Identity Thief Review | Geekenstein

Posted on February 6, 2013 By Craig Kandiko Movie Reviews, Movies, Reviews, Showcase

From the director of?Horrible Bosses?comes the latest comedy from Universal Pictures.?What would you do if your life was ruined from having your identity stolen? That?s the crisis that Jason Bateman has to face when Melissa McCarthy lives the high life off his good credit in Identity Thief. ??Is this movie going to be one of the best?comedies?of the year or should it be bounced like a bad check?

Story

Sandy Bigelow Patterson is a mild mannered guy with an average job at a financial firm in Denver, CO. He?s married with two daughters and another child on the way. He hates his boss, but knows with the economy in the shape that it is, he can?t be picky and is happy to just have ?a job. ?Tired of being treated like garbage with no rewards or respect, Sandy and his other co-workers decide to leave the firm and start their own. Sandy has the fantastic opportunity for his family to make a lot more money as the new company?s Vice President.

Meanwhile in Winter Haven, FL, another Sandy Bigelow Patterson is living like a rap star. She buys everyone at the bar top shelf liquor, goes on luxurious shopping sprees and drives a brand new car. After being arrested for a felony assault, she misses her court date to which a federal warrant is placed on her. ?The woman in Florida is actually a con artist who specializes in assuming another person?s identity. The victim in this case is Sandy from Denver.

Back in Denver, Sandy is pulled over and arrested for skipping the court date in Florida. After pulling up the mug shot, the detective realizes this is a mistake, but unfortunately with jurisdiction issues, his hands are tied. Sandy feeling better, goes to work at his new job only to find that his employment is in jeopardy due to the delinquency of bills and abysmal credit?score?caused by the identity theft. ?His boss promises Sandy one week to clear his name.

Since the police can?t do anything from Denver, Sandy comes up with the plan to go to Florida and make a citizen?s arrest and bring his impersonator back to Denver to face justice, but it?s not going to be easy. The woman isn?t going to just willingly go without a fight. ?Can Sandy clear his name and get his life back on this cross country trek all while dealing with the mystery woman, mobster bounty hunters and a hillbilly skip tracer.

This is one crazy cross country trip!

Overview

To finally get out of January?s mediocre month of movies is refreshing. Identity Thief is one of those refreshing comedies to get you warmed up for the summer season. ?While some parts of the film are generically formulaic, the charm of the film is its unexpected heart and charm. ?Identity Thief?strongly?reminded me of a criminal version of Planes, Trains & Automobiles or Tommy Boy.

How I can make that comparison is simple. Jason Bateman as Sandy is the uptight straight man with perfect dry sarcasm just like Steve Martin or David Spade. ?Melissa McCarthy as Diana is the physical comedian without a language filter just like John Candy and Chris Farley. Just like the two ?other buddy road movies, Bateman and McCarthy have to try to figure out how to get along without their personalities getting in the way. I thought the two main characters had great chemistry and complimented each other?s performances. Batemen, who also produced the movie, ?didn?t steer away too much from the roles he typically plays while McCarthy just gets better and better. The one thing I really love about McCarthy is that she makes fun of her size and weight, but not in a cruel way. You can tell that she is comfortable in her skin and she shines on the screen. At one point in her career she was only known as the ?fat cousin? of Jenny McCarthy, but now she has proven time and time again that she is a comedy powerhouse.

Melissa McCarthy has become one of the best comediennes in Hollywood today.

The rest of the cast is filled with typical supporting roles that are important to the plot. Amanda Peet plays Sandy?s devoted wife. Jon Favreau plays the asshole boss.?Tip ?T.I.? Harris and Genesis Rodriguez are the mobsters going after Diana for selling their boss bogus credit cards. And Robert Patrick is the redneck skip tracer going after Diana for missing court. There is even a cameo by McCarthy real life husband, Ben Falcone. I won?t tell you what part he plays, but if you saw Bridesmaids, he was the Air Marshall that McCarthy had the hots for.

Identity Thief is directed by Seth Gordon. He has directed two of my personal all time favorite?documentaries, The King of Kong: A fistful of Quarters and Freakonomics. ?But as every tagline, graphic and movie poster want to promote, Gordon is responsible for one of my favorite comedies of 2011, Horrible Bosses. ?If you liked Horrible Bosses you?ll really enjoy Identity Thief. Gordon was very careful not to cross the line from comedy to just gross out moments. I also applaud the absence of the?dreaded?shaky cam.

