President Obama, employing his strongest language to date on the Supreme Court review of the federal health care overhaul, cautioned the court Monday against overturning the law -- while repeatedly saying he's "confident" it will be upheld.

The president spoke at length about the case at a joint press conference with the leaders of Mexico and Canada. The president, adopting what he described as the language of conservatives who fret about judicial activism, questioned how an "unelected group of people" could overturn a law approved by Congress.

"I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress," Obama said.

The Supreme Court spent three days hearing arguments last week in four separate challenges to the health care law, which stands as the president's signature domestic policy accomplishment.

GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, has endorsing Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination.

Ryan gave his endorsement Friday on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends."

“We vote on Tuesday here in Wisconsin,” said Ryan, R-Wisc. “Lots of my friends, family, supporters are asking me who should we vote for? I have two criteria I'm using to make my decision on Tuesday: who will make best president and who has best chance of beating Barack Obama? And in my opinion, Mitt Romney is clearly that person.”

Ryan stature in Congress, particularly among fiscal conservatives in the Republican Party, continues to increase, especially since the House approved his budget Thursday...

An advocate for sound policy in the military says a recent decision by the Obama Justice Department goes against a congressional mandate to defend traditional marriage.

The New York Times recently reported that Attorney General Eric Holder backs equal benefits for so-called "gay" couples in the military, even though Congress has not sanctioned same-sex "marriage" for military personnel.

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Holder said the DOJ shared the view of plaintiffs in a Massachusetts lawsuit against "unconstitutional" statutes that block same-sex military spouses from receiving marriage benefits, including visitation rights at military hospitals, survivor benefits, and burial together at military cemeteries.

Colorodo Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn is skipping Tuesday night's State of the Union speech in a protest of President Obama's policies over so-called recess appointments, rejection of the Keystone pipeline, deficit spending and "draconian" cuts to the defense budget that were negotiated in the debt ceiling deal last summer.

The three-term lawmaker said he has never passed on a presidential address to a joint session of Congress, but this year’s speech is different because President Obama is "in full campaign mode and will use the address as an opportunity to bash his political opponents"...

In its first real bit of business to mark the new year, the House passed a symbolic Republican measure against President Obama’s request to increase the federal debt limit by $1.2 trillion.

Last summer’s bipartisan debt and budget agreement allowed the White House to automatically raise the debt ceiling 15 days after the president officially notifies lawmakers that the government is close to the current $15.2 trillion cap. The administration’s request can be halted if both chambers of Congress agree.

The measure opposing raising the debt limit passed 239 to 176, largely along partisan lines. Six Democrats supported the measure, and only one Republican — House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier of California — rejected it. Two Republicans voted “present.”

But the measure is dead on arrival in the Democrat-run Senate. And even if it somehow clears both chambers, Mr. Obama would almost certainly veto it...

Borrowing a page from President Obama's playbook, House Democrats continued to chide their GOP counterparts Tuesday for remaining on a holiday break while the clock ticks down to an expiration of the payroll tax cut, saying in a press release, "We can't wait", a common theme at White House events.

It's a fight ignited by the president's recent controversial recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the new consumer protection agency, as well as, three labor board nominees. Republicans, furious, charged that Congress was not in recess, and therefore the appointment was illegal. GOP aides insisted that business was being conducted, like the late December extension of the payroll tax holiday and the appointment of conferees to a House-Senate panel charged with extending the law through year's end.

Democrats scoffed.

Each chamber is currently holding "pro forma" sessions every three days as required by the Constitution, in the absence of an adjournment agreement.

(CNSNews.com) - John C. Eastman, a professor at Chapman University School of Law who is an expert on the constitutional separation of powers, says that the White House simply ignored the section of the Constitution, which governs when Congress can adjourn, when President Obama claimed to use the "recess" appointment power on Wednesday to name a director to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and three members to the National Labor Relations Board.

Eastman says that under the terms of the Constitution Congress was not in recess this week, it was in session.

“They’re ignoring that the recess clause was designed to fill vacancies that occurred during the recess. These did not," said Eastman. "They are ignoring entirely Section 5, Article 1. The Senate doesn’t have the authority to recess without the House’s approval even if they wanted to.

President Barack Obama has agreed to delay submitting a debt ceiling increase request until next month to allow lawmakers time to consider it while they are in session, the White House said on Friday.

Under an August deal between Obama's Democrats and the Republicans, Congress is unlikely to block the expected $1.2 trillion increase request, ensuring that the debt limit will not be reached again until after November's presidential election.

"We have been asked by the bicameral leadership of Congress to delay certification in order to give both houses time to consider when the votes may occur, given the current congressional schedule," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

"The president has agreed to Congress' request to delay submission of the certification," Earnest told reporters in Hawaii, where Obama is vacationing with his family.

Congressional leaders announced Thursday that they've struck a deal to ensure the payroll tax rate does not rise at the beginning of next year, potentially ending a stalemate that had put House Speaker John Boehner in a politically uncomfortable position.

Following a day of political grandstanding by members of both parties, as well as private talks in pursuit of an agreement, Boehner said at a news conference late Thursday that the House plans to vote on a new version of the Senate-passed bill -- which would extend the payroll tax cut for another two months -- despite earlier opposing a short-term extension.

In exchange, the Senate will appoint negotiators who will meet with House lawmakers to next hammer out an extension of the tax cut for the rest of 2012.

The deal still has to clear both chambers, and rank-and-file Republicans already are expressing concern about the terms Boehner outlined.

Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann sparred on the issue of abortion in Thursday night’s Republican debate with Bachmann making an accusation that Gingrich did not fully support pro-life efforts in Congress.

“All right. Congresswoman Bachmann, you say that Speaker Gingrich has a, quote, “inconsistent record on life” and you singled out comments he made recently that life begins with the implantation of a fertilized egg, not at conception. What is your concern?” a Fox News panelist asked her.

Bachmann responded, “Well, my concern is the fact that the Republican Party can’t get the issue of life wrong. This is a basic part of our party. Just last night we gathered in Des Moines to talk about this issue, because it’s that crucial to our party. And one of the concerns that I had is that when Speaker Gingrich was Speaker of the House he had an opportunity to de-fund Planned Parenthood. And he chose not to take it.