Washington Post op-ed: Repeal presidential term limits

As President Obama faces a small revolt within his own party, a Washington Post op-ed is calling for the United States to end presidential term limits and allow him to run again in 2016.

“Barack Obama should be allowed to stand for re election just as citizens should be allowed to vote for — or against — him,” writes New York University Jonathan Zimmerman professor of history and education. “Anything less diminishes our leaders and ourselves.”

Zimmerman argues that the president would enjoy more deference on such unpopular initiatives as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the recent nuclear-arms deal with Iran if he had a legal opportunity to seek additional terms in office.

“Many of Obama’s fellow Democrats have distanced themselves from the reform and from the president,” he writes. “Even former president Bill Clinton has said that Americans should be allowed to keep the health insurance they have.

“Or consider the reaction to the Iran nuclear deal,” Zimmerman continues. “Regardless of his political approval ratings, Obama could expect Republican senators such as Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and John McCain (Ariz.) to attack the agreement. But if Obama could run again, would he be facing such fervent objections from Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)?”

Via: Daily Caller

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The Presidential Degradation of the Medal of Freedom

At the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony held in the East Room of the White House, 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama chose to honor more than just a few 'winners.' The colorful collection was a cacophony of politically correct Democrat darlings, with a journalist, a RINO, two deceased homosexuals, a few Latinos, and an occasional black sports figure thrown in for good measure.

In addition to the eclectic array of 13 relatively benign forgers of freedom, three controversial awards also went to a race-baiting billionaire, a misogynist former president, and an abortion-supporting, man-hating women's rights activist. 

It was three centuries ago that English Bible commentator and Presbyterian minister Matthew Henry wrote that "The wickedness of a people is great indeed when noted sinners are men renowned among them." Henry's words sum up why Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Gloria Steinem ended up being commended by the president.

Via: American Thinker

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Carville: Blame Obama, Not Republicans

Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville said the president is to blame for the blundered Obamacare debut, not Republicans.

 

Interviewed by Fox Business Network today, Carville said, “I think the president has himself to blame as much as anybody. I don't think he was done in, in this instance by the Republicans, or done in by the media, done in by anything.”

He also defended former boss Bill Clinton’s criticism of Obama over the president’s broken promise about Americans keeping their health insurance plans under Obamacare, but said the former president should have used kinder language.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Laying it on thick, Obama lavishes praise on Clinton at medal fete

It’s no secret President Obama and former President Clinton have at times had a rocky relationship.

But both men were all smiles Wednesday as Mr. Obama bestowed the 42nd president with the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

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PHOTOS: Best Frenemies: Bill Clinton and President Obama

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At a ceremony at the White House, Mr. Obama praised Mr. Clinton for both his work in elected office and also his post-presidential efforts with his Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative.

“As president he proved that with the right choices, you could grow the economy, lift people out of poverty, we could shrink our deficits and still invest in our families, our health, our schools, science, technology. In other words, we can go further when we look out for each other,” Mr. Obama said, looking directly at Mr. Clinton as he spoke. “As we’ve all seen, as president, he was just getting started. He doesn’t stop. He’s helped lead relief efforts after the Asian tsunami, 

Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake. His foundation and global initiative have helped to save or improve the lives of literally hundreds of millions of people.”

Mr. Obama joked at one point he had been grateful for his Democratic predecessor’s counsel and advice “both on and off the golf course.”

The two men smiled and laughed as Mr. Obama gave Mr. Clinton his medal.

Via: Washington Times

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Krauthammer: The Real Reason Liberals Are Panicked About ObamaCare

“Even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got.”

— Bill Clinton, Nov. 12

So the former president asserts that the current president continues to dishonor his “you like your plan, you can keep your plan” pledge. And calls for the Affordable Care Act to be changed, despite furious White House resistance to the very idea.

Coming from the dean of the Democratic Party, this one line marked the breaching of the dam. It legitimized the brewing rebellion of panicked Democrats against Obamacare. Within hours, that rebellion went loudly public. By Thursday, President Obama had been forced into a rear-guard holding action, asking insurers to grant a one-year extension of current plans.