I really had a great time with Identity Thief and from the reaction of my fellow movie goers, I think they did too. Everyone I talked to at my screener said it was really funny. ?It may not be a movie you run out on day one to buy it on Blu-ray, but it?s a great time at the theater as a date movie or with a bunch of friends. So if you are a fan of the other movies I mentioned in my review, then I really think you?ll enjoy Identity Thief.

In Theaters:?February 8, 2013
Runtime:?111 min
Rating:?R?(for sexual content and language)
Director:?Seth Gordon
Cast:?Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Favreau, Amanda Peet, Tip ?T.I.? Harris, Genesis Rodriguez, Morris Chestnut, John Cho, Robert Patrick, Eric Stonestreet
Genre:?Comedy
Distributor:?Universal Pictures
Official Site:?http://www.identitythiefmovie.com

Amanda Peet, Identity Thief, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau, Melissa McCarthy, Seth Gordon, Universal Pictures

Source: http://www.geekenstein.com/identity-thief-review/

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Steroids help reverse rapid bone loss tied to rib fractures

Feb. 5, 2013 ? New research in animals triggered by a combination of serendipity and counterintuitive thinking could point the way to treating fractures caused by rapid bone loss in people, including patients with metastatic cancers.

A series of studies at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine found that steroid drugs, known for inducing bone loss with prolonged use, actually help suppress a molecule that's key to the rapid bone loss process. A report of the new findings appears online Feb. 5, 2013 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Osteoporosis or the loss of bone mass is a major public health problem in the Western world and commonly results in hip and spine fractures. "But rib fractures are the most common and yet most unreported osteoporotic fractures and also occur in many cancers such as breast cancer, malignant melanoma, and myelomas, that metastasize and spread to the ribs," says Arjun Deb, MD, assistant professor in the departments of Medicine and Cell Biology and Physiology at UNC.

"While little is known about the biology of rib fractures, we have identified a molecular mechanism that could have important implications for the treatment of fractures in cancers and other conditions often associated with rapid bone loss," adds Deb, who also is a member of UNC's McAllister Heart Institute and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The UNC researcher indicated that his lab arrived at the study "via serendipity." From stromal cells of adult mice, they had deleted a gene called beta catenin. These cells, also known as fibroblasts, form the connective tissue of almost all organs in the body. The Deb lab was working on the molecular regulation of these cells.

But something "amazing" occurred, he said. Following beta catenin deletion, the mice died within three weeks. The researchers looked at the functioning of every organ -- heart, kidney, lung, spleen -- wherever this gene could possibly be expressed. All appeared normal, except lung function. "With just a whiff of anesthesia, their blood oxygen saturation dropped precipitously. This was a first clue of a problem in the respiratory system of these animals." But the lungs looked absolutely fine under the microscope.

Deb then turned to UNC's Department of Physics and Astronomy, which had developed a novel contactless fiber-optic displacement sensor for monitoring respiration during mouse CT scans. In association with the department of radiology and the Biomedical Research Imaging Center at UNC, 3-D lung reconstruction revealed profound lung collapse on one or both sides. This was a puzzle. "How can an animal with normal lung tissue under a microscope have lung collapse and respiratory problems?" Deb wondered whether the chest wall could be the culprit.

CT scans of the chest wall in these animals revealed multiple spontaneous fractures affecting multiple ribs. The affected ribs had 60-70 percent less bone compared to normal ribs. Essentially the bony rib cage had disappeared within 3 weeks, said Deb, and he immediately realized that the animals were dying from respiratory failure because the frail chest wall was unable to support respiration.

Bone mass is usually maintained by a close functional coupling of osteoblasts (cells that form bone) and osteoclasts (cells that resorb bone). The study team found a huge infiltration of osteoclasts into the animals' ribs. Other bones, including the spine and femur, also showed some resorption but not as dramatic as in the ribs.

And when drugs such as bisphosphonates, commonly used to preserve bone mass in humans were given to the animals, their survival was prolonged only briefly. This led the study team to think that the osteoclast formation was so aggressive that the body was unable to form new bone to keep apace with the bone loss.

In conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and other problems involving inflammation, many types of inflammatory cells promote bone resorption, which led the researchers to see if treatment with corticosteroids might be helpful in these animals. And it was: a 30-40 percent increase in bone mass, compared to animals that did not get steroids. They also found 60-70 percent of the ribs were preserved.

