White House Warns GOP About 'My Way or Highway' Budget Tactic

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  FILE: June 8, 2012: President Obama talks at a press conference inside the White House Briefing Room, in Washington.AP

The White House tried Sunday to win support for President Obama’s forthcoming budget, arguing the plan is a balanced approach to economic prosperity and warning Republicans about stonewalling negotiations and pushing a “rejected” Romney plan.  

“Right now, the approach of many Republicans, particularly the leadership in the House, is my way or the highway,” senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer told “Fox News Sunday.”  “Their view is the only acceptable plan is to try to … essentially enact the Romney economic plan. The American people rejected that, and Republicans shouldn't be doubling down on it.”

The White House effort comes three days before Obama releases his 2014 budget, which is expected to include a mix of tax increases and cuts to such entitlements as Social Security and Medicare.

“You can do both,” Pfeiffer said on ABC’s “This Week.” “That’s what you’ll see. …  What we won’t do is cut our way to prosperity.”

However, the outline of the plan has already been criticized by Republicans and some of the president’s staunchest supporters.

The release of the budget Wednesday, which will be followed by Obama meeting for dinner with Senate Republicans, is just part of a busy week in Washington.

Congress returns from a two-week break with the Senate attempting to reach a bipartisan agreement on immigration-reform legislation, and the leaders of the Democrat-controlled chamber trying to finish a gun-control proposal that might or might not include the contentious universal background checks for buyers.

Pfeiffer told Fox the meeting with Senate Republicans is simply an attempt to find a “caucus of common sense,” not end run leaders of the Republican-controlled House.

Last week, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Obama’s budget blueprint holds reforms “hostage” to tax increases. Organized labor also expressed its disappointment in the plan.

"The president should drop these misguided cuts in benefits and focus instead on building support in Congress for investing in jobs," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.

Obama supporters disagree particularly with the part of his spending plan that calls for a new inflation formula that would reduce the annual cost of living adjustments for a range of government programs, including Social Security and benefits for veterans.

Still, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham expressed optimism Sunday about the plan, suggesting it was at least a starting point toward an elusive, long-term budget deal between Democrats and Republicans.  

"The president is showing a little bit of leg here,” Graham said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “This is somewhat encouraging. We're beginning to set the stage for the grand bargain.”

Among the highlights of the president’s plan is spending cuts and tax increases that would reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion over 10 years, replacing the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts, known as sequester, over the same period.

The proposal also is expected to include new spending for public works projects, early education and job training, as well as $580 billion in new taxes that Republicans oppose.

Counting reductions and higher taxes that Congress and Obama have approved since 2011, the 2014 budget would contribute $4.3 trillion to total deficit reduction by 2023.

On Saturday, the president said his budget was not his “ideal plan,” but it was a compromise that he would be willing to accept.

The House and Senate have already passed their own budget plans. The House plan cuts $5.7 trillion in spending and balances the budget in 10 years while the Senate plan increases taxes by $1 trillion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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FDA warns consumers about dangers of temporary tattoos

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Spring break is around the corner, as is summer vacation, which means you may be thinking of getting a temporary tattoo. After all, it’s temporary, so it’s harmless, right?

Not so fast. The Food and Drug Administration has issued a new health warning, asserting that temporary tattoos may pose some health risks.

Temporary tattoos can last anywhere from three days to several weeks. Although they aren’t injected into the skin, they do come with some risks, said Dr. Linda Katz, director of the FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors.

Katz said consumers are still at risk for allergic reactions, which can be severe and can last even longer than the tattoo itself.

MedWatch, the FDA’s safety information and adverse event reporting program, has received many reports of serious, long-lasting reactions that consumers did not expect when they first got the temporary tattoo. Problems include redness, blisters, raised red weeping lesions, loss of skin pigmentation, increased sensitivity to sunlight and even permanent scarring.

The FDA said some consumers had to seek medical attention after getting one of the tattoos, including trips to the emergency room. Sometimes these trips occurred right after the tattoo was placed on the skin, and sometimes they occurred weeks after the event.

Usually, temporary tattoos are done using henna – a reddish-brown coloring that derives from a flowering plant. Modern-day henna is called “black henna” and is often used in place of traditional henna. Inks marketed as black henna may be mixed with several other ingredients – or it could just be hair dye by itself. The FDA said adding other ingredients to the henna makes the tattoo last longer and look darker.

