Man arrested at airport over threat to Biden

A former US service member was arrested in Hawaii after he sent emails from Thailand that threatened to kill Vice President Joe Biden, authorities said Monday.

The U.S. Secret Service arrested Justin Alan Woodward when he arrived at Honolulu International Airport Friday via a Delta Airlines flight from Bangkok, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal court in Honolulu. He has been jailed awaiting a detention hearing Wednesday.

Woodward admitted to agents that he wrote the threatening messages, including one sent to the White House website June 22 that read, "Biden ... you tried to get me to kill Obama in my home town of El Dorado Kansas. I will kill you myself," the expletive-filled complaint said. The same email, with the sender self-identified as "Justin Alan Woodward PhD," mentions 9/11 and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. It also accuses the vice president of trying to have Woodward assassinated and put under "mind control."

Another email sent June 26 said, "So Obama, when are we going to get together and smoke some Marijuana ... I like the way you work. I am really glad I didn't blow your head off back there like I was supposed to."

The Royal Thai Police traced the email's IP address to a public Wi-Fi access point in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In an interview with a U.S. Consulate official in Thailand, Woodward said he joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2002 and served as an infantryman until he was medically discharged for bi-polar disorder two years later. He said he served six months in Iraq and has been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Woodward told a Secret Service agent Aug. 2 that he had been activated to assassinate President Barack Obama when the president was visiting Oklahoma.

He also said he wanted to go to Hawaii because the continental U.S. was full of "enemy agents," according to the complaint. He said he moved overseas because he cannot be trusted around the president or vice president.

Woodward's status after his interviews in Thailand until his flight to Hawaii was unclear.

A registered nurse practitioner at a Veteran's Administration clinic in Wichita, Kansas, told the Secret Service that Woodward was treated there from 2005 to 2009 and later was admitted to the Osawatomie State Hospital in Kansas. The nurse said without medication and medical care, Woodward could harm himself or others.

The investigation determined that Woodward is not believed to be under medical care and was arrested in Thailand last year for assaulting his landlord, the complaint said. 

Will Obama jobs bill force new debt ceiling fight?

Reuters

President Barack Obama's goal of winning a big enough increase in the U.S. debt limit to get him through the November 2012 election could be thwarted by his own job-creation proposal, budget experts said on Monday.

The $447 billion in new spending Obama wants to juice up a weak U.S. economy would have to be spent quickly if it is to be effective. That would immediately pile more debt onto annual budget deficits of over $1 trillion, even though the president has promised to pay for his program in full.

The problem is that he proposes paying for it over a much longer period. It would be a decade before the Treasury Department would collect enough additional revenues to recoup the stimulus money being spent.

"The irony of all this is that ... they may have to confront it (raising the debt limit) again soon because the deficit might be a great deal higher than we were anticipating," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group pushing fiscal reforms.

The irony Bixby referred to is this:

During the bitter fight this summer over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, Obama held out for one major provision enough of a debt limit increase, at least $2.1 trillion, to keep Treasury Department borrowing humming along until after the November 2012 elections.

Currently, the federal government is borrowing an estimated $125 billion a month, or about $1.875 trillion between August, 2011 and November, 2012.

But with signs that the U.S. economy is slowing from previous projections, some congressional aides already were privately worrying that the hard-fought debt limit increase would not be enough to see the country through to 2013.

An additional $447 billion in spending could put borrowing over the top, budget specialists said.
     The Obama administration disagreed.

"We don't foresee a need to increase the debt limit before December 2012 under current law or under the American Jobs Act," Treasury spokeswoman Colleen Murray said.

A SLUGGISH ECONOMY

In its most recent outlook, the Obama administration forecast this year's economic growth to be 1.7 percent, down from its February estimate of 2.7 percent.

Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, which analyzes Treasury's financing trends, told Reuters, "It's probably a close call that could go either way" on whether a pre-election debt limit hike will be necessary.

"It certainly increases the odds that the Treasury would have to resort to evasive maneuvers before the election."

The Treasury Department was forced to use extraordinary funding measures while Congress and the White House negotiated the debt ceiling deal.

Republicans in Congress are criticizing major portions of Obama's jobs bill and his proposals for paying for it. That means enough of the $447 billion plan could end up on the cutting room floor.

That could reduce the pressure for another debt limit increase.

Bixby and William Hoagland, a former high-ranking Republican Senate aide who specialized in budget issues, both speculated that Congress could take other steps to avoid an election year debt limit debate.

They said the "super committee" charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in new government savings over the next 10 years could insert another debt limit increase into whatever deal it reaches by the end of this November.

"I'm sure there have been some discussions under the radar screen on that. It would really be an issue they'd have to confront," Bixby said. 

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