The damage to the Obama presidency, however, is already done. His approval rating has fallen to 39 percent, his lowest ever. And, for the first time, a majority considers him untrustworthy. That bond is not easily repaired.

At stake, however, is more than the fate of one presidency or of the current Democratic majority in the Senate. At stake is the new, more ambitious, social-democratic brand of American liberalism introduced by Obama, of which Obamacare is both symbol and concrete embodiment.

Via: Fox News

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Top Clinton Aide Podesta Calls for Single Payer Health Care

Clinton confidante John Podesta came out as another critic of Obamacare just moments after President Barack Obama finished his tense press conference announcing changes to the law.

Podesta remarked on Twitter that it just took him only five minutes to apply online for Medicare, a clear contrast with the disaster that individuals attempting to sign up for Obamacare have faced.

“Single payer anyone?” remarked Podesta, alluding to a major difference between Medicare and Obamacare, and one of the major policy objectives of many on the left.

Podesta is reportedly in discussions to take over the leadership of super PAC Priorities USA as it prepares to transition into full support of Hillary Clinton’s potential 2016 run for president. Podesta formerly served as chief of staff to Bill Clinton during his presidency, and has had a role with the Clinton family foundation as well. His brother, Tony, runs one of the largest lobbying firms in Washington, which the two cofounded together. Medicare does not appear to be a client of the firm.

Bill Clinton also came out as a critic of Obamacare earlier this week.

“I personally believe, even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got,” said Clinton in an interview on Tuesday.

Via: WFB

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Hillary Clinton in 2007: 'If you have a plan you like, you keep it'

When former President Clinton this week critiqued President Obama's broken promise that Americans would be able to keep their health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act, Clinton was also knocking a similar plan once proposed by another politician: his wife.

"I personally believe, even if it takes a change in the law, the president should honor the commitment that the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got," Clinton said in an interview with OZY.

The remark came across as a stern rebuke of current White House policy — but it could also prove tricky for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is moving toward a bid for president in 2016.

When she was last a candidate for president in 2007, Hillary Clinton unveiled her own health care proposal, which, like Obamacare, included beefed-up benefits and a catchy pitch: "If you have a plan you like, you keep it." Obama went on to defeat Clinton, but he adopted her tag line to help win support for his own health care plan -- making the same promise, for which he recently apologized.

"You can keep the doctors you know and trust. You keep the insurance you have," Clinton said on Sept. 17, 2007, at the Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. "If you have private insurance you like, nothing changes — you can keep that insurance."

Clinton's campaign website echoed that claim. "If you have a plan you like, you keep it," it read.

Hillary Clinton is an old hand at health care reform. In 1993, when her husband was president, she led a health care reform effort that ultimately crashed and burned.

Via: Washington Examiner

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'Fairy Tale' Continues as Obama Proposes Extralegal Obamacare Fix

Earlier this week, former President Bill Clinton advised President Obama to "honor the commitment" he made and to allow Americans to keep their health care plans, if they like them. That was a central promise Obama made when he sold Obamacare, but one that turned out not to be true when Obamacare began to be implemented last month.

"So I personally believe, even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got," Clinton in an interview released Tuesday.

Now President Obama is taking Clinton's advice and trying to honor that commitment. In remarks today at the White House today, Obama said, "I completely get how upsetting this can be" lose insurance plans that I promised Americans would be able to keep. "To those Americans, I hear you loud and clear."

But there's a catch with president's proposed solution. The president is not proposing that the law be changed to allow all health insurance plans grandfathered into Obamacare's eligibility requirements.

No, instead the White House is saying that it will use "enforcement discretion" to allow illegal health insurance plans to be able to still be sold. That is, the Obama administration will not enforce the penalty on individuals for not having eligible health insurance plans and they'll allow the insurance companies to still sell so-called bad plans -- plans they technically can't sell under Obamacare.

