obama heatlh care cartoon

Obama vetoes health law repeal bill

President Obama on Friday vetoed legislation to repeal most of his signature health care law, saying the bill would do “harm” to millions of Americans.
The move was widely expected, after Republicans for the first time succeeded in sending an ObamaCare repeal bill to the president’s desk. The legislation that Obama vetoed also would cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
While Congress may try to override, Republicans do not currently have the votes to do so.
Republicans, though, say they met two goals by passing the bill: keeping a promise to voters in an election year, and showing their ability to repeal the health law if a Republican wins the presidency.
“This is the closest we have come to repealing ObamaCare,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday.
As the next step, Ryan wants to work on a proposal to replace the health care law. As he said in a statement Wednesday, the goal is to lay the groundwork for repealing and replacing the law should a Republican win the presidency this November.
“It clears the path to repealing this law with a Republican president in 2017 and replacing it with a truly patient-centered health care system,” he said. “We will not back down from this fight to defend the sanctity of life and make quality health care coverage achievable for all Americans.”
Though Republicans tried dozens of times to pass a full or partial repeal bill, they were only able to get this one to Obama’s desk because the Senate passed their version under special rules that protected it from a Democratic filibuster. The House followed suit this week.
Still, it takes a two-thirds threshold to override a presidential veto. In the House alone, Republicans are shy of that amount by nearly 50 votes.
In a lengthy written statement explaining his veto, Obama on Friday said the bill would “reverse the significant progress we have made in improving health care in America,” warning that it would increase the number of uninsured.
“Rather than refighting old political battles by once again voting to repeal basic protections that provide security for the middle class, Members of Congress should be working together to grow the economy, strengthen middle-class families, and create new jobs,” he said.
Republicans argue that the legislation is harming the economy, and wrongly forcing Americans to buy insurance.

Obama faces new criticism on refugee program after 2 terror arrests

The arrest of two Iraq-born refugees on terror-related charges has recharged Capitol Hill calls for the Obama administration to pull back on plans to welcome thousands more refugees from Middle East warzones. 
“It is disturbing, though not surprising, that terrorists have succeeded in exploiting our refugee system to come to the U.S. and aid ISIS,” Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said Friday.
Officials announced the arrests on Thursday, in California and Texas; it’s unclear if they’re related.
One of the criminal complaints accused 23-year-old Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, of Sacramento, Calif., of traveling to Syria to fight alongside terrorist organizations and lying to government investigators about it. He originally came to the U.S. from Syria in 2012. Investigators said he discussed plans to return, and wrote that he was "eager to see blood."
Almost simultaneously in Houston, authorities announced the arrest of Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, 24, on charges of attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
Republicans, in Washington and on the campaign trail, seized on the arrests to renew their push for immediate security changes to minimize the risk of ISIS and other fighters exploiting the expanded refugee program.
“While I commend the FBI for their hard work, these arrests heighten my concern that our refugee program is susceptible to exploitation by terrorists,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a statement. He touted House-passed legislation that would require top security officials to certify to Congress that every refugee accepted is not a security threat.
Smith proposed going further, and temporarily halting “all admission and resettlement of refugees until we can verify that every single ‘gap’ in our security screening has been addressed.”
Smith also is pushing legislation to protect states that refuse to participate in the resettlement program, and to halt the resettlement entirely until the administration submits reports on safety and costs to Congress.
On the campaign trail, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was quick to cite the arrests in calling for changes.
Speaking in Iowa, he called for a retroactive review of all refugees who have come to the United States from what he calls "high-risk countries."
“We need to systematically examine the national security threats,” the Republican presidential candidate said.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, while saying he could not discuss the specifics of the two latest terror-related cases, on Friday defended the refugee program as secure.
“No one’s allowed to short-circuit this system,” Earnest said, adding that refugees are subject to the “most rigorous screening” of anyone entering the U.S. He said this includes a “careful review of biographic and biometric information,” in-person interviews and other steps.
The Paris and San Bernardino terror attacks last year already had complicated the administration’s plans to take in more refugees, particularly from Syria.
Obama wants to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S. in 2016 – the decision followed mounting international pressure for the U.S. to do more to shoulder the burden of the refugee crisis that has spilled into countries like Lebanon and Jordan, and nations across Europe. Heart-breaking images of children and families struggling to flee the violence in Syria fueled those calls – but U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced concerns about whether the government can properly vet applicants, particularly from war-torn Syria where effective background checks are difficult to conduct.
Officials at the state level also have tried to fight back against the administration’s plans, and revived their concerns after the two latest arrests.
"This is precisely why I called for a halt to refugees entering the U.S. from countries substantially controlled by terrorists," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. "I once again urge the President to halt the resettlement of these refugees in the United States until there is an effective vetting process that will ensure refugees do not compromise the safety of Americans and Texans."
According to the complaint, Al-Jayab traveled to Syria from Chicago via Turkey in November 2013. He remained in Syria until the following January and fought alongside several terror groups, including Ansar al-Islam, which merged with ISIS in 2014 after Al-Jayab had returned to the United States. He settled in Sacramento following his return to the U.S.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said in a statement that while Al-Jayab posed a potential safety threat, “there is no indication that he planned any acts of terrorism in this country.”
In the Texas case, the indictment of Hardan states that beginning in May 2014, Hardan "did unlawfully and knowingly attempt to provide material support and resources ... training, expert advice and assistance, to a foreign terrorist organization, namely the Islamic State of Iraq."
The indictment claims that Hardan, who arrived in the U.S. in 2009 and became a legal permanent resident in 2011, concealed his association with ISIS on his citizenship application in August 2014 and lied about receiving machine gun training when he was interviewed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Fox News Poll: Sanders up by 13 points in New Hampshire

