WHITE HOUSE

The following is a transcript of remarks by President Barack Obama on April 27, 2011 as delivered to reporters at the White House on the issue of his birth place, which he called a distraction from more important issues facing the nation. On Thursday, the White House released the long-form birth certificate obtained from State of Hawaii. A certification of live birth, which provided less information, was released in 2008, ahead of the election that year.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for an end to distractions over his place of birth and released a long-form birth certificate which provides more detailed information about his birth.

President Barack Obama obtained an exception from Hawaii's State Department of Health to release a copy of his long form birth certificate, publishing it on the White House web site.

The Obama Administration has fired back at comments made over the weekend by Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist preacher Billy Graham that the President might not have been born in the U.S.

The United States said it may impose sanctions against Syria in response to the brutal crackdown against protesters by the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Sen. John McCain, who visited the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Friday, called for the United States and every other nation to recognize the rebels fighting against forces led by Col. Muammar Gaddafi and for responsible nations to arm them.

President Barack Obama said Thursday that bringing change had been more difficult than a lot of us expected, after a group donors interrupted a campaign speech to protest in song the detention of the soldier that allegedly released a trove of government cables which eventually were obtained and disseminated by Wikileaks.

With Mark Zuckerburg admitting that he was kind of nervous in his opening remarks while hosting Barack Obama at the Facebook headquarters, the young entrepreneur and the president sought comfort in a trivial yet hilarious chat about clothes.

President Barack Obama is teaming up with Facebook to talk about the nation’s economy and plans to deal with financial challenges.

There are some interesting elements from Donald Trump’s own ancestry. For one thing, “Trump” is not his real name.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK on Monday - reacting to a 2 year warning on the nation's pristine credit rating - said Democrats and Republicans needed to reach a deal on cutting the nation's long-term deficits ahead of the November 2012 election, cautioning against waiting for the perfect political moment to tackle the problem.

Donald Trump's PR campaign has been built around questioning the validity of President Obama's birth certificate. But recently Trump has also broached on foreign policy, adding another angle to his PR campaign.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's statements on Sunday that Congress will raise the U.S. debt ceiling in the coming months are in line with separate recently-proposed long-term plans by the Democratic and Republican leadership in Congress and the White House to increase the debt by trillions of dollars in the next decade.

President Barack Obama joked about his birthplace on Thursday at a campaign speech in Chicago where he prepared supporters at a fundraiser for a 2012 presidential re-election run.

Congress on Thursday passed a budget that covers the next five and half months, sealing last week's deal to avert a shutdown, with President Barack Obama set to sign it into law.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed spending cuts for the years ahead that are much smaller than the Republican proposal a week ago. Obama called for $2 trillion in reduced spending over the next 12 years. House Republicans last week proposed $5.8 billion in cuts to federal spending over the next 10 years.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed a four-step plan to reduce the federal deficit by $4 trillion over the next 12 years and called on negotiations involving Congress and the White House to begin in May.

President Barack Obama has requested that formal negotiations to begin in May on reducing the long-term U.S. debt as a share of the economy and annual deficits.

President Barack Obama's awaited proposal on Wednesday dealing with specific dollar amounts and cuts needed to address the United States' $14.3 trillion debt will contrast with a Republican proposal offered last week by offering a balance that it didn't have, a White House spokesman said.

The Obama Administration is trying to balance keeping spending up in certain areas while cutting federal deficits and may be open to striking a deal with Republicans to raise the debt ceiling above its current $14.3 trillion levels.

House Speaker John Boehner, fresh off a tightly fought political battle to cut $38.5 billion from the federal budget for the rest of the fiscal year, said he understands President Barack Obama better and says there is a wide ideological gap between them about the role of the federal government.