Listen to President @BarackObama and I discuss everything from the future of our nation and his philosophy on dancing, to that time he was my opening comedy act. This conversation was an honor and a joy. https://t.co/pfOk236hQrpic.twitter.com/DBiosNFX9e
.@ConanOBrien and I had a lot of fun surprising these amazing young people—I’m so proud of them and the work they’ve been doing as @WhenWeAllVote volunteers, getting folks registered to vote all over this country. pic.twitter.com/RxER1HHnWT
Today my friend @ConanOBrien and I surprised some high school juniors from across Milwaukee who were meeting with @ReachHigher to talk about their college dreams.
To the amazing students out there, don't forget that I'm rooting for you, and I can't wait to see what you achieve! pic.twitter.com/f0UYaCgbNt
Straits Times: US First Lady Michelle Obama Visits Qatar; Makes Stop At United States Air Base In Qatar
First Lady Michelle Obama visited the largest US air force base outside the United States Tuesday on the first full day of a Middle East tour. “This isn’t an easy post; you guys are doing the tough work,” she told the assembled servicemen and women at Al-Udeid base, the forward headquarters for the US Central Command outside the Qatari capital. Obama is in Qatar as part of a seven-day regional tour during which she is expected to focus on the issue of “cultural beliefs” obstructing girls’ education.
She is set to make a keynote speech at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha Wednesday, as part of her well-publicised efforts to promote girls’ education globally. In an email ahead of her trip, Obama wrote that 62 million girls across the globe are not going to school at all, urging support for the Let Girls Learn initiative that she launched with President Barack Obama earlier this year. Obama was accompanied by late-night talk show host Conan O’ Brien as part of the morale-boosting visit to troops. O’Brien, whose Conan programme airs on TBS cable television, put on a show for the troops, part of which will be broadcast later this year.
First Lady Michelle Obama meeting with Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development in Doha
Instagram: When you’re on a base and #FLOTUS asks you to drop and give her fifty, you give her fifty of your @TeamCoco best. -Conan #MissionConan #JoiningForces
President Obama waits backstage before delivering the keynote address at the the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies 18th Annual Gala Dinner in Washington, D.C., May 8, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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Today (All Times Eastern)
11:00: First Lady Michelle Obama Presents The 2014 National Medal For Museum And Library Services
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Today (All Times Pacific)
9:30 AM: The President participates in a DNC fundraiser, The Beverly Hilton
11:10: Departs Los Angeles
11:50: Arrives San Diego
1:15: Delivers remarks at a fundraiser for congressional Democrats, private residence
2:30: Departs San Diego
3:50: Arrives San Jose
4:15: Participates in a DNC fundraiser, private residence
6:30: Speaks at a DNC fundraiser, Fairmont San Jose
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Tara Culp-Ressler: U.S. Women Saved $483 Million On Their Birth Control Pills Last Year
Women in the United States saved an estimated $483 million on their out-of-pocket costs for the birth control pill, according to new data from the IMS Institute on Healthcare Informatics. The health care data company found that Obamacare has “dramatically reduced” women’s out-of-pocket costs now that insurers are required to cover preventative care without charging an additional co-pay. Compared to the data from 2012, about 24 million more birth control pill prescriptions were filled without a co-pay in 2013. That means each of the women filling those prescriptions ended up saving an average of $269. Those savings can make all the difference for women who are struggling to afford the reproductive care they need.
According to the IMS Institute’s data, there was 4.6 percent increase in prescriptions for birth control between 2012 and 2013. One of the most common misconceptions about Obamacare’s contraceptive provision is the assumption that women are now getting birth control “for free.” In reality, however, these women are accessing birth control through their private, employer-sponsored health insurance plans. Women do pay for the benefits included in those plans, both by working at their job and by paying a monthly premium. Under Obamacare, the difference is that they don’t have to pay an additional out-of-pocket cost for the preventative health benefits specific to their gender.
Chicago Tribune: Conan O’Brien Ribs President Obama Over Traffic: “Skype works”
President Obama was in Century City on Wednesday night to accept a serious award from the USC Shoah Foundation — but his warmup act, comedian Conan O’Brien, still wasn’t over what Angelenos were calling Wednesday’s #Obamajam on major routes around town. “As a resident of Los Angeles, I’m furious about what you do to traffic when you visit this city,” O’Brien said to laughter at the 20th anniversary gala of USC’s Shoah Foundation. “What the hell? I know you left Washington six hours ago, but I left Burbank seven hours ago.”
