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Rep. Bobby Rush, co-chair of the new Congressional 'Jobs Now Caucus'.

(CNN) – Members of President Obama's own political party are charging that the White House and the Democratic Congressional leadership are not doing enough to help the unemployed and are threatening to organize a march on Washington of jobless Americans.

"Obviously there's something that's not getting through to them," said Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois. "And we're going to let the White House and everybody who's concerned know that we have got people in our districts who are depending on us to deliver for them."

Rush and Reps. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Candice Miller, R-Michigan, chair the new Congressional "Jobs Now Caucus," which is comprised of 112 Democrats and 17 Republicans.

Rush and Kaptur argue that a new jobs program is more important than health care reform, but stop short of threatening to hold up a vote on one of Obama's most important domestic policy initiatives.

"We're not there yet," Kaptur said.

Some of the proposals being floated by the caucus include: redirecting existing stimulus and TARP money to jobs programs and pressing for a new jobs bill, which they're careful not to call a "stimulus."

More than one member of the caucus told CNN the stimulus was crafted without enough input from lawmakers whose districts suffer from the highest jobless rates.

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Washington (CNN) - The White House is "geared up to go on offense" on health care messaging this week, a White House official tells CNN.

As the Senate debate over health care reform gets underway, the administration is planning to "push back on the distortions and misinformation... being circulated by interest groups and opponents." The new offensive includes a video featuring Vice President Joe Biden and the presidents of the American Nurses Association and the American Association of Family Physicians.

(Who do Americans trust more on health care reform, asks Biden in the video: doctors and nurses, or "special interests"?)

The video comes as White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer continued his string of tough November blog posts slamming opponents of President Obama's proposal with a holiday weekend salvo taking on one Washington Post columnist - with the White House pledging more of the same to come.

It's one reason so many people are stunned when they're hit with unexpected rate increases or penalty fees: It's in the small print.

CNN asked 13 credit card holders to review a basic five-page credit card agreement. Only four of them were able to find the annual percentage rate, and it wasn't easy.

"It's very confusing, and I'm an intelligent person," Amy Gould said, adding that she thinks the credit card companies have a stake in keeping their agreements opaque. "I think it tries to make the consumer confused. It takes advantage."

Alan Siegel thinks he has the answer. He runs Siegel+Gale, a marketing firm that's specialized in contract simplification for 30 years. He's simplified agreements for the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Mint, major banks and insurance companies. He believes that it's time credit card companies got on board.

According to Siegel, the current contracts are full of "gobbledygook." He insists that "it's a total disregard and disrespectful to the relationship with the consumer." He believes that card companies can make their agreements crystal clear.

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Hollywood is getting behind Jerry Brown's bid to be the next governor of California with a coming out party Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

(CNN) - Hollywood is getting behind Jerry Brown's bid to be the next governor of California with a coming out party Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

The fundraiser at Sandy Galin's house in Bel Air is co-hosted by Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg, Diane von Furstenburg and Barry Diller, David Geffen, and Larry Ellison among others. Galin is a top Hollywood talent manager.

Brown has yet to declare for governor, but at this point it's considered a formality. In California Democratic circles it's understood the state's attorney general is in. Now that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has bowed out of the race, the path is clear for Brown , who was the state's youngest governor since the turn of the 20th century. Brown was 36 when he was first elected California governor in 1974. He was re-elected in 1978.

The expected donation for Wednesday night's event? Give or raise $50,000 for a co-chair, $25,000 for a sponsor, $10,000 for an couple and $5,000 for an individual. Organizers expect to raise more than $1 million for Jerry Brown's 2010 Exploratory Committee.
California's current governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is term limited and prevented from running for re-election next year.

Washington (CNN) - The Federal Reserve is stepping up its effort to protect consumers' credit. The latest move? Today it proposed new rules for limiting fees and extending the expiration date for many gift cards. Under the new rules a gift card could not expire in less than five years. And the issuer couldn't charge more than one fee a month if you don't use the card – and that would apply only if you hadn't used the gift card for a year. "The rules would protect consumers from certain unexpected costs and would require that gift card terms and conditions be clearly stated," the Federal Reserve said in a statement announcing the move.

Don't get too excited – this rule wouldn't go into effect until the middle of next year, and companies have 30 days to submit their comments and try to alter the rule. Bottom line: it won't apply to this year's holiday purchases.

This latest announcement comes as the Fed squares off with senators considering legislation that would effectively strip the Fed of its consumer protection role. Instead, the new legislation would hand that power to a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency whose mission would be overseeing credit cards, mortgages and other financial products marketed to the public. Last week, the Fed proposed restricting overdraft fees on ATM cards - part of an apparent public relations effort to demonstrate its commitment to beefing up its role as a defender of the consumer against bank abuses.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A former student of an Obama administration official is coming to his defense, as critics seek to use a 20-year-old incident to call for the official's resignation.

