Covered at Reason 24/7: Obama Says He Needs Nancy Pelosi as Speaker

The
2016 race for president may already
be getting under way, but there’s a more imminent election in
2014, and the campaigner-in-chief is
in California today raising money for that effort, and, by
extension, for his second-term plans.

From Politico:

President Barack Obama said Wednesday at a DCCC
fundraiser it would be difficult for him to pass a slew of
second-term agenda items without Nancy Pelosi regaining her
speakership.



"I would be dishonest if I didn’t say that it would be a whole lot
easier to govern if I had Nancy Pelosi as Speaker," Obama said at
the second Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser
he attended, this one at the home of San Francisco investor Gordon
Getty.

Follow these stories and more at Reason 24/7 and don't forget you
can e-mail stories to us at 24_7@reason.com and tweet us
at @reason247.

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North Carolina House Speaker Kills Bill To Create State Religion

The Republican speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives killed legislation on Thursday that aimed to establish an official state religion.

House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Charlotte) announced Thursday afternoon that the bill would not be receiving a vote in the full House, effectively dropping the measure. Loretta Boniti, a reporter for News 14 Carolina, broke the news on Twitter, and it was confirmed in a breaking news alert posted on the home page of wral.com, a Raleigh-based television station. Tillis' decision followed several days of national media attention on the bill, which also said that the state government did not have to listen to federal court rulings and was exempt from the requirements of the First Amendment.

The bill, which was drafted by state Reps. Carl Ford (R-China Grove) and Harry Warren (R-Salisbury), was intended to address an issue in Rowan County, where the ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the county commission in an attempt to block commissioners from having a Christian prayer at the beginning of meetings.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Obama Says He Needs Nancy Pelosi as Speaker

The
2016 race for president may already
be getting under way, but there’s a more imminent election in
2014, and the campaigner-in-chief is
in California today raising money for that effort, and, by
extension, for his second-term plans.

From Politico:

President Barack Obama said Wednesday at a DCCC
fundraiser it would be difficult for him to pass a slew of
second-term agenda items without Nancy Pelosi regaining her
speakership.


"I would be dishonest if I didn’t say that it would be a whole lot
easier to govern if I had Nancy Pelosi as Speaker," Obama said at
the second Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser
he attended, this one at the home of San Francisco investor Gordon
Getty.

Follow these stories and more at Reason 24/7 and don't forget you
can e-mail stories to us at 24_7@reason.com and tweet us
at @reason247.

Read More

Obama: Nancy Pelosi As Speaker Of The House Would Make My Job A Lot Easier

President Barack Obama heaped praise on Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Wednesday during a San Francisco fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, making it clear that he had a strong interest in helping Democrats regain control of the House in order to give Pelosi the speakership again.

"My job is to make sure we move the country forward, and I think we can best do that if Nancy Pelosi is speaker of the House once again," Obama said, explaining his belief that she supported a number of broad second-term policy goals that have already been waylaid by partisan division in Congress.

Obama went on to lay out a laundry list of agenda items, from gun control, to early childhood education, to climate change and patching up the nation's cracking infrastructure, conceding that they weren't always politically popular.

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