Illinois State Senators

Obama slams US Senate 'minority' for blocking gun reform

Agence France-PresseApril 17, 2013 18:30

An defiant and angry President Barack Obama Wednesday said the defeat of gun reforms in the US Senate was "shameful," accused senators of caving to the gun lobby, and promised to fight on. A deeply emotional Obama -- in unusually direct language, and surrounded by relatives of gun victims including some of the 20 kids gunned down in the Newtown massacre -- accused the firearms lobby of lying to doom reforms.

Democrats offer bill to curb Big Oil's U.S. tax benefits

Thomson ReutersFebruary 13, 2013 21:45

By Kim Dixon WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Senate Democrats on Wednesday introduced a bill to eliminate billions of dollars in tax benefits enjoyed by big oil and gas companies, one day after President Barack Obama renewed his call for plugging tax loopholes in his State of the Union address. Obama and fellow Democrats for years have targeted oil and gas tax breaks, a move that Republicans and some Democrats from oil-producing states fiercely oppose.