Obama Admits to Being Shaken, Emboldened by ISIS Beheading Videos

"I think it would affect anybody who has an ounce of humanity"

U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday he has personally watched the graphic videos of Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) hostages being executed, saying they have helped catalyze the global community’s revulsion to the militant jihadist organization.

In an interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie airing Monday on Today Show, Obama said watching the videos has affected him personally. On Saturday, the U.S. government confirmed the authenticity of a video showing the beheading of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

“I think it’s fair to say that, anything related to these terrorist actions, I take a look at,” Obama said. “I think it would affect anybody who has an ounce of humanity. And it’s part of the reason why I think we’ve been so successful in organizing such a broad-based coalition.”

Referencing an American woman still being held by ISIS, Obama said the U.S. is doing anything possible to secure her release.

“Well, what we can say is that, as has been true of all the hostages, that we are deploying all the assets that we can, working with all the coalition allies that we can, to identify her location,” he said. “And we are in very close contact with the family trying to keep them updated.”

Hours after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden warned of the potential of a “large outbreak” of measles following increasing reports of the disease, Obama called on all parents to vaccinate their children.

“Measles is preventable,” Obama told Guthrie. “And I understand that there are families that, in some cases, are concerned about the effect of vaccinations. The science is, you know, pretty indisputable. We’ve looked at this again and again. There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren’t reasons to not.”

“You should get your kids vaccinated,” Obama continued. “It’s good for them and the challenge you have is if you have a certain group of kids who don’t get vaccinated, and if it grows large enough that a percentage of the population doesn’t get vaccinated and they’re the folks who can’t get vaccinated, small infants, for example, or people with certain vulnerabilities that can’t vaccinated, they suddenly become much more vulnerable.”

Obama to propose $3.99 trillion budget

WASHINGTON — President Obama is unveiling a $3.99 trillion budget that is "designed to bring middle class economics into the 21st Century," the White House announced Monday.

 The proposed budget "invests in helping working families make their paychecks go further, preparing hardworking Americans to earn higher wages, and creating the infrastructure that allows businesses to thrive and create good, high-paying jobs," the White House said in a statement.

To pay for new tax credits and other programs involving education, child care, paid leave, and new road and bridge construction, the budget calls for tax hikes on wealthier Americans by closing certain loopholes.

Congressional Republicans said the president's proposals — many of which leaked out in advance of Monday's announcement — involve too many tax hikes and high-spending programs.

"The president said in his State of the Union that the proposals in his budget would be 'filled with ideas that are practical, not partisan,' " said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "Turns out that's not the case."

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Sunday on NBC's Meet The Press that Obama is trying to "exploit envy economics. ... It may make for good politics. It doesn't make for good economic growth."

Modern presidential budget proposals are as much political documents as accounting ones, often declared "dead on arrival" in Congress by opposing political parties. The result has been a series of budget bills funding the government temporarily.

In a pre-Super Bowl interview Sunday on NBC, Obama said he is hopeful of getting Republican support for many of his proposals. For example, he said both parties agree on infrastructure spending; the dispute is over how to pay for it.

"My job is to present the right ideas," Obama told NBC, and if the Republicans have better ideas "they should present them."

Monday's proposed budget also calls for ending the automatic spending limits known as sequestration, the result of the 2011 stand-off over the debt limit. The plan calls for 7% increases over sequestration limits for national defense and domestic programs, according to the White House.

That includes defense spending of $561 billion, some $38 billion over sequestration levels. Defense priorities include the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, resisting Russian aggression in Ukraine, and a "good governance" project in Central America.

On Sunday, the White House said that the budget will include a six-year, $478 billion program to build and upgrade roads, bridges and other transit systems, to be financed by a one-time 14% tax on overseas profits.

The projected deficit for Obama's proposed budget is $474 billion, which officials said is only 2.5% of the gross domestic product.

In his weekend radio address, Obama said his budget is designed to "help working families' paychecks go farther by treating things like paid leave and child care like the economic priorities that they are. We'll offer Americans of every age the chance to upgrade their skills so they can earn higher wages."

The budget proposes to raise tax revenue by closing loopholes on items involving carried interest, capital gains and trust funds.

Recent years have seen a government shutdown, near-shutdowns and a debt limit crisis, ending with the passage of resolutions that fund the government temporarily, as opposed to a specific budget.