Kevin Jennings, who heads the Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, is under fire for counseling advice he gave a gay student more than two decades ago. Conservative groups charge that Jennings, who is openly gay, condoned statutory rape and child molestation. That's in reference to an incident in 1988 when Jennings, who was a teacher at the time, failed to tell authorities that an underage student revealed to Jennings that he'd had sex with an older man.

Now that onetime student is speaking out for the first time and telling CNN he did not have sex with that man at all.

In a statement obtained by CNN the former student, who wanted to be called Brewster, writes: "Since I was of legal consent at the time, the fifteen minute conversation I had with Mr. Jennings twenty-one years ago is of nobody's concern but his and mine. However, since the Republican noise machine is so concerned about my 'well-being' and that of America's students, they'll be relieved to know that I was not 'inducted' into homosexuality, assaulted, raped, or sold into sexual slavery."

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Kevin Jennings is the latest target for critics of the Obama administration.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council is calling for his resignation from the Department of Education. So is Sean Hannity. Fox News has accused him of condoning "statuatory rape."

The facts? They don't necessarily match the accusations.

Jennings is gay. He's also an expert in school bullying. Education Secretary Arne Duncan tapped him to run the Department's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. And that's when the trouble started.

Critics are making hay over counseling advice Jennings gave a gay student more than 20 years ago. Jennings, who has published several books, has written about the incident in his 1994 book "One Teacher in Ten." He wrote that when he was a 24-year-old teacher, a gay student confided that he'd had sex with an older man.

Jennings didn't report the incident to authorities. Instead, he writes, "I listened, sympathized, and offered advice." He has subsequently said he told the student: "I hope you used a condom."

In a statement Jennings released by the Department of Education on Wednesday, Jennings expressing regret over his decision.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - Damning new allegations about former Sen. John Edwards' extramarital affair are coming out - this time, the claims could spell the end of Edwards' political career.

While the U.S. has a tradition of forgiveness, politicians seem able to gain forgiveness from the public and come back after just about anything. As long as the offender apologizes, gets punished and seems to suffer along the way, they are forgiven.

Edwards admitted to having an affair with former 2008 presidential campaign worker Rielle Hunter. He did a mea culpa.

"In 2006, two years ago, I made a very serious mistake. A mistake that I am responsible for and no one else," he said during an interview with ABC News' "Nightline."

"I told Elizabeth about the mistake, asked her for her forgiveness, asked God for his forgiveness," he said.

But now he's getting the front page New York Times treatment.

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The Making Home Affordable Program aims to help homeowners avoid losing their homes to foreclosures.

(CNN) - When President Obama unveiled the Making Home Affordable Program in March, he said it would help "responsible folks who have been making their payments" reduce their monthly mortgage bills and avoid losing their homes to foreclosure.

But six months into the program, only 6 percent of the 4 million eligible homeowners have gotten help. A lot more say they've been frustrated with the runaround they've been getting from lenders.

Are the new program's growing pains responsible for the slow start, as bankers say, or is pain to their bottom lines really preventing the program from working, as critics say?

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The White House has made no secret of the fact that the President wants to see health care and energy reform passed this year.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Multiple Obama administration officials tell CNN that the White House is not pushing to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year. While it's a top priority for the President's first term, White House spokesperson Nick Shapiro says "the president has consistently said that he wants to start the discussion later this year because our immigration system is broken…but the economy comes first."

The White House has made no secret of the fact that the President wants to see health care and energy reform passed this year, and would be loathe to cripple those efforts with a fight over an issue as controversial as immigration reform. And White House strategists have to be keenly aware of the possible impact on House Democrats from red districts.

But the mood on Capitol Hill could be different.

Jim Manley, Sen. Harry Reid's senior communications advisor, tells CNN that the Majority Leader "intends to try to take comprehensive immigration reform to the floor later this year, probably in the fall." The situation in the House is trickier – a vote on the hot-button issue could hurt freshman Democrats who were elected in swing districts.
But House Democrats were presented with compelling evidence that voters want to see them trying to fix the immigration system. During the House Democrats' February retreat, Pete Brodnitz - who works for the same firm that does polling for the president - argued that Democratic House members should promote their own immigration reform plans.

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Tomorrow night President Obama will attend what could be the first White House seder in the old family dining room of the residence, a White House official tells CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Tomorrow night President Obama will attend what could be the first White House seder in the old family dining room of the residence, a White House official tells CNN. And it won't be the President's first.

The same White House official tells CNN that the event will be a reunion of sorts. Last year, in the thick of the Pennsylvania primary a group of traveling Obama campaign staff couldn't get home for seder. Instead, like the Jews in Exodus, they had to prepare a seder in haste. One junior staffer found space for the impromptu meal in the basement of a Harrisburg Sheraton. He gathered the traditional seder foods from the hotel kitchen, and from a cousin who was in college nearby.

