Danny Puff

BERLIN (Reuters) - Half a life-time ago, artist Yoko Ono lay in an Amsterdam hotel bed with husband John Lennon, staging a week-long "bed-in" for peace and feeling they were very alone in their activism.

Today, Ono, whose own energy for campaigning has never tired, sees a world full of activists, maintaining her energy and faith in humanity.

"When John and I did the bed-in, not many people were with us. But now there are so many activists, I don't know anyone who is not an activist," she told Reuters in an interview in Berlin on Monday, her 80th birthday.

"Even the corporations - John always used to say the corporations need to be with us... Corporations now say 10-20 percent of their profits will go to such and such charity. They have to do that almost for people to feel good about it."

The late Beatle and Ono's 1969 bed-in to protest against the Vietnam war was repeated in Montreal, Canada. Press attention was huge, but much of it was mocking.

Ono, who gave a sell-out concert in Berlin on Sunday alongside their son Sean Lennon which closed with the anthem "Give peace a chance", said it was still critical to stand up for peace despite new conflicts in the intervening decades.

"I don't want to be drowning in sadness. I think we have to stand and up and change the world," she said.

The artist, born to a wealthy Japanese family in Tokyo in 1933, has recently become a passionate opponent of fracking, a controversial procedure which has sharply lifted energy output in the United States but which critics fear pollutes drinking water deep underground and could increase earthquake risks.

"Fracking is an incredible risk to the human race, I don't know why they even thought of doing it," she said.

Ono, whose birthday is being marked by a major retrospective of her work in Frankfurt, said she feels she is becoming freer in her art.

"My attitude has changed... I'm allowing things to happen in a way I hadn't planned before," she said.

Asked about her feelings on becoming an octogenarian, she said: "I'm surprised. It is a miracle in a sense that I am 80, I am proud about it. Not everybody gets there."

(Reporting by Alexandra Hudson, editing by Gareth Jones and Paul Casciato)

Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) The White House is downplaying its draft proposal as merely a backup plan if lawmakers don't come up with an immigration overhaul of their own. It won't be necessary, Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike are telling the Obama administration.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said Sunday that President Barack Obama wants to "be prepared" in case the small bipartisan group of senators fails to devise a plan for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. In response, lawmakers assured the White House they are working on their own plan and warned that Obama would be heading toward failure if the White House gets ahead of them.

"We will be prepared with our own plan if these ongoing talks between Republicans and Democrats up on Capitol Hill break down," McDonough said, adding he's optimistic they would not crumble.

But he was equally realistic about the fierce partisanship on Capitol Hill.

"Well, let's make sure that it doesn't have to be proposed," McDonough said of the president's pitch, first reported on USA Today's website late Saturday.

Even so, the administration is moving forward on its own immigration agenda should one of Obama's top priorities get derailed.

The administration's proposal would create a visa for those in the country illegally and allow them to become legal permanent residents within eight years. The proposal also requires businesses to know the immigration status of their workers and adds more funding for border security.

It drew immediate criticism from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., one of the eight lawmakers searching for a comprehensive plan.

"If actually proposed, the president's bill would be dead on arrival in Congress, leaving us with unsecured borders and a broken legal immigration system for years to come," said Rubio, who has been a leading GOP spokesman on immigration.

Many of the details in the administration's draft proposal follow the broad principles that Obama previously outlined. But the fact the administration is writing its own alternative signaled Obama wants to address immigration sooner rather than later and perhaps was looking to nudge lawmakers to move more quickly.

The tactic could complicate the administration's work with Congress.

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin lawmaker who was his party's vice presidential nominee last year, said the timing of the leak suggests the White House was looking for "a partisan advantage and not a bipartisan solution."

"Leaking this out does set things in the wrong direction," said Ryan. "There are groups in the House and the Senate working together to get this done and when he does things like this, it makes that much more difficult to do that."

Freshman Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, called the leaked plan "incomplete" and said both parties in Congress and the White House need to work together on a solution.

"It hasn't happened yet. It will happen before something is acted upon and certainly before something is passed," he said.

Republican Sen. John McCain predicted the administration's efforts would come up short if the White House went forward with a proposal, and he encouraged the White House to give senators a chance to finish their work.

McCain, the Arizona senator whose previous efforts at an immigration overhaul ended in failure in 2007, predicted the White House proposal's demise if it were sent to Congress. He strongly urged the president to pocket the drafted measures.

"I believe we are making progress in a bipartisan basis," said McCain, who is in the Senate group working on legislation.

And Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, who met with Obama on Wednesday at the White House to discuss progress, urged his allies in the administration to give a bipartisan group of eight lawmakers the time to hammer out a deal on their own.

Schumer, a New York Democrat and a close ally of the White House, said he has not seen the draft proposals but, along with the Democrats working on a compromise, met with Obama this week to talk about progress being made on Capitol Hill.

Schumer acknowledged that a single-party proposal would have a much more difficult time becoming law and urged the bipartisan group of senators to keep meeting to find common ground.

"I am very hopeful that in March we will have a bipartisan bill," Schumer said. "And, you know, it's obvious if a Democrat the president or anyone else puts out what they want on their own, (it) is going to be different than when you have a bipartisan agreement. But the only way we're going to get something done is with a bipartisan agreement."

McDonough appeared on ABC's "This Week," NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS' "Face the Nation." Ryan and Castro spoke to "This Week." McCain spoke to "Meet the Press." Schumer appeared on CNN's "State of the Union."

Read More

CANBERRA (Reuters) - A suspected Mossad agent who died in an Israeli jail in 2010 was arrested by his spymasters who believed he may have told Australian intelligence about his work with the Israeli spy agency, Australian media reported on Monday.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp said dual Australian-Israeli citizen Ben Zygier, 34, had met officers from Australia's domestic spy agency ASIO and had given details of a number of Mossad operations.

Quoting undefined sources, the ABC, which broke the initial story about Zygier's secret arrest and death in prison, said on one of his four trips to Australia, Zygier had also applied for a work visa to Italy.

But Mossad became concerned when it discovered Zygier had contact with the Australian spy agency, the ABC reported, adding it was worried he might pass on information about a major operation planned for Italy.

It said Zygier was one of three Australians who changed their names several times and took out new Australian passports for travel in the Middle East and Europe for their work with Mossad.

The closely guarded case has raised questions in Australia and Israel about the suspected use by Mossad of dual Australian-Israeli nationals.

Israeli lawmakers on Sunday announced plans to investigate Zygier's death, which a judge has ruled was suicide. Australia's Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has initiated an inquiry into his department's handling of the case.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday sought to reduce media attention on the case and said he "absolutely trusts" Israel's security services and what he described as the independent legal monitoring system under which they operated.

Australia's Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, who is in charge of ASIO, on Monday said he would not comment on intelligence matters or suggestions ASIO had exposed Zygier's identity.

He also said he saw no need for a review of how the intelligence agencies handled the case.

"I haven't seen any need either, for any such review to take place within the Attorney General's Department," he told reporters.

(Reporting by James Grubel; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Read More

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - Troubled country music star Mindy McCready, whose platinum singing career was shadowed by substance abuse and suicide attempts, was found dead on Sunday of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, an Arkansas sheriff said. She was 37.

McCready's body was found on the porch of a house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, on Sunday afternoon. She was pronounced dead at the scene "from what appears to be a single self-inflicted gunshot wound," the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Deputies had been dispatched to the area following reports of "shots fired," the sheriff's office said.

McCready, whose albums include "Ten Thousand Angels" and "If I Don't Stay the Night," had a complicated personal life, marked by a history of substance abuse, suicide attempts, family disputes and tragedy.

Last month, record producer David Wilson, the father of her youngest son, was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in the same Arkansas town.

Some fellow musicians paid tribute to McCready on Twitter as news of her death spread.

"My thoughts and prayers go out to Mindy McCready and her family today," country singer Tracy Lawrence tweeted.

Country star Carrie Underwood wrote, "I grew up listening to Mindy McCready... so sad for her family tonight. Many prayers are going out to them."

Born in Fort Myers, Florida, McCready learned to sing as a child at her local Pentecostal church. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to break into the country music business at the age of 18, according to allmusic.com.

She achieved early success with her 1996 debut album, "Ten Thousands Angels," which sold 2 million copies. Four other studio albums followed.

While successful in her career, McCready's personal life had begun to unravel in recent years.

In 2004 she was convicted of prescription drug fraud and placed on parole. Three years later she spent time in jail for violating her parole terms.

She had two young sons. Her first, Zander, was born in 2006. As her personal problems deepened, she became embroiled in a legal dispute over custody.

In November 2011, she left Florida with Zander and fled to Arkansas. McCready's mother, who had custody of the child, filed a missing person report against her daughter, and regained custody.

Her son with Wilson, Zayne, was born last year.

McCready appeared on the television show "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew."