Via: Weekly Standard

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[VIDEO] MSNBC's Ed Schultz Justifies Obama Lying About Health Care: 'People Were on the Fear Fence'

The increasingly agitated Ed Schultz on Wednesday both justified lying to Americans about being able to keep their insurance and, at the same time, berated the very concept of "appeasing" the millions who have lost coverage. The Ed Show anchor opened the show by frantically screaming that ObamaCare is about "making the market better." He added, "It's not about appeasing people when they get upset, when they get a cancellation notice in the mail." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Schultz slammed Bill Clinton for suggesting that the President allow Americans to keep their insurance. Seeming to okay lying, Schultz rationalized, "No. President Obama said that because there were a lot of people in this country who were on the fear fence, worried what's going to happen to them."

Hosting an imaginary conversation in his mind, "Are we going to lose our insurance?' 'Yeah, if it's lousy, you are!' Just say it.'"

A partial transcript of the November 13 segment is below:

5:02

ED SCHULTZ: ObamaCare is about making the market better. Getting rid of junk insurance. There are a lot of Americans in the private market that don't have very good insurance and it doesn't cover very much. And when they get sick, the cost goes up for all of us. This is about reform. It's not about appeasing people when they get upset, when they get a cancellation notice in the mail saying "You got lousy insurance. It doesn't meet the standards. Go to the federal market." Do we need, like, a health care summit so we can get all the good guys around the table to figure out what the hell to say to the cameras? President Clinton, drop me an e-mail. Tell me what good that interview did when you said that there are three things wrong with ObamaCare. There are people out there who were sitting on every word, wondering who do I believe?

"Do I believe the lines of misinformation? Well, is Ed lying to me, or what's going on? Is there really a junk insurance industry out there?" Absolutely, there is. And the whole point of this is that American consumers have had lousy insurance policies. But now we've got President Clinton. Things are so mixed up, he's out there saying, "Well, you know what? If we told people that they could keep their insurance, that's the way it ought to be." No. President Obama said that because there were a lot of people in this country who were on the fear fence, worried what's going to happen to them. "Are we going to lose our insurance? "Yeah, if it's lousy, you are!" Just say it. Instead we're mopping it up and now they're throwing out some possible legislation that might fix this. You know what will fix this? People, go to the website, be patient, sign up, and get after it and get covered.

Via: Newsbusters

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Carney hints at Obamacare changes to offset plan cancellations

White House spokesman Jay Carney ducked questions about former President Bill Clinton’s dramatic call for President Barack Obama to let people keep their current insurance, but said Obama is considering regulatory help for people whose insurance has been canceled.

In a Tuesday interview, Clinton said people should be allowed to keep their current insurance programs past January, principally because Obama promised they could keep their insurance.

“The president has asked his team to look at ways to address that problem,” Carney said, when asked about Clinton’s comments.

At least three million Americans’ individually-purchased insurance has been canceled by Obamacare.

“We haven’t announced one way or the other. … For details of what is under consideration, we haven’t announced any potential fixes,” Carney said. He declined to provide further details, “until [Obama] has chosen which option to pursue.”

However, he suggested that Obama could let people sign up early for 2014 insurance under pre-Obamacare rules, and that state regulators have some leeway to delay federal mandates.

He also said that federal regulators have the legal authority to allow some people to keep buying pre-Obamacare insurance, and that Obama wants to reduce the cost of buying Obamacare-compliant insurance.

However, Obama’s suggestion that he would change the rules creates new problems for his Obamacare network.

Via: Daily Caller
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Americans’ Participation in Labor Force Hits 35-Year Low

(CNSNews.com)  The percentage of American civilians 16 or older who have a job or are actively seeking one dropped to a 35-year low in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In September, the labor force participation rate was 63.2 percent, but in October it dropped to 62.8 percent—the lowest it has been since February 1978, when Jimmy Carter was president.

The labor force, according to BLS, is that part of the civilian noninstitutional population that either has a job or has actively sought one in the last four weeks. The civilian noninstitutional population consists of people 16 or older, who are not on active-duty in the military or in an institution.