"Notably, 75 percent of the animals survived," Deb said. "And after 80 days, we saw that the ribs showed evidence of repair, they were able to form new bone. And when we looked at new CT lung scans, the lungs were expanded and the ribs contained far less numbers of osteoclasts."

As to mechanism, Deb explains that a molecule in bone called rank ligand (RANKL) is important for osteoclast formation. "We found that steroids were suppressing RANKL to the extent that RANKL levels in these animals were the same as healthy animals."

"From that perspective, these studies are interesting and challenge the existing paradigm: that steroids are drugs that cause bone loss. They do, but in rapid bone loss from aggressive osteoclast overactivity, steroids may be helpful. That's the principle message of this story."

Study co-authors were JinZhu Duan, Yueh Lee, Corey Jania, Jucheng Gong, Mauricio Rojas, Laurel Burk, Monte Willis, Jonathon Homeister, Stephen Tilley, and Janet Rubin. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Ellison Medical Foundation.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of North Carolina School of Medicine, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. JinZhu Duan, Yueh Lee, Corey Jania, Jucheng Gong, Mauricio Rojas, Laurel Burk, Monte Willis, Jonathon Homeister, Stephen Tilley, Janet Rubin, Arjun Deb. Rib Fractures and Death from Deletion of Osteoblast ?catenin in Adult Mice Is Rescued by Corticosteroids. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e55757 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055757

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/6IOMYgX0X2s/130205173618.htm

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Small tsunami hits Solomons, other warnings ended

SYDNEY (AP) ? A powerful earthquake off the Solomon Islands on Wednesday generated a tsunami of up to 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) that damaged dozens of homes and left several people missing and presumed dead in the South Pacific island chain.

Authorities canceled tsunami warnings on more distant coasts.

Solomons officials reported two 1.5-meter (4 foot, 11-inch) waves hit the western side of Santa Cruz Island, damaging between 70 and 80 homes and properties, said George Herming, a spokesman for the prime minister. Many villagers had headed to higher ground as a precaution, Herming said.

Solomon Islands Police Commissioner John Lansley said local police patrols reported that several people were presumed dead, though the reports were still being verified.

"Sadly, we believe some people have lost their lives," he said. "At the moment we potentially know of four, but there may of course be more."

One of the people presumed dead was fishing in a dugout canoe when the first wave hit, sweeping him out to sea, Herming said. Officials were searching for his body. Another woman was believed to have drowned when the water rushed into her village, Herming said.

Four villages on Santa Cruz were hit by the waves, with two facing severe damage, Lansley said. Other areas of the Solomons did not appear to have been seriously affected.

Disaster officials were struggling to reach the remote area after the tsunami flooded the airstrip at the nearest airport and left it littered with debris.

The tsunami formed after a magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck near the town of Lata, on Santa Cruz in Temotu, the easternmost province in the Solomons, about a 3-hour flight from the capital, Honiara. Temotu has a population of around 30,000.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a tsunami of about a meter (3 feet) was measured in Lata wharf. Smaller waves were recorded in Vanuatu and New Caledonia.

The center canceled warnings for tsunami waves further away.

Richard Dapo, a school principal on an island near Santa Cruz, said he lives inland but has been fielding calls from families on the coast whose homes have been damaged by the waves.

"I try to tell the people living on the coastline, 'Move inland, find a higher place. Make sure to keep away from the sea. Watch out for waves,'" he said.

He said he heard the waves swamped some smaller islands, although he was not aware of any deaths or serious injuries. He said it was difficult to contact people because cellphone coverage was patchy in the region.

In Honiara, the warnings prompted residents to flee for higher ground.

"People are still standing on the hills outside of Honiara just looking out over the water, trying to observe if there is a wave coming in," said Herming, the prime minister's spokesman.

Atenia Tahu, who works for the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corp. in Honiara, said most people were remaining calm.

"People around the coast and in the capital are ringing in and trying to get information from us and the National Disaster Office and are slowly moving up to higher ground," Tahu said. "But panic? No, no, no, people are not panicking."

Dr. Rooney Jagilly, the medical superintendent at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, said the hospital asked about half its 200 patients to leave and stay with families or friends as a precautionary measure because the hospital is located near the shoreline. Those patients who weren't mobile enough to move stayed, but the hospital remained ready to evacuate them.

