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"A lot of the spending cuts that we're making should be around areas like defense spending as opposed to food stamps," President Obama told in an interview with NPR.

White House Budget Director Jacob Lew dodged CNN's Candy Crowley's question if the administration would prioritize Social Security payments if a default occurred. Transcript of the exchange below: CNN's Candy Crowley, HOST: "More immediately, you'd have to make some spending priorities -- payment priority decisions: Social Security benefits, and federal worker pay, and defense contractors. What are your priorities should the debt ceiling not be raised on the 2nd, when you have the bills that immediately come due? Social Security checks, federal worker pay, defense contractors?" Jacob Lew, WH Budget Director: "Our plan is for Congress to do its work...

With peas, acrobatics, sports and writing being the main topics at today's press conference, you may have missed a key moment when President Obama announced the stimulus was a success. And this wasn't just his opinion; there is evidence too! "Without relitigating the past, I’m absolutely convinced, and the vast majority of economists are convinced, that the steps we took in the Recovery Act saved millions of people their jobs or created a whole bunch of jobs," President Obama said at his presser on Monday morning.

"The American people sent us here to do the right thing, not for party but for country. So, we're going to work together, to get things done on their behalf. That is the least they should expect of us. Not the most they should expect of us. I am ready to roll up my sleeves over the e next several weeks and months and i know people in both parties are ready to do that as well and we will keep you updated on the progress we are making on these debt limit talks over the next several days. Thank...

Howard Dean says the only way you're ever going to control healthcare costs in this country is to get rid of the "perverse incentive that we [doctors] have to do as much as we possibly can." Goward Dean, a doctor, says government health care beneficiaries should be given a "set amount and tell them 'this is what you get.'" Dean says government health care users should be told the benefits that are provided and "let them figure out how to do it." "We use Medicaid not just for poor people. We use Medicaid for the basis of our universal health...

"This president is looking to usurp congressional oversight to find a way to get it done without us. My position is that is an impeachable act from my perspective. There are a lot of things people say, 'Are you going to impeach the president over that?' — No. But this? This is catastrophic. This jeopardizes the credibility of our nation if one man can usurp the entire system set up by our founding fathers over something this significant," Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) said.

"As a decedent of generations of Iowans, I was born and raised in Waterloo. As a mom of five, a foster parent and a former tax lawyer and now a small business job creator, I know we can’t keep spending money that we don’t have," GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (Minn.) says in his first advertisement. "That's why I fought against the wasteful bailout, against the stimulus. I will not vote to increase the debt ceiling."

Salon.com editor-at-large Joan Walsh says a lot is just "not known" about GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann. Walsh must not read her own website because a simple search of their archives and a broader search on Google of Salon.com and Bachmann yields a lot of results. A lot. "She's [Bachmann] trying to make this -- and they're all trying to make this about the economy. So they're thinking that's going to be the club which to batter President Obama [with]," Salon.com editor Joan Walsh said. "You know, the more people dig into her background, her foster kids, there's just a...

"The United States is strategically overextended worldwide. What are we doing borrowing money from Japan to defend Japan. Borrow money from Europe to defend Europe. Borrow money from the Persian Gulf to defend the Persian Gulf. This country is over extended. It is an empire and the empire is coming down," Pat NuBuchanan said on "Morning Joe" today. "Well you're not going to get the revenue, so you might as well end the war," he added.

"It seems to me that if America were really expanding economically, that kind of wealth, that kind of disparity is palpable. But when you have stagnation when you have a chronic case of unemployment, the sense of social injustice can be terribly demoralizing and politically in the long run, very dangerous. It can politicize social economic issues, create radicalism, class conflict [and] extremism and I think that is a real risk in our society. Especially since so many of those who made so much money recently produce very little wealth for others. They essentially pocket the money. They are engaged...

"Malia And Sasha generally finish their homework a day ahead of time. Malia's 13, Sasha's 10. It is impressive. They don't wait until the night before, they're not pulling all-nighters," President Obama said at his press briefing today. Obama was making the point that if his daughters can get their homework done on time, then Congress should be able to do the same thing. However, there is only one tiny problem. Malia, Obama's oldest daughter, is not yet 13. She is 12 and will turn 13 next month on July 4th.

President Obama responds to presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) for saying he has not done enough for the black and Latino communities. Blaming Republican fiscal ideas, President Obama said we have to "dig ourselves out of a hole that was created by their polices." "That's politics, Mrs. Bachmann wants to run for president. That's pretty much boilerplate language for all the Republicans right now. I think everybody, certainly in the African-American community , the Latino community and across the county, understands that we've had to dig ourselves out of a hole that was created by their polices," President Obama told...

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) talks to NBC News about the lewd picture scandal. NBC's LUKE RUSSERT: "That's not a picture of you?" REP. ANTHONY WEINER: "You know, I can't say with certitude. My system was hacked. Pictures can be manipulated, pictures can be dropped in and inserted."

After the sermon was delivered at the Joplin, MO tornado memorial service, President Obama, who was sitting in the front row, was clearly scene chewing on something.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blasted Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on the Senate floor late Wednesday night. Reid called Rand Paul's opposition to the renewal of the PATRIOT Act "political grandstanding." However, that wasn't the worst thing Reid accused the freshman Senator from Kentucky of. "When the clock strikes midnight tomorrow, we will be giving terrorists the opportunity to plot against our country undetected," Reid said on the Senate floor. "Now, the senator from Kentucky is threatening to take away the best tools we have for stopping them." Oddly, Reid cities James R. Clapper, the gaffe-prone Director of National Intelligence,...

"There is a Medicare story to be told here -- the Medicare story that is being told here is the president and his party have decided to shamelessly distort and demagogue Medicare. So we're going to see a Mediscare reform campaign here," Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on Tuesday's edition of "Morning Joe."

LONDON - At the Globe Academy in Southwark – the pupils had no forewarning of who was popping by – the leaders (President Obama and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron) teamed up to play table tennis against two teenage schoolboys. “Who wants to take me on?” Mr Obama said as he walked into the gym.

Israeli Prime Minister addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on May 23, 2011.

"We can only make peace with the Palestinians if they are prepared to make peace with the Jewish state," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told AIPAC on Monday night. "It must leave Israel with security and therefore Israel can not return to the indefensible 1967 lines." Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

While visiting Dublin, Ireland earlier today, President Obama was given the gift of a "hurling stick." The "hurley" stick is used in a sporting event. However, the president said he had a different use for it: "If members of Congress aren't behaving, give 'em a little paddle, a little hurl."