According to the biography posted on VH1's website (http://www.vh1.com/shows/celebrity_rehab_with_dr_drew/season_3/cast_member.jhtml?personalityId=13232 ) as part of her appearance on the show, McCready said that she believed her only true addiction was to violent relationships.

In 2011 McCready appeared on HBO's show "Celebrity Close Calls" about life and death situations. That same year she also appeared on the network's "Celebrity Ghost Stories."

Her fifth album, "I'm Still Here," was released to acclaim in 2010.

The sheriff's office said McCready's body would be taken to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for an autopsy, adding that "the matter will be fully investigated."

(Additional reporting by James B. Kelleher in Chicago Writing by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; Editing by Eric Beech and Mohammad Zargham)

Read More

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock says he hasn't ruled out another run for political office something he said he considered after his loss for a U.S. Senate seat.

Mourdock, a Republican, lost to Democrat Joe Donnelly in the race for Republican Sen. Richard Lugar's seat after coming under criticism for his comment during an Oct. 23 debate that pregnancy resulting from rape is "something God intended." At an event in Evansville on Friday night, Mourdock said he has recovered mentally and physically from his loss to Donnelly and would consider another run for office, the Evansville Courier & Press reported (http://bit.ly/WCPpJi ).

Mourdock did not say what office he might run for, but he said he's ready to move past his crushing defeat. Donnelly's win in November helped Democrats build a 55-45 seat advantage in the Senate.

"I'll be honest: This one was very difficult to lose," said Mourdock, who was in Evansville for the Vanderburgh County GOP Lincoln Day dinner.

During the event, many Republicans cast Mourdock as a good man who paid an extraordinarily high price for a poor choice of words. Some blamed what they called a hostile news media, repeating what Mourdock's campaign finance director Ashlee Walls wrote in an email to supporters in December. She said the Republican Senate candidate was "caught in the liberal media cross hairs." Mourdock refused to apologize for the remark, and Democrats spent heavily for ads repeating it for voters.

It was Mourdock's third GOP Lincoln Day dinner of the week, and three more are planned.

Vanderburgh County GOP Chairman Wayne Parke said Mourdock's loss was heartbreaking, calling it "a five-second thing."

Asked about the comment he made regarding pregnancy and rape, Mourdock said: "I made my statement that night and clarified as many times as I possibly can. I believe God is the author of life and certainly I want life respected."

Mourdock, who has two years left in his term as treasurer, said he won't shrink from the scene no matter what happens in the future.

"I'm going to find a way to have my voice heard," he said.

___

Information from: Evansville Courier & Press, http://www.courierpress.com

Read More

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) President Rafael Correa, a fiery-tongued leftist who has endeared himself to the lower classes by expanding Ecuador's welfare state but drawn wide rebuke for intolerance of dissent, breezed to a second re-election on Sunday.

The U.S.-educated economist won 56.9 percent of the vote against 23.8 percent for his closest challenger, former banker Guillermo Lasso, with 57 percent of the vote counted.

Correa, 48, called the outcome a victory for his "citizens' revolution," and promised to further reduce poverty, which the United Nations says has dropped nearly five percentage points to 32.4 percent since he first took office in 2007.

"We are only here to serve you. Nothing for us. Everything for you," Correa told jubilant supporters from the balcony of the Carondelet presidential palace, celebrating long before official results were released.

Lasso, the ex-head of the Banco de Guayaquil, had run a business-friendly but relatively tame campaign, and conceded as first official results were released. Former President Lucio Gutierrez won 6 percent. The rest of the vote was divided among five other candidates.

Correa has brought surprising stability to an oil-exporting nation of 14.6 million with a history of unruliness that cycled through seven presidents in the decade before him. With the help of oil prices that have hovered around $100 a barrel, he has raised living standards among the poor and widened the welfare state with region-leading social spending.

Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, said Correa has shown himself to be the "undisputed rhetorical leader of Latin America's left" and will now see his standing enhanced there.

But Shifter said Correa's moves to concentrate power have damaged Ecuador's "already precarious institutions" while his ramping up of social spending "is simply applying the standard recipe for many populist governments in the region." While it succeeds in building political support in the short term, it's not clear whether it is sustainable, he said.

Correa's result Sunday topped the 51.7 percent he won in his first re-election in April 2009 in a ballot set up by a voter-approved constitutional rewrite. Correa is now legally barred from another 4-year term.

Correa dedicated his victory to Venezuela's cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez, his close ally among Latin America's alliance of leftist leaders.

While a practitioner of one-man rule in the Chavez mold, he is more respectful of private property.

