Politics: Afternoon Edition: Obama's task: Maintain war support

If you have difficulty viewing this newsletter, click here to view as a Web page. Click here to view in plain text. Wednesday, June 22, 2011 HEADLINES Obama's task: Maintain war support In announcing Afghan troop withdrawals, Obama's challenge will be to build the case to continue the war for several more years. » Read full article CBO warns of debt explosion Debt will exceed the size of U.S. economy by 2021 without dramatic cuts to programs or steep tax increases, report finds. » Read full article Gore criticizes Obama on global warming Former Vice President Al Gore is doing what few environmentalists and fellow Democrats have done before, criticizing President Barack Obama's record on global warming. » Read full article Fed to end stimulus measures The Federal Reserve acknowledged that the economic recovery has lost momentum Wednesday and said it will keep interest rates near zero to try to prop up growth. » Read full article Federal Eye: Postal Service suspends retirement payments The U.S. Postal Service says it will suspend the employer's contributions to the defined benefit portion of the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). » Read full article BEHIND THE GOVERNMENT SHOWDOWN Sign up for daily e-mail updates on the federal budget showdown QUOTE OF THE DAY Newt Gingrich told Reuters on why some of his campaign staff resigned: "Philosophically, I am very different from normal politicians, and normal consultants found that very hard to deal with." COMMENT OF THE DAY cbl55, on Nia-Malika Henderson's "Huntsman joins GOP race" story: If Huntsman won the Republican nomination (seems very unlikely), he and Obama might even be allowed to run an interesting, thoughtful campaign against one another. Q&A DISCUSSIONS Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was online at 2 p.m. ET to discuss what Democrats are doing to create jobs: Q: In what tangible ways are partisan politics impacting the implementation of meaningful jobs programs? Do you see a spirit of cooperation developing between the parties to develop an initiative to promote job creation in the near term? Harry Reid: Let me put it this way: yesterday, Republicans blocked a jobs bill that has been creating jobs in distressed communities in a cost-effective manner since 1965. They blocked it even though this bill has previously passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. Instead of focusing on jobs, Republicans were more interested in loading up the bill with irrelevant amendments dealing with everything from light bulbs to the lesser prairie chicken to a sand dune lizard — everything except jobs. This level of obstruction is extremely disappointing. » View full Q&A session MULTIMEDIA Video: Will Boehner support Obama's Afghanistan decision? House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday he will support the President's decision on troop levels in Afghanistan if he listens to commanders on the ground and U.S. diplomats in the region. Get The Washington Post, your way. Want to stay on top of the latest news, features, commentary and more? Here's how: Mobile: Alerts: Social Media: Applications Web site E-mail SMS RSS Feeds Facebook Twitter SEND TO A FRIEND UNSUBSCRIBE E-NEWSLETTER CENTER GET HELP Washington Post Digital E-mail Customer Care 1150 15th Street NW Washington, D.C. 20071 ©2011 The Washington Post Privacy Policy