herrle, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business' Florida affiliate, told Sunshine State News that Obama's plan was a "job killer."

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Kennedy Assassination 50 years ago remembered

Across the nation and around the world, there are events to remember the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 50 years ago Friday.

Special Section: The JFK Assassination 

Just outside of London, President Kennedy's granddaughter, Tatiana Schlossberg and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Matthew Barzun, along with Lord Hill, leader of the House of Lords, planted an oak sapling and laid four wreaths at the official British memorial to the late president. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, along with Jackie, Caroline and John Kennedy, dedicated the memorial in Runneymeade in May of 1965.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited President Kennedy's gravesite early Friday. The president's sister, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, was to lay a wreath at the eternal flame at the president's grave, and taps will be played.

Dallas hosts an commemoration at Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot and killed. Bells will ring shortly before 12:30 p.m. CT, followed by a moment of silence to mark the time of the president's death. The mayor, the bishop of Dallas, the U.S. Naval Academy Men's Glee Club, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and historian David McCullough are part of the event, which you can watch live on CBS.

Also, in Boston, at the John F. Kennedy Library, musicians James Taylor and Paul Winter and his Sextet will play, and the performance will be streamed live on the web, followed by a moment of silence at 2 p.m. ET, the time the president's death was announced to the nation.

CBSNews.com will stream CBS News' historic broadcast coverage of President John F. Kennedy's assassination to mark the anniversary. The online stream will begin at 1:38 p.m. ET on Friday, and feature the minute-by-minute CBS News broadcasts in real time as they were delivered during the four-day period following the assassination.

Obama administration pondering new carbon emission pledge in wake of Warsaw climate change conference

The Obama Administration is planning to introduce a pledge to make additional steep cuts in U.S. carbon emissions after 2020 in the wake of a little-noticed United Nations conference on greenhouse gas emissions that is the latest step toward a new treaty to take the place of the tattered Kyoto Protocol.

Just how dramatic the American pledge will be is not yet clear. A U.S. official at the conference taking place in Warsaw —who declined to be quoted directly—told Fox News that an amorphous White House inter-agency consulting process was still considering what the next U.S. reduction should be, and wasn’t yet ready to put a hard number on the table.

Whatever it is eventually revealed to be, the next emissions reduction target will be introduced into the labyrinthine, U.N.-sponsored treaty process as itinches along for two years after the Warsaw meeting that is slated to end Friday. It will supposedly culminate at yet another major climate session in Paris in December 2015, where the successor treaty will—supporters hope—be adopted.

The administration itself says that its forthcoming emissions targets—and continuing staunch support for the war against “climate change”—are intended help to kick-start a virtuous competition among nations, spurred on by interest groups, hosts of non-government organizations, and the sprawling global network of United Nations organizations to push the faltering climate process away from the ditch of disinterest where it has increasingly been heading.

That virtuous competition is part of a new, smorgasbord-style approach that the U.S. is promoting for future pledges, “ to ensure that each Party is constructing a commitment that reflects its national circumstances and full capabilities,” as the administration puts it in a conference submission

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Senate's Nuclear Option Raises Stakes For 2014

 WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made one party in the Senate significantly more powerful when he ended filibusters on presidential appointments Thursday -- and instantly elevated the importance of the 2014 Senate elections.

"It raises the stakes," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has often remarked that "elections have consequences."

The one-time GOP presidential nominee also admitted that the ability Reid exercised to break the Republican blockade of President Barack Obama's nominees was one of those consequences.

"I'm afraid so," McCain said.

Led by the Nevada Democrat, the Senate voted 52-48 Thursday to wield the "nuclear option," eliminating the ability of the Senate minority to filibuster executive branch nominees and any judgeship below the Supreme Court by changing the requirements for passage to a simple majority vote. And now, thanks to Reid's power move, the stakes for 2014 include control of a Senate that can either be a stronger aid to Obama in the furtherance of his agenda or, if the GOP can take over, an even more effective check on the executive's ambitions.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested just that immediately after Thursday's vote to change the rules, announcing that he intended to strike back at the polls next fall.

"The solution to this problem is at the ballot box," McConnell rather pointedly told reporters on Capitol Hill. "I look forward to having a great election in November 2014."