Ecuador relies on petroleum for more than half of its export earnings, and he has used this oil wealth to make public education and health care more accessible, and lay thousands of kilometers (miles) of new highways.

Foreign investment has suffered, however, and Lasso ran on guaranteeing multinational businesses more favorable terms, such as abolishing a 5 percent tax on capital removed from Ecuador.

Correa said he's happy to have more foreign investment but "it's better not to have it than to mortgage the country in the name of that pipe dream called foreign investment."

He did not explain, meanwhile, how he planned to pay for efforts to "quicken and deepen" poverty reduction. Skeptical economists say the state can't afford it without major new revenue sources.

Such talk doesn't dim the enthusiasm for Correa of the likes of Jomaira Espinosa.

"Before (Correa), my family didn't have enough to eat" and her father couldn't find work, the 18-year-old said. Now her father has a job as a public servant and she expects to be able to study for free at a university thanks to Correa's programs.

Correa has been harshly condemned for using criminal libel law against opposition news media and for such strong-arm tactics as seizing Ecuador's airwaves virtually at will to spread his political gospel and attack opponents.

German Calapucha, a 29-year-old accountant, said he voted against Correa because he's tired of the president's imperiousness.

"He thinks that because he wins elections he has the right to mistreat people," Calapucha said.

He has eroded the influence of opposition parties, the Roman Catholic Church and the news media, stacked courts with friendly judges and prosecuted indigenous leaders for organizing protests against Correa's attempt to open up Ecuador to large-scale mining without their consent.

"He is far too insolent," said Laura Realpe, a 59-year-old housewife.

That matters little to voters such as Fabian Garzon, a 48-year-old messenger and cleaner.

Thanks to Correa, he has been able to buy his own apartment with a $24,000 government-issued mortgage.

His monthly salary, meanwhile, has more than doubled over the past four years, from $200 to $450, and payments for his social security, vacation and other government-mandated contributions are being made regularly.

"I worked 25 years without having my own house and at this age, thank God, I'm able to own my own home," Garzon said.

In all, 1.9 million people receive $50 a month in aid from the state. Critics complain that the popular handouts to single mothers, needy families and the elderly poor, along with other subsidies, have bloated the government.

The number of people working for it has burgeoned from 16,000 to 90,000 during Correa's current term, Ecuador's nongovernmental Observatory of Fiscal Policy reported in December.

Correa also has been unable to stop a growing sensation of vulnerability in a country where robberies and burglaries grew 30 percent in 2012 compared with the previous year.

The graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gained an early reputation as a maverick, defying international financiers by defaulting on $3.9 billion in foreign debt obligations and rewriting contracts with oil multinationals to secure a higher share of oil revenues for Ecuador.

He has also kept the United States at arm's length while upsetting Britain and Sweden in August by granting asylum at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the online spiller of leaked U.S. government secrets who is wanted for questioning in Sweden for alleged sexual assault.

Correa has, meanwhile, cozied up to U.S. rivals Iran and China. The latter is the biggest buyer of Ecuador's oil and holds $3.4 billion in Ecuadorean debt, according to Finance Minister Patricio Rivera.

___

Associated Press Writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report from Lima, Peru

Read More

SYDNEY (AP) An Australian film about a woman in need benefiting from the kindness of others won top honors at the world's biggest short-film festival.

"We've All Been There" director Nicholas Clifford received the Tropfest first-place award Sunday from judging panelist and "Avatar" actor Sam Worthington.

Worthington earlier said, "It's not about budget, it's not about box office, it's about pure entertainment and that to me is what film should be about. Not all that other junk."

Clifford joked later that he gets grief about resembling Worthington, so their meeting "is going to give everyone a bit more ammunition to throw at me."

His film's star, Laura Wheelright, was named best actress while Nick Hamilton was named best actor for the time-travel tale, "Time."

For his first-place win, Clifford gets $10,000 cash, a trip to Los Angeles to meet with film executives and other prizes.

The outdoor film festival held since 1993 has grown to a large-scale event attracting thousands to a park near Sydney's central business district.

The next Tropfest will be Dec. 8 in Centennial Park an advanced date and new location to accommodate larger crowds and to attract fans and VIP attendees without having to compete for attention with the Oscars and other international events in February.

Read More

HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) Mindy McCready, who hit the top of the country charts before personal problems sidetracked her career, died Sunday after she apparently shot herself. She was 37.