“Now I mean this with the greatest respect, Sir, but do you have to physically come here? We love you. This town loves you. You’ve got our vote. You’re good. Audience, what do you say to – next time we give President Obama a Los Angeles award, we mail it to him? And then we fly down the 405,” the comedian said. As the president laughed, O’Brien added that “Skype works” and that if he insisted on continuing to come to Los Angeles, he owed everyone a ride home on his helicopter.
President Obama is presented with the USC Shoah Foundation’s Ambassador for Humanity Award by movie director Steven Spielberg at the USC Shoah Foundation’s 20th anniversary Ambassadors for Humanity gala in Los Angeles
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Michael Hiltzik: The Insurers Speak: Yes, People Are Paying Their Obamacare Premiums
Things continue to get tough for the Obamacare dead-enders, those increasingly lonely opponents whose only comeback against the flow of good news about the Affordable Care Act is to conjure up absurd arguments against it (I mean you, Cato’s Michael Cannon) or, if all else fails, make stuff up. That latter effort was put in the grave Wednesday by a panel of health insurance spokespersons summoned to Washington by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The committee, fans will recall, recently issued an utterly bogus report claiming that of all enrollees on the federal ACA website, only 67% had paid their first month’s premiums. That’s important because health insurance coverage isn’t official until the first payment is made.
As we reported, experts jumped all over the figure, pointing out that it overlooked that the payment deadline for a huge percentage of enrollees hadn’t been reached by the cut-off date for the committee’s survey, April 15, and that the due date for many others hasn’t been reached to this day. The giant health insurer Wellpoint says the payment ratio of enrollees whose premium date has already passed is “ranging up to 90 percent.” –Health Care Service Corp., which operates Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Montana, Oklahoma and Texas, says its payment ratio on exchange plans ranges from 85% to 88% for policies with effective dates from Jan. 1 through March 1. On policies effective April 1, the ratio was 83%. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Government, one of Washington’s most reliable deficit scolds, on Tuesday issued an analysis acknowledging that the ACA has helped to bring down projections of federal healthcare spending from 2011 to 2021 by $900 billion.
Yahoo: Nigeria’s President At WEF Pledges To Free Kidnapped Girls
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan pledged on Thursday to find more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist rebels, as the hostage crisis overshadowed his opening address to a major conference designed to showcase investment opportunities in Africa’s biggest economy. Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) being hosted in the capital Abuja, Jonathan thanked foreign nations including the United States, Britain, France and China for their support in trying to rescue the girls, who were kidnapped from a secondary school on April 14 by Boko Haram.
France became the latest nation to offer help on Wednesday, saying it was boosting intelligence ties with Nigeria and sending security service agents there to tackle Boko Haram, the militant group which claimed the mass kidnapping. With more than 4,000 troops operating between Mali to the west and Central African Republic to the east, Paris has a major interest in preventing Nigeria’s security from deteriorating and has warned that Boko Haram could spread north into the Sahel. In the latest big Islamist attack in Nigeria, 125 people were killed on Monday when gunmen rampaged through a town in the northeast near the Cameroon border.
Jeanne Sahadi: Uncle Sam Runs $114 Billion Surplus In April
The U.S. Treasury Department booked a $114 billion surplus in April, the largest for that month since 2008, according to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office released Wednesday. For the first seven months of this fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, the CBO estimates the country has racked up a $301 billion deficit, which is $187 billion lower than it was for the same period last year. Federal coffers saw a 7% increase in individual income taxes and payroll taxes, a 15% increase in corporate income taxes, and a 37% increase in money paid to Treasury by the Federal Reserve.
Meanwhile, overall spending fell by 2%. Areas that saw the biggest drops included unemployment benefits and homeland security (both down 31%), agriculture (down 12%) and defense spending (down 5%). Much of the drop in overall spending is attributable to bigger payments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Treasury. According to the weird accounting rules of the federal budget, those payments are counted as “negative” spending.