Republicans need to win six seats next fall to take over the upper chamber, and the map remains a tough one for Democrats, who have to defend 21 seats, compared to just 14 for the GOP. And seven of those Democratic seats are in states that lean Republican, with a couple more in swing states.

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EU spokesman: Iran nuclear deal reached

Geneva, Switzerland (CNN) -- An agreement was struck early Sunday between Iran and six world powers over Tehran's nuclear program, a spokesman for the European Union said.

The historic deal follows marathon talks to overcome issues surrounding the wording of an initial agreement over Iran's nuclear development program and lift some sanctions while a more formal deal between the two sides is worked out.

"We have reached agreement," EU spokesman Michael Mann said in a Twitter post.

For years, Iran and Western powers have left negotiating tables in disagreement, frustration and at times open animosity.

But the diplomatic tone changed with the transfer of power after Iran's election this year, which saw President Hassan Rouhani replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Caustic jabs at the United States and bellicose threats toward Israel were a hallmark of Ahmadinejad's foreign policy rhetoric.

He lambasted the West over the economic sanctions crippling Iran's economy and at the same time, pushed the advancement of nuclear technology in Iran.

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Rouhani has struck up a more conciliatory tone and made the lifting sanctions against his country a priority

Federal judge blocks key parts of Tex. anti-abortion law Monday

A federal judge in Texas blocked two key parts of the state’s controversial antiabortion law Monday, ruling that one part is unconstitutional while another provision imposes an undue burden on women in some instances.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel represents a legal victory for abortion rights providers, who had challenged new requirements that abortion doctors must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic and that all abortions must take place in surgical centers, rather than allowing women to take abortion drugs at home.

Texas attorney general Greg Abbott spokeswoman Lauren Bean said the state immediately appealed the ruling.

Eleven abortion clinics and three doctors filed a federal lawsuit last month saying that the requirements, which were due to take effect Oct. 29, would end abortion services in more than a third of the state’s licensed facilities and would eliminate services altogether in Fort Worth and five other major cities. Abbott had argued the new restrictions, adopted this summer, were aimed at providing better medical protections for both women and their fetuses.

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Americans Think Everyone's Doing A Terrible Job Handling Health Care

While Americans largely disapprove of how President Barack Obama is handling health care, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, they have even more negative opinions of how Republicans in Congress are handling the issue.

According to the new poll, Americans disapprove of Obama's handling of health care by a 56 percent to 39 percent margin. The survey also finds that 47 percent want to see the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature health care law, repealed, while 25 percent want to see it expanded and 15 percent think it should be kept the same.

But few view Republicans in Congress as saviors -- by a 63 percent to 27 percent margin, most disapprove of their handling of the issue. Congressional Democrats fared slightly better, though a majority still viewed them negatively, with 34 percent approving and 53 percent disapproving of their handling of health care.

And if forced to choose, more Americans trust Obama to handle health care than Republicans in Congress, 42 percent to 33 percent. Twenty-five percent said they weren't sure.

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McAuliffe opens up double-digit lead over Cuccinelli in Virginia governor’s race

Democrat Terry McAuliffe has opened a double-digit lead over Republican Ken Cuccinelli II in the race for Virginia governor, in a new poll capturing increasing dissatisfaction among voters with Cuccinelli’s party and his conservative views.

According to a new Washington Post/Abt SRBI poll, McAuliffe tops Cuccinelli 51 percent to 39 percent among likely voters in the Nov. 5 election. McAuliffe led by eight percentage points in a poll taken last month. Libertarian Robert Sarvis, who has capitalized on voter unrest with the two major-party candidates, is at 8 percent, according to the new poll.

The margin between the two major-party candidates is driven by a huge gender gap. Among men, the two candidates are running even, with Cuccinelli at 45 percent and McAuliffe at 44 percent. But among women, Cuccinelli trails by 24 points — 58 percent to 34 percent.

McAuliffe’s substantial lead puts him in a position to break a long pattern in Virginia gubernatorial races. In the nine most recent elections, the party holding the White House has lost the governor’s race. Cuccinelli’s weaknesses, more than McAuliffe’s strengths, put that streak in jeopardy, according to one question in the poll.

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Food stamps will get cut by $5 billion this week — and more cuts could follow

The U.S. food-stamp program is set to shrink in the months ahead. The only real question is by how much.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) currently costs about $80 billion per year and provides food aid to 14 percent of all U.S. households — some 47 million people. Those numbers swelled dramatically during the recession.

