Free Republic

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Well, listening to that excerpt from Ed Henry, you would think that's the campaign speech of someone running against Barack Obama. Obama is indicting the four years, the five years he's been president. He said the rich have done well, everybody else has stalled, inequality has increased. Well, the four years, the five years are his years. Essentially, he's saying my job now is to undo what I have done in the five years of my presidency. It's hardly sort of a ringing call to arms. I'm sure they now tested all of these words, inequality, opportunity, all...

"I'm afraid that the millennials....are less likely to sign up. I think they feel more independent, I think they feel a little more invulnerable than prior generations," Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) told WAMU. "But I don't think we're going to get enough young people signing up to make this bill work as it was intended to financially."

According to new polling from Quinnipiac, a majority of Americans view President Obama's White House as incompetent. In addition, a majority of Americans are still questioning Obama's character and view him as dishonest and untrustworthy. The Obama administration is not competent running the government, voters say 53 - 42 percent. The president is paying attention to what his administration is doing, 45 percent say, while 47 percent say he is not paying attention. The president's character measures remain low: 46 percent say he is honest and trustworthy and 49 percent say he is not; 49 percent say he is...

Every member in the Davert family has a medical condition requiring special care. But after losing their preferred insurance upon the enactment of the Affordable Care Act and being denied federal coverage, the Michigan family is now worried about high costs associated with their new private plan. According to The Bay City Times, Ken Davert has cerebral palsy and his wife, Missy, and their 15-year-old fraternal twins all have a condition called osteogensis imperfecta, which makes their bones very fragile. The newspaper reported that the couple receives disability payments and are covered under Medicare. The state’s Children’s Special Health Care Services covers issues related...

On his Monday radio program, conservative talk show host Mark Levin reacted to President Barack Obama's remarks about football and not allowing his son to play football if he had one: "So he wouldn't let his son play football -– this pretend son that he has," Levin said. "It's like Jimmy Stewart with the pretend rabbit. Well let me tell you something Mr. President -- I wouldn't let my son be an ambassador under you. I’d much rather that he played football."

**SNIP** Many of his students who work to pay for their education and living expenses are complaining about being cut to 28 hours. “They’re saying they couldn’t pay their bills at 40 hours, so now they’re having to get a second job,” Diaz said. “That is the new trend.” But it’s not just restaurant workers and sales clerks who are feeling the squeeze. Universities and community colleges that rely heavily on part-time faculty have had to make the hard choice of cutting the number of classes they teach because the schools can’t afford to offer them health insurance.

Kim Little had not thought much about the tiny white spot on the side of her cheek until a physician’s assistant at her dermatologist’s office warned that it might be cancerous. He took a biopsy, returning 15 minutes later to confirm the diagnosis and schedule her for an outpatient procedure at the Arkansas Skin Cancer Center in Little Rock, 30 miles away. That was the prelude to a daylong medical odyssey several weeks later, through different private offices on the manicured campus at the Baptist Health Medical Center that involved a dermatologist, an anesthesiologist and an ophthalmologist who practices plastic...

The Associated Press first reported this developing and completely predictable problem earlier in the week. What happens when you pass a law that (a) causes the health-insurance cancellation for millions and then (b) forces them and millions more to use a disastrously-built web portal as a middeman to replace that coverage? Answer: You end up with millions of people flooding into providers without any idea whether they have coverage or whether their doctor will accept it.The New York Times confirmed this issue … for its Saturday edition, of course: In addition to the difficulties many face in proving they have...

Since taking office in 2009, it has been tough sledding for the economy. Congress and the administration have increased the federal debt held by the public from $7.5 trillion to $11.2 trillion in 2012. To clarify, in terms of percent of gross domestic product-a measure of the nation's total output-the federal debt has grown from 54 percent of GDP in 2009 to 72 percent of GDP in 2012, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But sector by sector, the administration appears bent on imposing the regulations that thwart entrepreneurial activity and economic growth. ObamaCare, the jewel of Obama presidency, is...

