Brief news items you may have missed

 

A prophetic statement by a president who was a leader

GWB, topnews.in

In 2007, a prescient President Bush told the world what would happen if we left Iraq before commanders agreed. (topnews.in)

“I know some in Washington would like us to start leaving Iraq now.  To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region, and for the United States.  It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda.  It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale.  It would mean we would allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan.  It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.” – President George W. Bush, July 12, 2007

For the liberal media to provide coverage of this statement would reflect poorly on President Obama, who was only interested in fulfilling his campaign promise of getting out of Iraq. Now he doesn’t know what to do.  Feckless.

                                     NBC continues to carry water for President Obama

Most of us are outraged by the lack of leadership being exhibited by President Obama in the face of the ISIS threat in Syria and Iraq with his “I don’t have a strategy” admission. But then he sends a mixed message saying, on one hand, that the U.S. would “degrade and destroy” ISIS, but follows with the unbelievable claim that it was “a manageable problem.”

Brian Williams and the NBC Nightly News, Sept. 2, 2014, saw it quite differently as you might expect. “For all those who may be wondering if the U.S. is going to rise up, take the bait and get into the fight to root them out,” he said, “the answer today from both the president and vice president appeared to be clear and unambiguous.”

    Obama “manages” warriors deployed to Iraq

Ramirez cartoon

IBD Editorial Cartoon by Michael Ramirez.

President Obama’s said he was going to “destroy and degrade” ISIS as they move freely in Syria and Iraq.  Refusing to call this a war with radical Islam for fear of upsetting the Muslim community, he simply refers to this as a “manageable problem.”  Acting more like a community organizer than commander-in-chief, he’s sending more warriors into harm’s way with their hands tied. Fox’s Bret Baier received an e-mail from an operator in Iraq, commenting on Vice President Biden’s remark, “We will chase them to the gates of Hell.”  “How the _ _ _ _ are we going to do that when we can’t even leave the front gate of the base?” he wrote.

                                      ObamaCare causes growth in health spending

Remember when the White House claimed a slowdown in health spending growth, and attributed it to ObamaCare?  Now actuaries from the ObamaCare administrator, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), report that the law is contributing to a boost in health care spending.  While growth is modest, it continues to rise.

09122013_Defund_Obamacare_Protest Reuters Jonathan Ernst

As health care premiums and deductibles continue to rise, so does the discontent with ObamaCare. (Reuters photo by Jonathan Ernst)

And they expect spending to climb even higher, projecting a growth of 5.6 percent this year, nearly 5 percent next year and 6 percent each year from 2016 to 2023.

Meanwhile, insurers are predicting premium prices to rise, and those who signed up for health insurance with the benefit of a government subsidy are beginning to be concerned that they may owe the IRS if they miscalculated their income when applying.  In Arizona alone some 5,000 ACA applicants are being contacted to prove their citizenship.

The majority of Americans, 54.4 percent, disapprove of ObamaCare and 41.1 percent approve in a recent Real Clear Politics poll.

Will Michigan voters buy into billionaire Steyer’s tactic?

In my Aug. 17, 2014 post, Those “double standard” Democrats, I wrote of billionaire Tom Steyer, who made much of his money in oil before going “green,” and his plan to contribute $100 million to Democrats who support his causes. He’s spending $3 million to fund an ad tying Michigan Republican senate nominee Terri Lynn Land to oilmen Charles and David Koch, who he claims have put $7 million into her campaign “to help buy her a senate seat so they can keep polluting across Michigan.”  Fox reports that it complicates things for her opponent. Rep. Gary Peters, who while denouncing “pet coke the byproduct of oil refining,” he is an investor in one of the leading manufacturers – Total SA of France.  The race to replace Carl Levin is said to be a dead heat.