At no time during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, did such a small percentage of the civilian non-institutional population either hold a job or at least actively seek one.

Via: CNS News

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[VIDEO] Bill Clinton: Obama Should Honor His ‘Keep Your Plan’ Promise

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
November 12, 2013 10:06 am

In an interview with OZY, Former President Bill Clinton said Obama should honor his promise that people could keep their plans under ObamaCare if they liked them.

“So I personally believe, even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got,” Clinton said.

This entry was posted in Issues and tagged Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Obamacare, Obamacare Health Exchanges. Bookmark the permalink.

Via: WFB

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New MSNBC Host Ronan Farrow: The Clintons ‘Represent a Style of Honesty That the Public Craves’

ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS???

MSNBC’s latest hire, weekend host Ronan Farrow, appeared on The Cycle on Monday where he weighed in with his thoughts on a variety of political issues. Asked about President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s political prospects, Farrow said that the former first couple “represent a style of honesty the public craves.” 

RELATED: Benghazi Heckler Interrupts Hillary Clinton Speech: ‘You Let Them Die’

When Farrow was asked about the Clinton’s “evolution” on the issue of gay marriage, Farrow said that he thinks the public has viewed their shift in opinion as an honest and refreshing one.

“What do you think that evolution tells us about the ability to move from the ’90s to now,” Ari Melberasked.

“They’re nimble politicians,” Farrow replied. “And also they represent a style of honesty that the public craves right now. And that’s reflected in the numbers.”

He said that when a politician honestly changes their mind on a policy issue and explains that to the public, they are often embraced.

Watch the clip below via MSNBC:

Via: Mediaite.com

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THE PRESIDENT WHO HAS DONE THE MOST DAMAGE

I have been broadcasting for 31 years and writing for longer than that. I do not recall ever saying on radio or in print that a president is doing lasting damage to our country. I did not like the presidencies of Jimmy Carter (the last Democrat I voted for) or Bill Clinton. Nor did I care for the “compassionate conservatism” of George W. Bush. In modern political parlance “compassionate” is a euphemism for ever-expanding government.

But I have never written or broadcast that our country was being seriously damaged by a president. So it is with great sadness that I write that President Barack Obama has done and continues to do major damage to America. The only question is whether this can ever be undone.

This is equally true domestically and internationally.

Domestically, his policies have gravely impacted the American economy.

He has overseen the weakest recovery from a recession in modern American history.

He has mired the country in unprecedented levels of debt: about $6.5 trillion dollars in five years (this after calling his predecessor “unpatriotic” for adding nearly $5 trillion in eight years).

He has fashioned a country in which more Americans now receive government aid — means-tested, let alone non-means tested — than work full-time.

Via: Human Events

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Bozell Column: The New Broadcast Profanity, 'Redskins'?

Conservatives begin by revering tradition; liberals often by trashing it. In fact, it doesn’t bother liberals that something they found acceptable one day is declared -- by them -- repugnant the next. It’s taken only a few days of liberal media agitation for MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell to announce that Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder is “the George Wallace of the NFL.”

Snyder saying he’ll never change his team's name has somehow become historically comparable to George Wallace’s “segregation forever.” It’s suddenly so offensive, apparently, that the leftists who have gone to court to make the airwaves safe for every profanity imaginable, in the name of free speech and tolerance, are now petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to ban “the R-word” from television.

They’re urging the broadcasters to “self-regulate” the team name out of existence. But why would you petition the FCC to urge the media to “self-regulate”? It's non-sensical -- unless  “self-regulation” is merely a first step. The “anti-censorship” Left is just getting started.

Reed Hundt, an FCC chairman under Bill Clinton, led a number of former FCC officials in a letter to FCC acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn (the daughter of Rep. Jim Clyburn) asking the FCC to use its muscle to force Snyder to surrender. They demand Clyburn apply the agency’s “unquestioned authority to convene an open forum with broadcasters to determine whether they should self-regulate their use of the term ‘XXXskins’ when referring to the Washington D.C football team.”  