A news release from the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office says that McCready, 37, was found dead Sunday afternoon with what appears to be a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Deputies were sent to a home around 4 p.m. and found her body on the front porch. An autopsy is pending.

Coroner Waren Olmstead said he didn't have further information on who was taking care of her two sons.

She arrived in Nashville in 1994 with tapes of her karaoke vocals and earned a recording contract with BNA Records.

In 1996, her "Guys Do It All the Time" hit No. 1 and its dig at male chauvinism endeared her to females. Her other hits included "Ten Thousand Angels," also in 1996, and her album by that title sold 2 million copies.

However, personal problems plagued her beginning in 2004 and included a custody battle with her mother over one of her sons.

McCready took her older son Zander from her mother and the boy's legal guardian, Gayle Inge, in late 2011. She fled to Arkansas without permission over what she called child abuse fears. Authorities eventually found McCready hiding in a residence without permission and took the boy into custody.

She and her boyfriend David Wilson had a son, Zayne, in April of 2012. The older son has a different father.

In May 2010, she was hospitalized briefly after police responded to an overdose call at a home in North Fort Myers, Fla., owned by her mother. This followed a stint on "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew," where she delcared herself clean from drugs.

In 2004, she was charged with obtaining the painkiller OxyContin fraudulently at a pharmacy. She pleaded guilty and was placed on three years' probation.

She violated the probation with a drunken driving arrest in May 2005. Then she attempted suicide in July 2005, overdosed in September 2005 and slit her wrists again in December 2008.

Also that year, McCready was charged in Arizona with hindering prosecution and unlawful use of transportation. Those charges stemmed from an alleged attempt in June 2005 to purchase two high performance boats, but she claimed she was trying to stop a con man.

She made headlines again in April 2008 when she acknowledged a longtime relationship with baseball great Roger Clemens. Published reports at the time said she met the pitcher at a Florida karaoke bar when she was 15 and he was 28 and married.

Growing up in Fort Myers, she took seven years of private vocal lessons and later sang in karaoke bars.

After getting her recording contract, she did concert appearances with top country stars including George Strait, Tim McGraw and Alan Jackson.

Her other singles included "Maybe He'll Notice Her Now," ''A Girl's Gotta Do (What a Girl's Gotta Do)" and "You'll Never Know."

In 1998, she was engaged to actor Dean Cain, but they apparently never married.

Read More

JOHANNESBURG (AP) Reeva Steenkamp's last wish for her family before she was shot dead at boyfriend Oscar Pistorius' home was for them to watch her in a reality TV show that went on air in South Africa on Saturday night, two days after her killing.

Sharon Steenkamp, Reeva's cousin, told The Associated Press that the model and law graduate was "proud of being in the show" and reminded them in their last conversation to make sure that they watched it.

The South African Broadcasting Corp. aired the "Tropika Island of Treasure" program, showing the late Steenkamp the victim of a Valentine's Day shooting at the home of Pistorius, the Olympic star and double-amputee athlete. She is laughing and smiling, and blowing a kiss toward the camera in Jamaica when it was filmed last year.

South Africans also saw her swimming in the ocean and watching people jump off a cliff and into the sea, shaking her head as they leaped.

SABC said it was dedicated to Steenkamp and displayed the words "Reeva Steenkamp 19 August 1983 - 14 February 2013" between images of a rose and a candle in a short tribute before the show aired. She was also seen blowing the kiss as she sat on a Jamaican beach and her name again appeared on screen with the years of her birth and death.

The country was rocked Thursday when news broke of Steenkamp's shooting death at the upscale house of the star athlete. Pistorius was arrested and charged with her murder and remains in custody in a police station. His family has strongly denied prosecutors' claims that he murdered her.

Steenkamp's family said earlier Saturday that it had not been contacted by either the SABC South Africa's national broadcaster or the show's producers for permission to air it, but were not opposed to it because Reeva wanted everyone to see it.

"Her last words to us personally were that she wants us to watch it," Sharon Steenkamp said, hours before the program was shown.

SABC aired the reality show on its main channel, which prominently featured Steenkamp.

The show's executive producer, Samantha Moon, said going ahead with the show "is what she would have wanted."

Steenkamp, a 29-year-old blonde model who graduated from law school, died after suffering four gunshot wounds, police said. Officers recovered a 9-mm pistol from Pistorius' house and quickly charged the Olympian with murder for Steenkamp's killing.

Pistorius will appear in court Tuesday for a bail hearing, something police have said they oppose. Prosecutors also say they will pursue upgraded charges of premeditated murder against him, which means the disabled icon and double-amputee runner could face a life sentence.