HONOLULU — He won’t use it, and he didn’t actually sign up for it himself, but President Barack Obama has enrolled for health coverage through the new insurance exchanges. Announcing his enrollment Monday, the White House called it a symbolic show of Obama’s support for the fledgling exchanges where millions of Americans must buy insurance or face a penalty. Ironically, it also served as a reminder of just how complex and sometimes daunting the process can be. Obama, like so many other Americans, couldn’t use the website. “The complicated nature of the president’s case required an in-person sign-up,” the White...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's healthcare law could have a "meltdown" and make it difficult for his Democratic Party to keep control of the U.S. Senate next year if ongoing problems with the program are not resolved, a Democratic senator said on Sunday. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has urged delaying a penalty for people who do not enroll for health insurance in 2014 under the law, told CNN that a transitional year was needed for the complex healthcare program, commonly known as Obamacare, to work. "If it's so much more expensive than what we anticipated and if...

Gibbs: 'This Is the Worst Year of the Presidency' Daniel Halper December 22, 2013 9:33 AM Robert Gibbs, President Obama's former press secretary, declared 2013 the worst year (so far!) of the Obama presidency: "This is the test, Robert, of big progressive government solving a big societal problem," said NBC host David Gregory. "That's what he took on. That is the big project of his presidency." "No doubt about it," Gibbs responded on Meet the Press. "I would say this is the worst year of the presidency. It does beat out 2011. But -- well, and especially given sort of...

Okay, I admit that Morning Joe is probably not exactly the target audience for the White House’s latest attempt to hijack a holiday for its flailing ObamaCare system, but MSNBC is certainly the target network. Clearly, this strategy isn’t selling even with the more sympathetic members of the Morning Joe panel. Giggles abound as Mika Brzezinski described the onesie-wearing figure in the ad a “hipster-ish model,” while the rest of the panel seemed amusingly appalled (via Jammie Wearing Fool): Described as a “hipster-ish model” by co-host Mika Brzezinski, the appearance of the bespectacled, sideways-glancing, cocoa-drinking, onesie-wearing manchild drew guffaws from...

Everyone is doing thoughtful year-end pieces on President Obama. Writers and reporters agree he’s had his worst year ever. I infer from most of their essays an unstated but broadly held sense of foreboding: There’s no particular reason to believe next year will be better, and in fact signs and indications point to continued trouble. I would add that in recent weeks I have begun to worry about the basic competency of the administration, its ability to perform the most fundamental duties of executive management. One reason I worry is that I frequently speak with people who interact with the...

LINK ONLY PER FR POSTING RULES.

Some people who have managed to complete the burdensome and glitch-filled process of signing up for Obamacare are learning they are not really enrolled at all. "Obama administration officials acknowledged today that some of the roughly 126,000 Americans who completed the torturous online enrollment process in October and November might not be officially signed up with their selected issuer, even if the website has told them they are."

Second-term presidents in the past 30 years have had some pretty embarrassing news conferences, full of frank admissions of failure, submissive spasms of shame and groveling, grieving apologies. Bill Clinton had to admit that he actually did have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky; George W. Bush finally thought of something he might have done wrong; his dad had to explain all those new taxes after his unequivocal pledge; and even Ronald Reagan ate crow over the Iran-Contra affair. But there has never, ever, been a more pitiful presser than the one conducted last week by President Obama. In a...

CBS and the Wall Street Journal report that roughly 50,000 have signed up using the federal exchange which covers enrollment in 36 states. That's in addition to the 49,100 which Reuters reports have signed up in 12 states with their own individual exchange websites. The official numbers for the federal site will be released sometime this week by the Department of Health and Human Services. If the new estimates are accurate, the numbers reported by CBS, the WSJ and Reuters demonstrate that the administration is far behind expected enrollment numbers.

It’s been a rough fifth year in office for President Obama, with overwrought sequestration scare tactics, Scandalpalooza, and the Syrian debacle all chipping away at his leadership street cred, among other things — but this disaster of an ObamaCare rollout is really hammering the heightened disapproval home with what’s starting to look like a majority of Americans. During past job-performance dips, O’s job approval rating has been reliably bolstered by his personal favorability ratings and Americans’ sense of trust in him — but the health care law is helping to erode those usual go-to’s, and quickly. Via the WSJ:

Mika Brzezinski channeled the frustration of many liberals this morning when she gave what has to be the best reaction yet to New York Magazine’s supercut of President Obama telling Americans that if they like their current health care plan they can keep it. Joe Scarborough set up the clip, in which the president says repeatedly over the course of four years that under the Affordable Care Act people who already have health insurance and want to keep their plans will be able to. As we have learned over the last few weeks, insurance companies have been terminating plans that...