Jagilly said there had been no flooding and he hoped the hospital would return to normal Thursday. He said his staff was ready to mobilize to Santa Cruz because the small hospital there has no doctor after the previous one recently died.

An official at the disaster management office in Vanuatu said there were no reports of damage or injuries there.

More than 50 people were killed and thousands lost their homes in April 2007 when a magnitude-8.1 quake hit the western Solomon Islands, sending waves crashing into coastal villages.

The Solomons comprise more than 200 islands with a population of about 552,000 people. They lie on the "Ring of Fire" ? an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday's quake struck 81 kilometers (50 miles) west of Lata at a depth of 28.7 kilometers (17.8 miles).

___

Associated Press writers Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand, and Rod McGuirk in Canberra contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/small-tsunami-hits-solomons-other-warnings-ended-040333793.html

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Don't stamp out Cliff Clavin: Great letter carriers

Everett Collection

John Ratzenberger as Cliff Clavin.

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY

No Saturday mail delivery? It's a little-known fact that bills delivered on Saturday don't count. Well, that's not exactly true, but neither were half the facts spat out by television's favorite mailman, Cliff Clavin of "Cheers."

"Cheers" went off the air 20 years ago, but Cliff remains the most beloved postal employee ever seen on the big or small screen. In memory of weekend mail delivery, we revisit some of entertainment's men who delivered.

1. Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger), 'Cheers'
Poor Cliff. Were he still working in this era of no Saturday mail, we suspect he'd have something to say about it, as he did anything relating to his profession. "Many of our ancient wonders are postal-related," he once told his barfly friends. "The pyramids for example, they were post offices. And the Sphinx, that was a late-night drop-off." He also made toasts in a postal way, raising his glass and saying, "As they say down at the post office, 'Here's looking up your address.'" And even his name fell into postal lore, as an employee at another branch once divulged. "Just the other day, I messed up," the man said. "And my supervisor told me to get my head out of my Clavin."

2. Newman (Wayne Knight), 'Seinfeld'
Cliff was a friendly bumbling postman, but Newman on "Seinfeld," ah, he was downright malevolent. He's the one who told Jerry's parents their son was making out with his girlfriend during "Schindler's List." When Jerry's stereo was smashed in the mail, it was Newman who grilled him in an interrogation that left Jerry cool and calm, but almost killed Newman. But perhaps his most famous episode is postal-related: He and Kramer cram a mail truck with cans and bottles to drive to Michigan and take advantage of their high bottle-deposit payout. To no one's surprise, it does not end well. Do not mess with the mail.

3. The Postman (Kevin Costner), 'The Postman'
Perhaps Kevin Costner's 1997 flop, "The Postman," gets a bad rap. The world has been all-but destroyed (in 2013 no less, so get ready). When Costner's character finds a postal uniform on a skeleton and puts it on, he inspires the ragtag survivors with tales of a new nation rising and prepared to restore mail delivery. A statue is later built in his honor of Costner in a mail uniform delivering a letter to a small boy. No, we're not kidding. Why would we make this up? Seriously, you can Google it. OK, maybe the bad rap isn't that undeserved. In 1999, "The Simpsons" ran a parody of it showing Costner just walking around randomly while the actor personally apologizes to Lisa for the movie. But he does give a heartfelt tribute to the letter carriers that rings true today. "Getting a letter made you feel like you were part of something bigger than yourself. I don't think we ever really understood what they meant to us until they were gone."

4. Mr. McFeely (David Newell), 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'
Dear old Mr. McFeely, who took his last name from Fred Rogers' middle name, epitomized "Speedy Delivery." Oh, OK, so he didn't actually work for the post office -- it seemed like he did. Similar uniform, dapper hat, always making sure Mr. Rogers got his packages, somehow always finding time to stop in for a craft project or just a chat. We lost Fred Rogers in 2003, but Newell lives on, and a 2008 documentary shows that he's still speedy-delivering Rogers' message of love.

Who's your favorite letter carrier? Tell us on Facebook.

Related content:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/02/06/16868710-dont-stamp-out-cliff-clavin-letter-carriers-we-loved?lite

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We Dare You To Fund Us: Venista Ventures, Eierfabrik Invest In Mobile Challenge App Klash

Klash, the mobile app that lets you challenge and dare friends to do things for the fun of it, has raised a "lower 6 digits" seed round from Cologne, Germany-based incubator Venista Ventures, and 'pre-seed' fund Eierfabrik. The funding also coincides with Klash rolling out a new version of its iOS app that adds the ability to create an animated GIF as proof that a particular dare or challenge was carried out.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ARSL6fdf5Ko/

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New York City public schools stealthily gave thousands of teens free morning-after pills

Students in New York public schools can frolic in all the unprotected sex they want without fretting over the natural consequences, thanks to the largesse of the Bloomberg administration.