Steenkamp was known in South Africa for appearing in commercials and as a bikini-clad model in men's magazines.

Pistorius and Steenkamp met Nov. 4 at the Kyalami race track, which sits between Pretoria and Johannesburg and has been used for Grand Prix and Formula 1 races, said Justin Divaris, a mutual friend.

Divaris said his own girlfriend was a close friend to Steenkamp. Pistorius and Steenkamp immediately hit it off and decided in the spur of the moment to attend a sports award ceremony together the same night, Divaris said. At the time, Pistorius had been dating another woman and his personal life was constant fodder for gossip pages.

Later, however, problems may have started, as police have said there were previous domestic altercations at Pretorius' home in a gated community near South Africa's capital, Pretoria.

A Steenkamp family spokesman said late Friday that relatives still faced a long struggle to come to terms with her killing.

"I can't see the family getting over this shortly," said Reeva's uncle, Mike Steenkamp. "It's going to be a long, long-term reconciliation with a lot of things and issues."

Family members plan for a memorial service Tuesday for the model in Port Elizabeth, her hometown on South Africa's southern coast. Pistorius has a court appearance scheduled in Pretoria on the same day for his lawyers to argue that he can be released on bail.

Portions released earlier Saturday of the reality show, sponsored by a milk fruit drink, feature Steenkamp laughing and smiling on the beaches of Jamaica. Another portion shows her swimming with two dolphins, which tap her on the cheek with their snouts.

"I think the way that you go out, not just your journey in life, but the way that you go out and the way you make your exit is so important," Steenkamp says in the video. "You either made an impact in a positive or a negative way, but just maintain integrity and maintain class and just remain true to yourself.

"I'm going to miss you all so much and I love you very, very much."

___

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this report.

___

Gerald Imray can be reached at http://twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP

Read More

House Budget Committee Chair Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., blamed the White House and Senate Democrats for failing to avert automatic spending cuts scheduled to take place next month, saying, "there's no leadership on the other side of the aisle and therefore no agreement."

"The Senate hasn't passed a bill to replace the sequester. The president gave a speech showing that he'd like to replace it, but he hasn't put any details out there. So that is why I conclude I believe it's going to take place," Ryan said this morning on "This Week" about the $85 billion in automatic cuts scheduled for March 1.

"What we've always said is let's cut spending in smarter ways to replace this sequester," Ryan told ABC News Chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl. "We [the House] passed two bills doing that and we've heard nothing in response from the Senate Democrats or the president."

Congressional Republicans and President Obama remain at odds as the president seeks a package to avert the sequester that includes both spending cuts and new revenues. The House passed proposals to eliminate the sequester in the last Congress, but has failed to act during the new congressional term begun this January.

This morning, Ryan rejected a proposal by Senate Democrats to avoid the automatic cuts that included new tax revenues from closing existing loopholes.

"I'd be curious to see if they could actually pass that, number one. Number two, the president got his tax increases last year. He got those higher revenues," Ryan said. "But taking tax loopholes, what we've always advocated is necessary for tax reform, means you're going to close loopholes to fuel more spending, not to reform the tax code."

Newly-appointed White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said finding savings in the federal budget was "not impossible," but continued to stress the need for a "balanced" package that would protect the middle class by avoiding automatic spending cuts that would impact education, mental health services and the "devastating list of horribles" that would impact the Pentagon.

"We're going to insist on doing this in a balanced way," McDonough on "This Week." "This should not be a social science experiment. This should be a question where we ask ourselves 'what is most important to the economy, what is most important to the middle class families of this country,' and that's the way the president is going to do this."

Beyond the sequester, Ryan said he is beginning work on writing a budget that will balance in ten years - which would require even greater spending cuts than the recent budgets Ryan has written and that House Republicans backed last year.

"I'm very comfortable with the fact that we will produce a budget that balances," Ryan said. "The reason we want to do this is not simply to make numbers add up; we want to prevent a debt crisis, we want to grow the economy, we want to get people back to work in society and if we have a debt crisis, that is bad for our economy today."

When asked about his own political future, including the potential for a 2016 presidential run, Ryan said he was focused on his work in the House, saying, "That to me is my first priority. That's what I'm focused on."

"Will I or won't I? I don't know," Ryan added of his 2016 prospects. "I'm not foreclosing any opportunity. I may or I may not. I just don't know because right now we just had an election. We've got jobs to do We need to start thinking about doing our jobs after these elections than thinking about the next election."

Also Read

Read More