But the food-stamp program is now set to downsize in the weeks ahead. There's a big automatic cut scheduled for Nov. 1, as a temporary boost from the 2009 stimulus bill expires. That change will trim about $5 billion from federal food-stamp spending over the coming year.

And that's not all: The number of Americans on food stamps could drop even further in the months ahead, as Congress and various states contemplate further changes to the program. Here's a rundown:

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Hobby Lobby Asks Supreme Court To Take Up Case Against Contraception Mandate

OKLAHOMA CITY -- OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Lawyers for Hobby Lobby asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to take up the company's lawsuit against the federal health care law's requirement that coverage include access to the morning-after pill.

Lawyers for the Oklahoma City-based craft store chain and its sister company, Mardel Christian bookstore, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case because of what they say are conflicting decisions by other courts regarding religious freedom.

"As the federal government embarks on an unprecedented foray into health care replete with multiple overlapping mandates, few issues are more important than the extent to which the government must recognize and accommodate the religious exercise of those it regulates ... Thus, Respondents agree with the government that this Court should grant the petition," lawyers wrote in the 51-page filing.

In July, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton granted Hobby Lobby Mardel Christian bookstore a temporary exemption from a requirement that it provide insurance coverage for morning-after pills, similar emergency birth control methods and intrauterine devices. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in September filed a notice in federal court saying it would appeal that decision.

Heaton had initially rejected the request to block the birth-control mandate but reconsidered his decision after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the companies were likely to prevail in the case. Heaton ruled in June that the company would not be subject to fines of up to $1.3 million a day for not offering the birth control methods.

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JPMorgan Reaches Tentative $13 Billion Settlement With Justice Department: WSJ

News of the deal comes just a day after a JPMorgan was reported to have reached atentative $4 billion settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency over claims it sold bad mortgages to government agencies ahead of the financial crisis

At $13 billion, the potential settlement with the Justice Department exceeds estimates in September that JPMorgan would end up paying as much as $11 billion over the allegations. If finalized, the settlement would be the largest the U.S. government has ever made with a single company, according to WSJ.

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Obama Frustrated Over Health Care Website Issues

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Last week, President Barack Obama gathered some of his top advisers in the Oval Office to discuss the problem-plagued rollout of his health care legislation. He told his team the administration had to own up to the fact that there were no excuses for not having the health care website ready to operate on Day One.

The admonition from a frustrated president came amid the embarrassing start to sign-ups for the health care insurance exchanges. The president is expected to address the cascade of computer problems Monday during an event at the White House.

Administration officials say more than 476,000 health insurance applications have been filed through federal and state exchanges. The figures mark the most detailed measure yet of the problem-plagued rollout of the insurance market place.

However, the officials continue to refuse to say how many people have actually enrolled in the insurance markets. And without enrollment figures, it's unclear whether the program is on track to reach the 7 million people projected by the Congressional Budget Office to gain coverage during the six-month sign-up period.

The first three weeks of sign-ups have been marred by a cascade of computer problems, which the administration says it is working around the clock to correct. The rough rollout has been a black eye for Obama, who invested significant time and political capital in getting the law passed during his first term.

The officials said technology experts from inside and outside the government are being brought in to work on the glitches, though they did not say how many workers were being added.

Officials did say staffing has been increased at call centers by about 50 percent. As problems persist on the federally run website, the administration is encouraging more people to sign up for insurance over the phone.

The officials would not discuss the health insurance rollout by name and were granted anonymity.

Despite the widespread problems, the White House has yet to fully explain what went wrong with the online system consumers were supposed to use to sign up for coverage.

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Why Democrats Might Cave On Social Security Cuts

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Sunday opened the door to Social Security cuts as part of a budget deal with congressional Republicans. But Durbin pushed back against GOP calls for entitlement cuts as the negotiating price to curb or extinguish the economically damaging sequester cuts.

"If this is the bargain that the Republicans are now pushing for, that we have to cut Medicare to avoid cuts at the Department of Defense, they need to take a step back," Durbin said on "Fox News Sunday."

Congress is currently negotiating a new budget, with a December deadline. The talks were mandated by last week's deal to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown.

Also speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) explicitly offered up trading some of the short-term cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act, known as the sequester, for long-term Social Security and Medicare cuts. He argued that Republicans had the tactical advantage on such an exchange.