The word “Redskins” is so apparently offensive they’ve made the team sound like a porn film. Here is the insanity: They'd be less offended -- and in some circles of the libertine community,  openly supportive – if Snyder renamed the team the “Foreskins.”

These liberals are not reflecting a nation's outrage. They are attempting to create it.

Only 11 percent of Americans (and ten percent of “native Americans”) are offended by “Redskins,” so Hundt & Co. are left with the weak argument of championing American apathy: “63% of those surveyed either would approve of broadcast TV stations not using the current name or do not care if broadcasters stop using that name. Only 37% would disapprove of broadcasters if they no longer used the name. Several media leaders, including Peter King (Sports Illustrated) and Mike Wise (Washington Post), have already recognized this shift and agreed to abandon use of the term ‘XXXskins.’”

Via: Newsbusters

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Obama not Nixon, Carter or Clinton but the president who hates the U.S.

Why do so many empty talking heads and journalists keep comparing Barack Hussein Obama to other presidents?

Journalists: Obama the Worst Since Nixon’ is the latest.

When it comes to presidencies, Obama is not the worst since Nixon, Carter, Clinton, et al, he’s the worst.

“The Obama administration’s hostility toward media and efforts to crack down on whistleblowers and leakers has created “a tremendous chilling effect” on substantive reporting, the Committee to Protect Journalists and veteran reporters said Thursday.” (The Washington Free Beacon, Oct. 18, 2013).

“The CPJ issued last week a scathing report, written by former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr, on the effects of the Obama administration’s efforts to control press coverage, burnish its image, and thwart unauthorized leaks.

“The Obama administration’s aggressive war on leaks, and its determined efforts to control information that the news media needs to hold the government accountable for its actions, are without equal since the Nixon administration and in direct conflict with President Obama’s often-stated goal of making his administration the most transparent in history,” Downie said.

‘The Committee to Protect Journalists and veteran reporters’?

How about ‘The Committee to Protect average Americans from ‘The Committee to Protect Journalists and veteran reporters’?

How about rather than media scribes racing to the protection of committees, and folding like so many cheap suits, they don’t let Obama get away with it by digging deeper in quest of finding the truth?

The growing trend to compare Barack Hussein Obama to other presidents is a trend that takes its source—from Barack Hussein Obama, who started it all back in 2006.

Via: Canada Free Press

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The Fundamental Transformation of the Nation by Monica Crowley

Last night on "The O'Reilly Factor," I recalled how Barack Obama spoke in 2008 about the "fundamental transformation of the nation." After five years of his presidency, we see the enormous success he's had in achieving it. The objective was always to move America away from a nation built on individual liberty and economic freedom and toward a government welfare and dependency state. Socialism, communism, statism, leftism....in the end it doesn't matter what you call it, because what matters is what's being carried out....and its consequences.

Radical wealth redistribution, class warfare, socialized medicine, the atomization of American society, divisive identity politics, the war on success, the loss of our Triple A credit rating, the retrenchment of U.S. power abroad, the gutting of our military, the erosion of our international credibility.... It's all being done deliberately by Obama and the Left in order to "fundamentally transform" this country into just another crippled dependency state.

After five years of evidence, people are still wondering aloud why Obama doesn't negotiate, why he doesn't compromise, why he doesn't handle things the way, say, Bill Clinton did.

Wake the BLEEP up! (And by the way, my book laid all of this out and more. Please see the top of this website for how to order the paperback edition of "What The (Bleep) Just Happened?" It's all there...and way ahead of its time.)

Unlike Clinton, who was a pragmatist, Obama is a pure ideologue. Why do you think he hasn't negotiated with Republicans? A) Because he doesn't really have to, given that the Left in Congress and the media protects and advances his interests at every turn and because the GOP is so spineless, and B) because he's a total ideologue who will NEVER give ANYTHING on his way to "fundamentally transforming the nation."

Via: MonicaMemo

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