New York City, which is in debt to the tune of $110 billion,?according to Crain?s New York Business, used 40 individual ?school-based health centers? to lavish nearly 13,000 free doses of the ?morning-after pill? Plan B on students during the 2011-12 school year, the New York Post reports. That number is an increase from 10,720 in 2010-11 and just over 5,000 in 2009-10.

Plan B is an emergency oral contraceptive which can abort zygotes when taken up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse.

According to The Post, the complimentary Plan B is part of a massive, hush-hush effort by Big Apple bureaucrats to combat teen pregnancy. The health centers also offer sexually active teenagers a veritable cornucopia of other birth control drugs and gadgets. In addition to run-of-the-mill birth control pills, there are intrauterine devices (IUDs), vaginal rings, contraceptive patches and hormone-delivering injections.

According to the report obtained by The Post under a Freedom of Information Law request, New York City has provided some form of free contraceptive for a grand total of 93,569 menstrual cycles.

Last September, the city?s official line concerning Plan B was much different. Officials reportedly said at that time that nurse?s offices in 13 high schools were dispensing the emergency contraception, and 567 girls had used it.

So, city officials failed to report a mere 95 percent of the instances when teenage girls received free Plan B doses from New York City?s public schools.

State law in New York does not require school officials to obtain parent consent to provide contraception to high schoolers.

According to figures compiled by the city, some 6,300 girls under age 17 still managed to have unplanned pregnancies in 2012. Over half of them had abortions. Roughly 70 percent of the girls who chose to have their babies dropped out of school, which bodes ill for their futures.

School officials reportedly had no comment for The Post, but the newly-revised statistics have made some parents uneasy.

?I?m in shock,? Mona Davids, president of the NYC Parents Union, told The Post. ?What gives the mayor the right to decide, without adequate notice, to give our children drugs that will impact their bodies and their psyches??

Davids, a black woman who as a 14-year-old daughter at a Manhattan high school, also observed that most school-based health centers are located in low-income neighborhoods.

?This was population control on blacks and Latinos without our knowledge,? she charged.

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Obama, Carney walk away from media questions about kill policy

Of course Chris Brown faked his court-ordered community service

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/york-city-public-schools-stealthily-gave-thousands-teens-001145607.html

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Obama urges stopgap budget deal to avoid deep cuts

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. The president asked Congress to come up with tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to put off the automatic across the board cuts that are scheduled to kick in March 1. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. The president asked Congress to come up with tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to put off the automatic across the board cuts that are scheduled to kick in March 1. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama pauses as speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. The president will ask Congress to come up with tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to put off the automatic across the board cuts that are scheduled to kick in March 1. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf gestures as he speaks about the office's annual Budget and Economic Outlook during a news conference at the Ford House Office Building in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. The federal budget deficit will drop below $1 trillion for the first time in President Barack Obama's tenure in office, a new report said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

President Barack Obama speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. The president will ask Congress to come up with tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to put off the automatic across the board cuts that are scheduled to kick in March 1. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf is reflected on a table as he speaks about the office's annual Budget and Economic Outlook during a news conference at the Ford House Office Building in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. The federal budget deficit will drop below $1 trillion for the first time in President Barack Obama's tenure in office, a new report said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Eager to buy time and avoid economic pain, President Barack Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to pass targeted short-term spending cuts and higher taxes as a way to put off sweeping, automatic cuts that would slice deeply into military and domestic programs starting March 1.

Obama's appeal came as Congress' budget office projected a yearly federal deficit under $1 trillion for the first time in his presidency and as Republicans applied political pressure on the president to submit balanced budgets, pushing fiscal issues back to the forefront in Washington after weeks devoted to immigration and guns.

A short-term deficit-trimming measure would once again delay the broad and onerous spending cuts that are unpopular with both political parties, underscoring the government's difficulty adopting long-term budget policies. Obama conceded the problem, even though he has previously scoffed at temporary budget reprieves.

