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ByDonnaCassata The Associated Press WASHINGTON Rebuffing President Barack Obama on Iran, House Speaker John Boehner said Wednes- day he had invited Israel's prime minister to address a joint meeting of Con- gress next month about the threats from Tehran and radical Islam. The Republican leader re- leased a letter extending the invitation to Benjamin Ne- tanyahu for Feb. 11. Boehner also told a private meeting of GOP lawmakers that Congress would proceed on new penalties against Iran despite Obama's warning that any legislation would scuttle diplomatic negotia- tions over the country's nu- clear program. "You may have seen that on Friday, the president warned us not to move ahead with sanctions on Iran, a state sponsor of terror," Boehner told col- leagues, according to his office. "His exact message to us was: 'Hold your fire.' He expects us to stand idly by and do nothing while he cuts a bad deal with Iran. "Two words: 'Hell no!' ... We're going to do no such thing," the speaker said. The U.S. and other West- ern countries believe that Iran is intent on trying to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran claims its nuclear program is peaceful and ex- ists only to produce energy for civilian use. The high-stakes invita- tion came just hours after Obama, in his State of the Union address, told Con- gress that he would veto any sanctions legislation and he urged Congress to delay further penalties against Iran. "New sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails — alienating Amer- ica from its allies, and en- suring that Iran starts up its nuclear program again," Obama said Tuesday night. "It doesn't make sense. That is why I will veto any new sanctions bill that threatens to undo this progress. The American people expect us to only go to war as a last resort, and I intend to stay true to that wisdom." Obama last week warned that rash action by Con- gress would increase the risk of a military show- down with Iran, and that "Congress will have to own that as well." In an unusual step, British Prime Minister David Cameron had called members of Congress to urge them to hold off on sanctions. The White House had no immediate comment on the Boehner invitation. Typi- cally, requests for foreign leaders to address Congress are made in lengthy con- sultations with the White House and the State De- partment. Boehner said in a state- ment that Netanyahu "is a great friend of our country, and this invitation carries with it our unwavering com- mitment to the security and well-being of his people. In this time of challenge, I am asking the prime minister to address Congress on the grave threats radical Islam and Iran pose to our secu- rity and way of life. Amer- icans and Israelis have al- ways stood together in shared cause and common ideals, and now we must rise to the moment again." Boehner is enlisting Ne- tanyahu as a powerful mes- senger who could argue for a tougher stance toward Iran and an individual who carries considerable sway with Congress. The prime minister repeatedly has warned that a nuclear deal could undercut Israel's security. The invitation comes at a crucial time for Netan- yahu, who is in the middle of a re-election campaign. In Israel, there was no im- mediate comment from the prime minister's spokes- man. JOINT MEETING BoehnerinvitesIsraelileader to address Congress on Iran JIMHOLLANDER—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, le , speaks with relatives of Yoav Hattab, one of four French Jews killed in an attack on a kosher grocery store in Paris last week, during their funeral service, in Jerusalem. SUSAN WALSH — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday. By David Crary The Associated Press NEW YORK Buoyed by conservative gains in the November election, foes of abortion are mobilizing on behalf of bills in Congress and several state legisla- tures that would further curtail women's access to the procedure. On both sides of the de- bate, activists are highlight- ing their hopes and con- cerns in conjunction with Thursday's 42nd anniver- sary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade deci- sion in 1973 that established a nationwide right to abor- tion. Since then, there have been more than 50 million abortions in the U.S. Coinciding with the annual March for Life in Washington, the Republi- can-controlled U.S. House of Representatives plans a debate Thursday on a bill that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy on the dis- puted premise that a fetus can feel pain at that stage. The bill is expected to pass in the House, but its pros- pects in the Senate are un- certain, despite the GOP takeover of that chamber. President Barack Obama has promised a veto if it reaches his desk. Several proposed bills at the state level may have a better chance of enact- ment. Notable among them is a first-of-its-kind measure being drafted in Kansas, with the backing of the Na- tional Right to Life Com- mittee, which would ban doctors from using forceps, tongs or other medical im- plements to dismember a living fetus in the womb to complete an abortion. Proponents