Anyone involved in the process "would acknowledge that this is the beginning of a negotiation," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "But it's important — budgets are important because they're a way that we can codify our values and our priorities."

The proposed budget released Monday also calls for full funding of the Department of Homeland Security for a year. While the current spending plan funds most of the government to the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, it finances homeland security only through February.

The reason: A GOP protest against the president's new immigration actions. The Republicans are trying to pressure Obama into changing actions that would defer deportations for some migrants in the country illegally.

Obama — who has said that the GOP wants to "play politics with our homeland security" — will speak about his proposed budget during a Monday event at the Department of Homeland Security.

Among the economic plans in the proposed budget:

• A child care tax credit of up to $3,000 a child.

• $750 million for a Department of Education preschool development program, an increase of $500 million.

• More than $3 billion for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

• A $500 tax credit for "second earners" in working families.

• A program encouraging paid leave programs for employees.

• Two years of community college tuition for qualified students, a program that would cost $60 billion over 10 years.

• $1 billion for a "long-term, comprehensive strategy" to develop a Central America "that is fully democratic (and) provides greater economic opportunities."

Isis threatens to behead Barack Obama and 'transform America into a Muslim province'

An Isis fighter has threatened to behead Barack Obama “in the White House and transform America into a Muslim province” before murdering a Kurdish soldier in a gruesome propaganda video.

The footage, entitled “Bombardment of Peaceful Muslims in the City of Mosul” showed damage from shelling allegedly carried out by Peshmerga forces in the Iraqi city earlier this month before killing the captive in retaliation.

The masked Isis fighter threatened attacks on the US, France, Belgium and the Kurds, claiming that the group’s followers will kill the American and Kurdish presidents as well as detonating car bombs and explosives in European countries that are part of the international coalition fighting against it.

He claims Peshmerga forces “shells the peaceful Muslims of Mosul with American Crusader bombs, and has poisoned dozens of them with asphyxiating gases” as images are shown of damaged buildings, bodies and injured children.

Then the jihadist issues “a message to the entire world” in Kurdish, translated by the Memri Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor.

“This is the fate of anyone who opposes Islam. Know, oh Obama, that we will reach America. Know also that we will cut off your head in the White House and transform America into a Muslim province,” he says.

“And this is my message to France and its sister, Belgium. We advise you that we will come to you with car bombs and explosive charges and we will cut off your heads.”

The fighter then beheads the captive with a knife to cheers from the gathered crowd, threatening to send Kurdish president Masoud Barzani a soldier’s head for every missile the Peshmerga launch.

Isis, which has overrun swathes of Iraq and Syria, has made a number of similar statements since a US-led coalition mounted air strikes against its fighters last year and frequently uses beheading videos as a platform for its propaganda.

As well as the filmed murders of foreign hostages James Foley, David Haines, Alan Henning and most recently, Japanese aid worker Haruna Yukawa, public beheadings have become commonplace in its territories where death is the penalty for numerous unproved “crimes”.

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), the video threatening Obama was released by Isis on Monday, two days after heavy Peshmerga shelling and coalition air strikes were reported in its stronghold of Mosul.

It is the largest city controlled by Isis and one of its longest-standing strongholds in Iraq.

 On Saturday, news agencies reported an increase in US air strikes around Mosul aiming to disrupt Isis supply routes ahead of an expected operation later this year to re-take it from militants.

Coalition airstrikes hit at least two dozen locations around Mosul, destroying dozens of vehicles, buildings, fighting positions and insurgent units, military officials said.

The US has claimed that the coalition has “halted the momentum” of Isis, which made most of its gains largely unchallenged last year.

No foreign armies have yet sent group troops to fight Islamists in the region as fears increase of more Isis-inspired terror attacks following the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Ottawa shootings, Sydney siege and numerous failed plots in the UK, Belgium and across Europe.

American authorities have launched investigations into reports of civilian casualties reportedly incurred during strikes aimed at Isis in Iraq and Syria but none have yet been confirmed.

Since the strikes began in August, Washington has said it takes reports of civilian casualties seriously but did not acknowledge that it had started formal investigations until earlier this month.

In September, the White House admitted that much-publicised standards imposed by President Obama to prevent civilian deaths in drone strikes did not apply to operations in Syria and Iraq.