The extra ingredient in black henna is often coal-tar hair dye, which contains p-phenylenediamine (PPD), an ingredient that can cause dangerous skin reactions in some people, according to the FDA. The tattoo artist may use PPD-containing hair dye by itself, but either way, it’s dangerous and hard to tell which product is used.

Black henna tattoos may be sold at beaches, boardwalks or specialty shops. Some states have jurisdiction over professional cosmetology practices, but these vary by each state. It’s feasible that in whichever state you receive the tattoo, there is no licensed board checking to see if the artist is following safe and clean practices.

One 5-year-old girl experienced severe reddening on her arm two weeks after receiving a black henna temporary tattoo, while a 17-year-old experienced redness and itching that later blistered and filled with fluid.

If you have an allergic reaction to a temporary tattoo, please contact the FDA’s MedWatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Click for more info from the FDA.
 

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NYC health officials warns of new, deadly meningitis strain

Published March 22, 2013

Associated Press

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The New York City health department has issued new recommendations for vaccinating against a new and lethal strain of bacterial meningitis.

It says the symptoms come on quickly and the disease can be fatal if not treated immediately.

It's only been seen in men. The patients often contract it through anonymous sexual encounters with other men. That makes it hard to trace the infection's path.

The standard meningitis vaccine is effective against the new strain. The health department is advising it for men regardless of HIV status who regularly have contact with other men they meet online, at a bar or party.

The health department says 22 cases have been reported since 2010, including 13 last year and four this year. Seven have been fatal.

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CURB ON GUN VIOLENCE: Pol Warns Bill With Gun-Owner Record Won't Pass

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn said Sunday any Senate legislation on gun control that includes a national registry of firearms owners will be a deal breaker.

Coburn is part of the bipartisan Senate panel seeking ways to curb gun violence and that purportedly is about to agree on a proposal to expand background checks to most private gun sales, with national record-keeping still unresolved.

“There absolutely will not be record-keeping of legitimate gun owners,” Coburn told “Fox News Sunday.” “That will kill this bill.”

The potential deal on background checks was reported Saturday by The Washington Post.

“I don’t think we’re that close,” Coburn also said.

Federal law already requires licensed firearm dealers to keep records.

The Senate panel is made up of four Democrats and four Republicans, but recent negotiations are purportedly being led by a smaller team that includes Coburn and New York Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer.

The eight members of the Democrat-controlled chamber have been negotiating since returning to Washington in January, just weeks after the Dec. 14, 2012, shootings at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school in which 20 first-graders and six adults were killed.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected this week to begin considering new proposals.  

Meanwhile, President Obama is working on a plan that, like Senate proposals, calls for background checks as well as bans on assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines.

The National Rifle Association, the country’s most powerful gun lobby, opposes background checks and a federal database.

Wayne LaPierre, the group’s executive vice president, recently told Fox the ideas won’t achieve their intended purpose of tracking guns used in crimes because criminals won’t sign up. In addition, he said, federal law will not allow such a database to include the names of people with emotional problems – who have committed several of the most-recent mass shootings.

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FDA warns against codeine use in children after tonsillectomy

U.S. health regulators on Wednesday issued the strongest possible warning to physicians to avoid prescribing codeine to children after surgery to remove tonsils, adenoids or both.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a posting on its website that deaths have occurred after surgery in children with obstructive sleep apnea who received codeine for pain relief following such surgeries. Codeine is converted to morphine by the liver.

"These children had evidence of being ultra-rapid metabolizers of codeine, which is an inherited ability that causes the liver to convert codeine into life-threatening or fatal amounts of morphine in the body," the agency said.

The new boxed warning, the strongest available, will be added to the label of codeine-containing products. The labels will also include a recommendation that the drugs not be used in these patients in this setting.

The FDA announced last August it was reviewing the safety of codeine due to deaths and serious side effects in children. The agency found that many of these events occurred in children with obstructive sleep apnea.

These patients may already have underlying breathing problems that made them particularly sensitive to the breathing difficulties that can result when codeine is converted in the body to high levels of morphine, the agency said.

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