have titled the bill the Unborn Child Protection from Dismem- berment Abortion Act and say it targets a procedure used in about 8 percent of abortions in Kansas. "Dismemberment abor- tion kills a baby by tear- ing her apart limb from limb," said National Right to Life's director of state legislation, Mary Spauld- ing Balch, who hopes the Kansas bill will be emu- lated in other states. Abortion foes push new bills in Congress ROE V. WADE ANNIVERSARY By Bradley Klapper and Michael Weissenstein The Associated Press HAVANA The United States said Wednes- day it dispatched addi- tional ships to the Florida Straits to halt Cuban raf- ters but rebuffed demands for broader changes to U.S. migration rules that dominated the first day of talks between Cuban offi- cials and the highest-rank- ing U.S. delegation to the island in more than three decades. Cuba urged the U.S. to end immigration privi- leges that grant virtually automatic legal residency to any Cuban who touches U.S. soil. Its government blames the Cold War pol- icy for luring tens of thou- sands of Cubans a year to make perilous journeys by sea and land to try to reach the United States. Still, many Cubans are wor- ried the elimination of the rules would take away their chance to have a better life in the U.S. "I don't want them to get rid of it," said Mile Nieves, a 42-year-old Havana res- ident. "I've got my whole family there and I'm des- perate to leave." U.S. officials reported a spike in the number of raf- ters attempting to reach Florida after the Dec. 17 an- nouncement that the coun- tries would move to nor- malize ties. Those num- bers appear to have slowed in recent days. In Washington, U.S. Homeland Security Secre- tary Jeh Johnson issued a statement saying addi- tional Coast Guard cutters have been deployed to stop Cuban and Haitian mi- grants from reaching the United States by boat. America's "wet foot, dry foot" approach, which gen- erally shields Cubans from deportation if they touch U.S. land, remains in ef- fect, Johnson said. But he stressed that those trying to come by sea would most likely be interdicted and re- turned. "Cuba wants a normal relationship with the U.S., in the broadest sense but also in the area of migra- tion," said Cuba's head of North American affairs, Josefina Vidal. She called for the U.S. to end "excep- tional treatment that no other citizens in the world receive, causing an irregu- lar situation in the flow of migrants." American officials in- stead pressed Cuba to take back tens of thousands of its nationals whom U.S. au- thorities want to deport be- cause they have been con- victed of crimes. No prog- ress was made on that issue, according to an of- ficial present in the meet- ing. The official wasn't au- thorized to speak on the matter and demanded an- onymity. NEW RELATIONSHIP US, Cuban officials spar over migration policy By Stephen Ohlemacher The Associated Press WASHINGTON Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew dis- missed efforts in Congress to overhaul the nation's tax laws by lowering the top in- come tax rate paid by indi- viduals, saying Wednesday that Democrats and Repub- licans are too far apart to forge such a sweeping pack- age. Instead, Lew said, law- makers should focus on simplifying taxes paid by businesses, an approach that is gaining traction on Capitol Hill. "I don't think that there's any advantage in pretend- ing that there aren't big dis- agreements on the individ- ual tax side," Lew said at a forum hosted by the Brook- ings Institution, a Washing- ton think tank. "We had a national debate just two years ago about the top rate. We're not looking at the kind of negotiation to go back to lower the top rate." "While our views on in- dividual tax reform may be far apart," Lew added, "there is a broad set of busi- ness tax reforms on which we should be able to agree." Lew's comments came a day after President Barack Obama proposed raising taxes on the rich and us- ing some of the revenue to finance tax breaks for the middle class. In his State of the Union address, Obama called his approach "mid- dle-class economics." Congressional Republi- cans panned the speech, saying there is no way they would use their majorities in the House and Senate to enact tax increases. "All the president really offered (Tuesday) night was more taxes, more govern- ment, more of the same ap- proach that has failed the middle class for decades," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "These just aren't the wrong poli- cies, they're the wrong pri- orities." On Wednesday, congres- sional Republicans said they were disappointed the Obama administration isn't pushing to simplify taxes for individuals. TREASURY CHIEF Lew slams door on efforts to lower top individual tax Fresh coverage 5 days Tuesday, January 27 Wednesday, January 28 Thursday, January 29 Friday, January 30 & Saturday, January 31 ContactyourAdvertising Representative today (530)527-2151 N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY published only in the Deadline for 5x Flights: Friday, January 23 at 10AM CUSTOM DAILY EDITIONS Bull&GeldingSale | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2015 8 A