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Ronald Reagan used to say the nine most terrifying words in the English language were: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Barack Obama is offering Americans his own twist on that message: He's from the government and he needs your help.

Frustrated by the inability of Congress and the White House to reach agreement on much of anything, the president is increasingly relying on his powers of persuasion to cajole people and organizations to help tackle some of the country's big problems voluntarily.

Lots of presidents promote volunteerism, of course. This is something different.

The president this year has exercised what the White House calls his "convening powers" to bring together influential groups to focus on the challenges facing young black men, the trials of the long-term unemployed and barriers to a college education that face the disadvantaged, among other things. He's held a student film festival to spotlight the need to improve technology in public schools. And coming up in June: a White House meeting on working families designed to push businesses to adopt more family-friendly policies and pay female employees on par with men.

Obama will pretty much try anything to mobilize support for his agenda: He turned up on the comic website Funny or Die recently to plug his health care law on Zach Galifianakis' mock interview show "Between Two Ferns." Within days, the interview had snagged 18 million views, on par with Justin Bieber. The same day as the interview, Obama went sweater shopping at a Gap store in Manhattan, a high-profile reward for a company that has moved voluntarily to boost the minimum wage for its workers.

It's all part of Obama's "pen and phone" strategy for 2014, in which he's signing more executive orders to advance his policies (the pen) and chatting up governors, businesses, foundations and others to generate action in the absence of new legislation (the phone).

With the multiplier effects of social media, the cajoler-in-chief can accomplish more than one might think, in the White House view.

"There are things that a president can do with his phone or with his convening authority, that Congress can't do," says Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer. He points to the hundreds of companies who've heeded a presidential call and committed to do more to hire the long-term unemployed.

"That's something only the president really can do," Pfeiffer said.

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Obama Using Powers of Persuasion to Advance Agenda

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Seeking to intensify pressure on Russia, President Barack Obama on Thursday expanded U.S. economic sanctions against Moscow over its actions in Ukraine, targeting President Vladimir Putin's chief of staff and 19 other individuals as well as a Russian bank that provides them support.

Obama, warning of more costs to come for the Kremlin if the situation worsens, said he also had signed an executive order that would allow the U.S. to penalize key sectors of the Russian economy, including its huge energy business. Officials said Obama could act on that authority if Russian forces press into other areas of Ukraine, an escalation of the crisis in Crimea.

The president said the latest penalties were the result of "choices the Russian government has made, choices that have been rejected by the international community."

"Russia must know that further escalation will only isolate it further from the international community," Obama said, speaking from the South Lawn of the White House.

European Union leaders, too, said they would expand the number of people targeted with various sanctions and indicated they would cancel an EU-Russia summit. Chancellor Angela Merkel told the German parliament that if the crisis deepens in Crimea and Ukraine, the EU is prepared to move to economic sanctions on a higher level.

Russia retaliated quickly by imposing entry bans on American lawmakers and senior White House officials. Among them were Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Obama's senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer and his deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, were also targets of the Russian entry bans.

Boehner's office said the speaker was "proud to be included on a list of those willing to stand against Putin's aggression."

The new American sanctions hit close advisers to Putin, including Sergei Ivanov, the Russian president's chief of staff and a longtime associate. Also targeted were Arkady Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko, both lifelong Putin friends whose companies have amassed billions of dollars in government contracts.

Also sanctioned: Bank Rossiya, a private bank that is owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, who is considered to be Putin's banker.

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Obama Hits Russia With More Sanctions Amid 'Grave Concern'

President Obama spoke in Florida about the challenges women face in today's economy. Here's a fact sheet on where working women have made progress and where they still lag men.

President Obama is ramping up his attention to women's issues with midterm elections looming. On Thursday, he addressed the special challenges that women face in todays economy during a forum at Valencia College in Orlando, Fla.

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The concern is pertinent, but the picture is nuanced. In many ways its the whole economy thats struggling, not just its female half. In fact, by some measures, US women are doing better than they ever have financially, relative to men.

Yet women still face a pay gap compared with men, remain poorly represented in positions of power, and generally carry the largest domestic duties even as they account for a rising share of family income.

In part, Mr. Obamas talk was aimed at mobilizing female voters with a were on your side message, paired with the partys attacks on Republicans as waging a war on women on social issues. Obama and fellow Democrats are eager to leverage a longstanding electoral advantage among women.

But where do women stand economically in America today? Heres a summary of key facts:

Women have rising duties as breadwinners. As of 2011, mothers were the sole or primary income source for a record 40 percent of households with children under 18, according to Census data tracked by the Pew Research Center, which researches demographic trends.

A gender pay gap exists, but its size is disputed. A commonly cited figure is that a womans earnings will be 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. The gap is considerably smaller perhaps 7 to 9 percent once you adjust for pay-affecting factors such as varying time spent in the work force or varying occupations and skills. Scholars debate whether the remaining gap is entirely due to discrimination or partly to other additional factors.

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Obama pushes help for working women: How much do they need it? (+video)

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KQED NEWSROOM: California Republicans Plot a Return to Relevance - Video