Alan Pyke: CEO Of Biggest Fast Food Chain Comes Out In Favor Of A Minimum Wage Increase
The founder and CEO of Subway says a minimum wage increase wouldn’t be such a bad thing for his stores and workers and believes it should be changed so that wages rise automatically with inflation. “I’m not concerned,” CEO Fred DeLuca said on Wednesday when CNBC asked him about minimum wage hikes. “Over the years, I’ve seen so many of these wage increases. I think it’s normal. It won’t have a negative impact hopefully, and that’s what I tell my workers.” DeLuca’s support is noteworthy in part because of the size of his business. Subway has the most locations of any fast food chain. While a majority of small business owners support a $10.10 wage hike, major corporations of that scale typically oppose raising wages. DeLuca had previously warned that raising the minimum wage too rapidly would be a “bad idea” that could damage businesses, while acknowledging that “minimum-wage workers deserve to make more.”
At the time that he offered that warning in 2013, President Obama was proposing a minimum wage hike from $7.25 to $9 an hour. Since then, Obama has joined congressional progressives in calling for a $10.10 hourly minimum, which would nearly recoup the purchasing power low-wage workers have lost to inflation over the past 40 years. In the 15 months since DeLuca criticized proposed wage hikes as too rapid, low-wage worker strikes have spread from a handful of New York fast food stores to a hundred cities in all parts of the country, ratcheting up the pressure on lawmakers to act on wages. On Wednesday, workers announced plans for strikes in 150 U.S. cities and protests in 30 other countries across six continents.
CRFB: The $900 Billion Slowdown In Federal Health Care Spending
With April’s updated projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), spending on major federal health care programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act’s exchange subsidies) has now been revised downward by $900 billion, or 0.4 percent of GDP, cumulatively from 2011 through 2021, just since their March 2011 projections. Buoyed by a 23 percent drop in the cost of Medicare Part D and a 15 percent decline in the projected costs of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) new coverage through Medicaid and the exchanges, this remarkable slowdown has been a bright spot amidst an otherwise still dim fiscal outlook.
Another interesting comparison is to look at how much federal health care spending has changed since before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. The last pre-ACA CBO baseline was in March 2010 and projected net spending on Medicare and Medicaid at $1.34 trillion in 2020. The April 2014 baseline, though, actually estimates spending on those programs plus the ACA’s exchange subsidies in 2020 will be $70 billion lower than before the ACA was even enacted, at $1.27 trillion.
Ronan Keenan: Obamacare Will Be Vindicated By History: From JFK To FDR, Here’s How The Nation’s Memory Works
Not everyone viewed the introduction of Obamacare as cause for national celebration, but that doesn’t mean history won’t remember it as such. Time has a habit of changing the perception of presidential initiatives. The Gettysburg Address may be the most iconic speech made in America, but not everyone shared that sentiment in 1863. Far from being revered as an affirmation on human equality, Lincoln’s words were roundly criticized by the Democrats of the day, while the Chicago Times described the president’s efforts as “silly, flat and dishwatery utterances.” While seemingly difficult to imagine, decades from now history will note that the Affordable Care Act symbolized one of the great presidential efforts to fight inequality in America. Long forgotten will be today’s headlines of a temperamental website, deadline delays and mixed messages about keeping existing plans. Instead, it will be heralded that Barack Obama made a superior healthcare service available to the masses.
With more than 7 million enrolled, Obamacare is here to stay. Regardless of future modifications, of which there will be many, affordable healthcare has been instituted in the United States, dragging millions away from the threat of imminent bankruptcy and terminal illness. Obama will be appreciated as the first black president who also made healthcare a reality for everyone. It will define his legacy, with his political missteps whittled from his narrative. Republicans are on the wrong side of history, but their obstructionism will fade from public consciousness. We like to think that a time will return when the nation supported the conviction of its leader. But great achievements aren’t born from support from the masses, they happen when someone risks derision to surpass the status quo.
Andrew Prokop: Study: On Economics, Obama’s Judges Are The Most Liberal In 50 Years
How liberal are President Obama’s judges? A new study by two political scientists tries to answer that question. Robert Carp and Kenneth Manning examine about 50,000 federal judicial opinions between 1932 and 2013, including 683 by Obama’s district court appointees, and code each opinion as liberal or conservative. Overall, Obama’s judges basically resemble nominees of other Democratic presidents — except on decisions about economic or labor regulation. There, Obama’s judges are the most liberal of any president studied (going back to John F. Kennedy). Note that the study only includes district court judges, not Supreme Court judges:
Note particularly the difference between Obama and Clinton’s judges — Obama’s made 66 percent liberal decisions, compared to 54 percent for Clinton’s. Carp and Manning code these opinions based on whether the judges sided with businesses. “In the area of government regulation of the economy, liberal judges would probably uphold legislation that benefited working people or the underdog,” they write. “A typical case might be a dispute between a labor union and a company — a worker alleging a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, or a petitioner challenging the right of a government regulator to circumscribe his activity.”