"If you're in a divided government and you're arguing against the law, you're at a disadvantage," Blunt said, noting the failed GOP effort to defund Obamacare that resulted in a government shutdown. "The Budget Control Act is the only thing we've found that actually controls spending."

Blunt said that if Democrats aren't willing to negotiate over "entitlement savings versus some additional spending," to ease the sequester, then Democrats will have to live with the sequester cuts.

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President calls for new approach after shutdown

Washington (CNN) -- The way business is done in Washington has to change to make a positive difference in the economy, President Barack Obama said Thursday as the federal government reopened for business and discussions began in Congress to reach a longer-term budget deal.

The partial government shutdown and standoff over the debt ceiling ended late Wednesday night when Congress voted on a temporary funding bill that also raised the nation's borrowing limit.

The standoff "inflicted completely unnecessary damage (to) our economy," Obama said Thursday morning at the White House. He said it slowed the economy's growth and set back employers' plans to hire. "Just the threat of default ... increased our borrowing costs, which adds to our deficit," he said.

We'll bounce back from this," he said of what he called the damage to the economy that the impasse caused. "America is the bedrock of the global economy for a reason ... because we keep our word and we (meet) our obligations."

He then called on Congress to pass a budget, approve changes to the nation's immigration laws and pass a farm bill.

Before Obama spoke, federal employees returned to work early Thursday to mini coffee cakes from the Vice President, hugs from colleagues, along with eye-rolls about their "vacation" due to the partial government shutdown.

The workers streamed into government offices in Washington, turned on lights and opened national landmarks such as St. Louis' Gateway Arch that had been closed during the 16-day shutdown.

The protracted brinksmanship flirted with a possible U.S. default before ending when Republicans caved to the insistence of Obama and Democrats that legislation funding the government and raising the federal borrowing limit should be free -- or at least mostly free -- from partisan issues and tactics.

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As U.S. approaches debt ceiling, fears of global recession increase

SEOUL — For global leaders, the political crisis that has shut down Washington represents the most vexing kind of problem, one that they have virtually no means to stem but that could soon wreak economic havoc on their own shores.

If a divided Congress does not raise the federal debt ceiling in the coming weeks, the U.S. government — the world’s largest borrower — would suddenly be unable to pay its bills, a failure that would stagger markets from Tokyo to London and potentially drive the global economy into recession.Some in Europe and Asia say they are stunned at the quixotic partisan fervor shaking global economic pillar.

U.S. decision to cut aid comes three months after military coup to oust democratically elected president.

Secretary apologizes for Obama’s absence at ASEAN’s annual session, meets with Chinese premier.

That default scenario is bringing increasingly urgent pleas from foreign leaders, some who describe their grave concern, others who chide the United States about the risks of political brinksmanship, beg its leaders to act responsibly and wonder whether the world’s superpower is showing some cracks.

“This is highly important for all of us,” Russian President Vladi­mir Putin said this week. “I am hopeful that all the political forces in the United States will be able to resolve this crisis as quickly as possible.”

Although the mood from afar hasn’t turned to panic, some in Europe and Asia say they are utterly stunned by the quixotic partisan fervor shaking the pillar of the global economy.

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GOP dropping Obamacare in shutdown debate?

Washington (CNN) -- Forgive President Barack Obama and Democrats if they are getting confused by the tactics of House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican caucus.

After prompting a partial government shutdown by trying to undermine Obama's signature health care reforms, GOP leaders now are focused on spending cuts elsewhere in their demands for agreeing to fund the government and raise the federal borrowing limit.

Boehner, who earlier this year told his GOP colleagues that he was finished negotiating one-on-one with the president, now pleads for Obama to sit down for what he calls a "conversation" on how to reopen the government and prevent what would be the first-ever U.S. default as soon as next week.

But when Obama invited the entire House Republican caucus to the White House as part of a series of meetings with legislators, Boehner's office responded that only the GOP leadership and committee chairmen would attend the Thursday gathering.

"It is our hope that this will be a constructive meeting and that the president finally recognizes Americans expect their leaders to be able to sit down and resolve their differences," said a statement by a Boehner aide.

Obama's invitation was intended to demonstrate outreach to Republicans on the ninth day of the partial shutdown and just eight days from when the Treasury says Congress must increase the federal debt ceiling or risk default.

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