The staffers invited then-candidate Obama. But they were surprised when he showed up, along with aide Valerie Jarrett and Obama family friend Marty Nesbitt. All three reportedly plan to attend the gathering tomorrow night.

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FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair has a chilly reaction to European calls for stepped up international regulations of the financial markets.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - WASHINGTON (CNN) - FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair has a chilly reaction to European calls for stepped up international regulations of the financial markets. "So frequently the international standards become so watered down," she says. As leaders met for the G20 summit, Bair sat down for an interview with CNN and cautioned that adding any new regulations without considering how they'd be enforced "is something we need to think carefully about."

Priot to the summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for greater scrutiny of the financial sector. Sarkozy demanded "real transformation" in regulatory structures. And Merkel announced she had a set of "red lines" that must be met.

The G20 leaders agreed to establish a new financial stability board as an early warning sign for future crises, but it appears the board will have little power to actually crack down on risky investments like hedge funds.

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Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner faced a tough room Monday morning.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Slouching alone at the head table before a room of business reporters, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner looked like an overgrown prep school student facing the expulsion board after violating the honors code. It wasn't what he said, but his demeanor as he said it. Slouching, cautious, gazing out from deep-set eyes - he seemed to be shrink from the room. And the room was skeptical.

When the Secretary calmly asserted taxpayers would get a fair shake in the deal because the funds in question "are managed by professionals who know how to do this for a living" - one reporter could be heard sighing "oh, great." The wariness was mutual. Asked whether he thought this plan would play well outside Washington, Geithner offered a wry smile. "I'm confident that you and your colleagues will do a good job of getting the word out," he replied.

Geithner's presentation lasted just over 35 minutes, the bulk of that time answering reporter’s questions. Most along the lines of – why do you think this will work. He sat at a wooden desk with an unopened bottle of Dasani water and an untouched glass to his left, an American flag behind him, and a thin microphone in front. For anyone who has considered getting botox, Geithner would be an object of intense jealousy:his forehead almost never moved. His look was solitary and small. Slumped in a chair, lost in a suit with pants that seemed to swallow him, he used his large hands: sweeping out wide as he explained that his confidence in the plan, then folding into a steeple as he was asked for more specifics.

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South Carolina's Republican Gov. Mark Sanford would like to use part of his state's stimulus money to pay down state debt.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The White House has rejected South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's request to use a portion of the state's allotted federal stimulus funds to pay off state debt instead of spending it on government services or programs.

Sanford, perhaps the most outspoken Republican opponent of the stimulus bill, wrote to the president last week asking for a waiver that would allow South Carolina to use a quarter of the money - $700 million - to pay down "our very sizable state debt and contingent liabilities."

In a letter to Sanford on Tuesday obtained by CNN White House Budget Director Peter Orszag wrote that "the president has asked me to respond on his behalf."

Orszag rejected the waiver request, writing that the $48.6 billion allocated to the states "must be used" for education and public works projects.

"Congress has not authorized the Executive Branch to waive any of the above statutory requirements governing the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund," Orszag wrote.

Read: Orszag's letter to Sanford

Sanford has said that if the President does not grant the waiver request, he would reject the funds alotegher. In an interview with CNN conducted last week, Sanford explained his reasoning, saying “spending money you don’t have I think is a horrible idea”. When asked to respond to charges by Democrats that he’s using the stimulus debate to position himself for higher political office Sanford responded, “If you don't want to debate the merits of the stimulus package itself, instead talk about motives.“

Sanford’s position on the stimulus was the subject of a new ad by the Democratic National Committee.

The issue could next go before the South Carolina legislature, where lawmakers can vote to overrule Sanford and accept the funds.

UPDATE: Sanford is not giving up. In a response to the White House, his spokesman Joel Sawyer said "we're in the process of drafting a response that will go back to the White House tomorrow, which will more narrowly tailor our request to pay off debt in a way consistent with the Administration's response."

"We believe there is a way to do so," he said.

Sawyer re-iterated Sanford's call to take down a Democratic National Committee ad currently running in South Carolina that attacks the governor's position on the stimulus bill.

"In the meantime, part of a truly constructive response would be to call off the attack dogs from the DNC who are now attempting through political attack ads to determine our course of action," Sawyer said. "It's time for the President's game of good cop, bad cop to end, and therefore we again ask him to end these ads so we can engage in a productive dialogue on the merits or our request."

(Read the full letter here)

Ty'Sheoma Bethea sent a letter to lawmakers with her plea for money to help rebuild her crumbling school.

DILLON, South Carolina (CNN) - Ty'Sheoma Bethea felt she had to speak up.