President Obama reacts to seeing speechwriter Cody Keenan outside the Oval Office on May 8, 2009. Keenan dressed up as a pirate for an Oval Office photo shot for use in the President’s speech to the White House Correspondents Association dinner May 9, 2010
President Obama talks on the phone in the Oval Office with President-elect Jacob Zuma of South Africa, May 8, 2009
President Obama is reflected in a mirror as he waits backstage before being introduced for remarks at a Latino Town Hall meeting on the H1N1 swine flu virus May 8, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama greets people in the audience after delivering the keynote address at the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies 18th Annual Gala Dinner in Washington, D.C., May 8, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama jokes with Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett backstage before delivering remarks on the economy at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the State University of New York in Albany, N.Y., May 8, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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First Lady Michelle Obama speaks at an awards ceremony in the East Room at the White House, May 8, 2013 in Washington, DC. The First Lady presented the 2013 National Medal for Museum and Library Service to 10 institutions from across the country.
President Obama talks with electric utility executives and trade association representatives before a meeting to discuss lessons learned and actions taken since Hurricane Sandy, at the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., May 8, 2013 (Photo by Pete Souza)
Barack Obama Killed It In His White House Correspondents’ Dinner Speech
Business Insider: President Barack Obama started off his White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner speech by walking up to the podium to DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win.”
How do you like my new entrance music?” Obama said. “Rush Limbaugh warned you about this — second term, baby! We’re changing things around here a little bit.”
It was the start of a speech that kept his audience entertained throughout, and one that ended on a serious note by paying respect to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Obamacare makes insurance more affordable for families headed by same-sex couples
Center For American Progress: The widespread nature of inclusive coverage is well demonstrated in the practices of employers: Fifty-one percent of small business offer coverage to same-sex partners of employees, and more than 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies do the same. Federal policy under the Affordable Care Act promotes the expansion of these positive market practices and authorizes the marketplaces to offer coverage that includes same-sex couples and their children in family policies available in 2014.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released final regulations implementing provisions of the Affordable Care Act that reform health insurance markets across the country. These regulations address the types of coverage that insurers offer to families. In explaining the rules, the agency clearly indicated that all families need access to health coverage and that adopting a narrow definition of “family” could adversely impact the ability of diverse families such as LGBT families to access the coverage and care that they need. Accordingly, the agency explicitly gave states the flexibility to require issuers to include specific types of individuals on a family policy. Current market practices that have promoted expanding coverage for LGBT Americans and their families will thus continue to advance under the Affordable Care Act.
despite all of the sometimes confusing news and misinformation surrounding the Affordable Care Act, LGBT Americans and their families should take heart: Many of the law’s reforms are already making a difference, with even more benefits still to come.
SmartyPants: Over the last few years the Washington DC villagers have developed a myth that President Obama is cold, aloof and detached. That myth is directly contradicted by those who actually know him and people he interacts with outside the beltway bubble. So you have to wonder what all those folks will do with this storyline once Mark Leibovich’s book This Town about the incestuous and manipulative nature of those inside that bubble is finally published. We already know that Politico reporters Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei are pretty nervous because they wrote what is clearly a pre-emptive strike on the book before its even published. But Jim Newell at The New Republic wrote that their reaction demonstrates exactly the point Leibovich is likely to make.
But as a justification for why President Obama keeps his distance from all of that insider obsession, its a pretty powerful statement. Its clear the culture is sick and dysfunctional. That the President choses to remain cold, aloof and detached from it all speaks boldly to his own wisdom. That none of them seem to notice speaks only to their own obsession with it.
***You can enjoy the White House Correspondents Dinner from the red carpet arrivals, POTUS’s and FLOTUS’s arrival, POTUS’s remarks, Conan’s remarks, red carpet pictures on CSPAN, GOPolitico, GOPolitico2, TooFab, More TooFab,***
The Obama Diary 
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