"Let's keep on chipping away at this problem together, as Democrats and Republicans, to give our workers and our businesses the support that they need to thrive in the weeks and months ahead," Obama said in a short statement in the White House briefing room.

Illustrating the challenge for the government, the Congressional Budget Office said the government will run a $845 billion deficit this year. That's down from last year's $1.1 trillion but still high enough to require the government to borrow 24 cents of every dollar it spends. The report predicted the deficit would decline to $430 billion by 2015, the lowest since President George W. Bush's last year in office.

However, as more baby boomers retire and claim Medicare and Social Security, deficits would move higher and again reach near $1 trillion in the latter portion of the 10-year window.

"We have a large budget imbalance. We have large projected deficits, debt that will remain at a historically high share of GDP and will be rising at the end of the coming decade," said CBO director Douglas Elmendorf. "What that implies is that small changes in budget policy will not be sufficient to put the budget on a sustainable path."

The slight reduction in the projected deficit for this year is due to anticipated higher revenue caused by a higher tax rate on top earners negotiated over the New Year's holiday, the end of a temporary payroll tax cut, a slowly improving economy and a slower rate of growth for health care costs.

Meanwhile Tuesday, on the House floor, Republicans took up legislation to require Obama to submit a budget that would balance within a decade or specify when it would come to balance. The move was more of an attempt at political messaging than legislation likely to become law.

Obama was to have delivered his budget to Congress on Monday, but it's not expected until next month.

The automatic cuts Obama is seeking to avoid are part of a 10-year, $1 trillion deficit reduction plan that was supposed to spur Congress and the administration to act on long-term fiscal policies to stabilize the nation's debt. Though Congress and the White House have agreed on about $2.5 trillion in cuts and higher taxes since the beginning of 2011, they have been unable to close the deal on their ultimate goal of reducing deficits by about $4 trillion over a decade.

Obama did not specify a time span or a dollar amount for a stopgap measure, and neither he nor White House aides provided any detailed spending cuts or tax increases that could be used to postpone the deeper, automatic cuts. In order to put off cuts until the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, Congress would have to find $85 billion in deficit reduction.

The White House insists, however, that any short-term deficit-trimming package or any long-term debt stabilization plan must consist of both spending cuts and new tax revenue. Republicans have said they will oppose tax increases.

The automatic spending cuts, known as a "sequester" in budget language, were supposed to kick in Jan. 1, but Obama and Congress identified $24 billion in deficit reduction during a New Year's agreement, thus averting the cuts until March 1.

Though that date is more than three weeks away, the White House showed some urgency in making its request Tuesday. Several Republican lawmakers had begun to signal that they might be willing to let the automatic cuts kick in as the only viable means of achieving deficit reduction, even though the reductions would cut into programs they support, such as military spending. Moreover, the White House feared the mere threat of the cuts was disruptive as government agencies began to prepare layoff notices.

"There's no reason that the jobs of thousands of Americans who work in national security or education or clean energy, not to mention the growth of the entire economy, should be put in jeopardy just because folks in Washington couldn't come together to eliminate a few special-interest tax loopholes or government programs that we agree need some reform," Obama said.

In his remarks, Obama also said a debt proposal he made in December to House Speaker John Boehner was still on the table. That plan would increase revenue by about $600 billion over 10 years and reduce spending by about $800 billion, including savings of about $400 billion in health care programs such as Medicare. It would also change an inflation formula that would reduce cost-of-living adjustments for beneficiaries of government programs, including Social Security, and would also add spending, including $50 billion for public works projects.

Obama won about $600 billion in higher taxes at the start of the year, and congressional Republicans say they are not about to approve more tax revenue. While the Senate has a Democratic majority, the House is controlled by Republicans.

"We believe there is a better way to reduce the deficit, but Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes," Boehner said in a statement. "The president's sequester should be replaced with spending cuts and reforms that will start us on the path to balancing the budget in 10 years."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said that a deficit reduction package could include revenue from closing tax loopholes. He has specifically mentioned ending tax breaks for corporate jets and breaks for the oil and gas industry. Such measures, however, would result in only modest amounts of revenue. The oil and gas subsidies total about $4 billion a year; the subsidies for purchasers of corporate jets are about $300 million a year.

Business groups have been pressing for a tax overhaul that eliminates some loopholes and tax breaks, but they have also called for lower corporate tax rates.

___

Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this article.

Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-05-Budget%20Fight/id-1da0549db48441609dfd6882c8c9cf5f

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