Eric Scheiner's blog

During a United Nations General Assembly summit on non-communicable diseases -- a discussion that included diet and eating habits -- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said “governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the default social option."

Speaking on the government's role in diet and health last week, Bloomberg told the UN General Assembly, “There are powers only governments can exercise, policies only governments can mandate and enforce and results only governments can achieve. To halt the worldwide epidemic of non-communicable diseases, governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the default social option. That is ultimately government’s highest duty.”

During a Democratic fundraising event in San Francisco late last month, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D- Calif.) declared Republicans are ‘hijacking’ the deficit issue in order to ‘destroy the public space’ and wondered aloud “Do their children breathe air?”

An audience member recorded Pelosi’s address at the August 21, 2011 fundraiser where the California Democrat attacked Republicans on the deficit. “The Republicans right now are using the idea of deficit reduction as an excuse, they’re hijacking an idea that has some resonance, we all want to reduce the deficit, in order to not reduce the deficit but to destroy the public space, destroy government,” Pelosi said.

Would Senator Barack Obama disagree with the actions and statements of President Barack Obama? That question gets a closer look in the video ‘The Great Debate’.

Among the issues touched on is President Obama’s current decision to have the Attorney General’s office on the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA). 

At a White House press conference today, President Barack Obama said that "professional politicians" understand the debt crisis better than "the public." 

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin praised Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) willingness to work on entitlement reform while on the Senate floor Wednesday stating, “I don’t disagree with Paul Ryan saying we have got to look honestly at Medicare.”

As recently as last month, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was pushing for a clean debt ceiling measure. “You don’t have to have a lot of things attached to raising the debt ceiling. You can do that separately,” he told reporters at an April 14th press conference.

Now a House GOP plan to hold a vote on a clean extension of the debt ceiling is coming under fire by Reid. It will send "a terrible message to the international community," Reid said Tuesday.

President Barack Obama has often lauded his administration as being the "most transparent" but the administration continues to hold a string of "listen only" media events where reporters are not allowed to ask questions.

On Wednesday, first lady Michelle Obama held a "listen only" media call on the “Joining Forces” national initiative to support military families. This latest conference call where reporters can not ask questions, is part of a string of media events with the first lady where reporters can only "listen in" or attend if invited by the White House press office.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) has made a video to go along with a letter to President Obama, in which Walsh expresses his concern over the president’s recent comments on immigration.

“For years President Obama has said he is serious about dealing with America’s immigration issues, however, yesterday [in a speech in El Paso, Texas] he reinforced the idea that he’s not taking the issue seriously by suggesting that the only way to make Republicans happy on the subject is to build ‘a moat’.

Back in 2008 then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) knew where she wanted to place the blame for high gas prices. “The price of oil is at the doorstep -- 4 dollars plus per gallon for oil, is attributed to two oil men in the White House,” Pelosi said in a CNN interview on July 17th, 2008.