Her school was crumbling, and Congress was not going to approve money that could be used to rebuild it. So she wrote a letter to lawmakers begging for help.

"I said we're not quitters and we can make a change," Ty'Sheoma said. "And we're just students who want to be lawyers, doctors, congressmen and also presidents."

The letter made its way to the Oval Office and brought an extraordinary invitation. The White House sat the 14-year-old eighth-grader next to first lady Michelle Obama at the president's "state of the nation" address to Congress last month.

It seemed help was on the way. New stimulus money was coming from Washington, and Ty'Sheoma thought her school, JV Martin Junior High in Dillon, South Carolina, would finally be rebuilt. But her governor, Mark Sanford, announced he wouldn't use his share of the stimulus money on projects like rebuilding her school.

"It's easy to fall into the trap of we need to fix this one school," said Sanford, a Republican. "The hat that I wear is to look as best as I can - and it will be imperfect - at the state in its entirety."

Taking a stand against government spending, Sanford said he would be willing to use the $700 million in the stimulus bill only if he believes he has discretion to control paying down the state's debt.

That means Ty'Sheoma's community is left with its school, whose condition is astonishing.

Full story

White House Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes, right, meets with a member of her staff.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Melody Barnes could be one of the most powerful inside players you've never heard of.

Watch: Power player pushes Obama's agenda

As director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Barnes has a huge role in determining whether the domestic policy initiatives President Obama pledged to carry out will be enacted.

Barnes' job is to make sure the Cabinet and other agencies under the White House's control are putting Obama's policy agenda front and center, from health care and education reform to urban affairs and immigration.

Watch: Barnes on American Morning

From her West Wing office, she spends her days talking to Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress and advocacy groups.

What does a typical day look like?

Full story

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Two White House officials tell CNN that the budget to be released Thursday will include a $634 billion health care “reserve fund” designed to help pay the costs of overhauling the health care system over the next ten years.

One of the officials says the administration sees health care as the biggest driver of and linchpin to fiscal health, and the fund is a down payment on the effort to reform health care. Money for the reserve fund would come from limiting tax breaks for the wealthy and tightening payments to insurers, hospitals and physicians.

In an interview Tuesday, OMB Director Peter Orszag told CNN he believes a massive overhaul of the health care system can be achieved this year and he said he believes it should be “universal coverage."

“We're going to try to avoid the mistakes of the past and not lay down a fully detailed plan, rather work costructively with Congress, “ Orszag said.

(Updated 7 p.m. with updated dollar figure)

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama will name the members of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board and lay out its mandate at a White House event tomorrow, the White House confirmed Thursday.

Obama will appear with Paul Volcker, who is heading the new group. That panel is tasked with assisting the president as he looks to reduce unemployment and stabilize the markets.

Nancy Killefer’s withdrawal came after the Obama team spoke with people on the Hill, and came to believe the Senate would rake her over the coals as the third Obama nominee with a tax issue.

(CNN) - A senior administration official says the tax issues surrounding former chief performance officer nominee Nancy Killefer are "a little more complicated" than some reports have suggested.

There are actually a few tax issues - all in equally small amounts, all related to household help. Killefer’s withdrawal came after the Obama team spoke with people on the Hill, and came to believe the Senate would rake her over the coals as the third Obama nominee with a tax issue.

This official says the vetting team was aware of all Killefer’s tax issues, and that she was immediately forthcoming about them. Going back to the fall, the transition had decided they wanted her for this role when they unveiled the economic team, but held off on announcing her while they determined if they were comfortable with her tax issues. They decided they were, and announced Killefer about two weeks after the rest of the team.

The decision to have her withdraw has built over last two weeks in light of similar controversy swirling around Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner during his confirmation, and their knowledge of the growing problems surrounding Tom Daschle’s nomination. Killefer, a McKinsey executive, never formally resigned - so she still has a job there to return to.

A construction worker put the finishing touches on a massive version of the presidential seal Saturday as part of preparations for President-elect Obama's upcoming inauguration

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration speech on Tuesday will be a call to action that diagnoses what he'll call a troublesome "anything-goes" mentality in the nation, a transition source said Saturday.

The speech, which the source said currently runs about 20 minutes, will call on industries and individuals to behave responsibly, saying it was that mentality, in part, that led to the harsh economic times the nation now faces.

But he'll say that no problem is too big to be solved using the values that have always defined Americans, the source said.

It also will seek to "define the moment we're in," for Americans, with two foreign wars ongoing and a financial crisis at home.

The speech will not go into the details of Obama's agenda - keeping with the historical nature of inaugural addresses. According to the source, Obama has been working on the speech "in earnest" for the past week and will continue fine-tuning it after Saturday's train ride from Philadelphia to Washington.