Obama's Rocky Second Term Start (Part II)

ObamaCare: Implementation of the law is becoming a glaring issue for the administration. First, many states are refusing to expand its Medicaid payrolls (they can’t afford it) placing most of the onus on the federal government. Secondly, there is mass confusion over the meaning of many ObamaCare provisions, rules, procedures, mandates, and policies. Thirdly, ObamaCare is a highly flawed law and therefore, the administration is being forced to hand out thousands of waivers. In fact, many Democrats want to rewrite provisions of ObamaCare such as taxes on medical devices. Fourth, ObamaCare is not applied equally amongst people, corporations, organizations, and states. For instance, federal funding is not handed out to states equally on a per capita basis and organizations such as unions are exempt from luxury health insurance taxes. For this reason many people, corporations, states, and organizations are pushing back against the law. And what’s worse, healthcare and health insurance costs continue to spiral out of control. In other words, ObamaCare has done nothing to curb rising healthcare costs – the main objective behind ObamaCare.

Sequestration: In an attempt to win approval over his anti-sequestration beliefs, Obama deliberately forced flight delays around the country. Obama said FAA budget cuts of 5% (incidentally the FAA / TSA budget has soared by 50% over the past decade) are the reason for the flight delays. This ploy failed when House Republicans acted quickly to transfer funds to the FAA and the TSA. Remember, Obama promised chaos when the sequestration cuts became a reality and when chaos failed to happen immediately after the cuts became law, Obama acted like a child to force his will on the American people. Obama denies having any part in these delays, but it is hard to believe a 5% cut in funding resulting in a 30% drop in flight on time performance. This simply does not add up.

Budget: Obama finally introduced a budget, his first in four years. Despite raising taxes, Obama’s 2014 budget includes a record 3.77 trillion in spending and another 750 billion dollars added to our deficit, which is fast approaching 17 trillion dollars. Also, keep in mind, this budget takes into account that both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are over which Obama has claimed would lead to deficit reduction.

Syria: President Obama, who earlier said use of chemical weapons by Syria on its people would be a “red line” requiring action by the U.S., walked the stance back on this past week, saying he needs more information on the reported attacks before responding. Administration officials recently said intelligence analysts had "varying degrees of confidence" the embattled government of Syrian President Bashar Assad has gassed civilians with sarin. However, Obama said the administration is using all its resources to determine the facts about a weapon that he has said would be a "game changer" for U.S. policy in the war. Obama made so such caveats when he originally issued his “red line” stance. If Obama does not act (and his action does not necessarily has to be going to war with Syria – placing troops on the ground) it shows the rogue states of North Korea and Iran that Obama is soft and his stern words means very little.