Bernie Sanders is ahead of Hillary Clinton by a 50-37 percent margin among New Hampshire Democratic primary voters.
That’s according to the latest Fox News poll, released Friday.
Martin O’Malley receives three percent.
CLICK TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
Sanders has increased his advantage over Clinton since mid-November, when he was up by just one point (45-44 percent).
The senator from neighboring Vermont continues to do well among the younger crowd.  Voters under age 45 pick him over Clinton by a 24-point margin (55-31 percent).
Men back Sanders by 23 points, while women give him the edge by seven.
In addition, Democrats in the Granite State would be much more satisfied with Sanders as the party’s nominee: 85 percent would be satisfied with him, while 68 percent would feel the same if Clinton wins.
While 79 percent of Clinton supporters would be happy with Sanders as the nominee, only 56 percent of his supporters would feel that way about a Clinton win.
The Fox News Poll is conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). The poll was conducted January 4-7, 2016, by telephone (landline and cellphone) with live interviewers among a sample of 800 New Hampshire registered voters selected from a statewide voter file.  Results based on the sample of 386 Democratic primary voters have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points. 

Fox News Poll: Trump, Cruz top GOP race nationally

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz lead the pack in the GOP nomination race.  They are also the two candidates Republicans think would be best at reversing Barack Obama’s agenda.
Here are the numbers from the latest Fox News national poll on the 2016 presidential election.
Trump leads with 35 percent among Republican primary voters.  Next is Cruz with 20 percent support -- his personal best in the Fox News poll.
CLICK TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
Marco Rubio is third at 13 percent, while Ben Carson is at 10 percent.  Jeb Bush gets four percent, Carly Fiorina three percent, and Chris Christie, John Kasich and Rand Paul each get two percent.
Last month, it was Trump 39 percent, Cruz 18 percent, Rubio 11 percent, and Carson 9 percent (December 16-17, 2015).
Cruz (33 percent) has the advantage over Trump (26 percent) among self-described “very” conservative voters.
The race is much closer among white evangelical Christians: Trump 28 percent vs. Cruz 26 percent.
Almost half of GOP primary voters think Trump (48 percent) would be most effective at reversing Obama’s policies.  That’s more than twice as many as the 21 percent who say the same about Cruz.  Again, Rubio comes in third at nine percent.
Priorities of GOP primary voters have flipped since the Paris and San Bernardino attacks.  Now 43 percent say national security issues will be most important in deciding their vote for the nomination, followed by economic issues at 27 percent.  The last time the question was asked, before those attacks, voters prioritized economic issues over national security (38 percent and 26 percent respectively).
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton commands 54 percent support for the nomination among Democratic primary voters, far outperforming Bernie Sanders at 39 percent.  Martin O’Malley gets 3 percent.
While most Democratic primary voters are satisfied with their candidate choices (62 percent), many wish they had other options (38 percent) -- including 42 percent of Sanders supporters, and even 33 percent of Clinton supporters.
If the two current front-runners were to prevail as their respective party’s nominees, voters would watch both with a high degree of suspicion:  62 percent say Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, and 55 percent think the same of Trump.
Democratic primary voters want the next president to be someone “who knows how to get things done in Washington” (70 percent) rather than someone “who is ready to shake things up in Washington” (28 percent).
Views among Republican primary voters are more divided:  51 percent get things done vs. 45 percent shake things up.

Hypothetical head-to-head matchups
Clinton currently ties or trails the Republicans in each of the possible 2016 matchups tested.
Rubio (50-41 percent) and Cruz (50-43 percent) perform best against the presumptive Democratic nominee.  Rubio has a nine-point advantage and Cruz is up by seven.
Trump tops Clinton by three points (47-44 percent) and Bush ties at 44 percent each.

Pollpourri
Trump accused former President Bill Clinton of having a “terrible record of women abuse.”  Trump claimed that nobody has more respect for women than he does.
Voters don’t see it that way.  By a 50-37 percent margin, voters think Bill Clinton is more respectful of women than Trump.  Women say Clinton is more respectful by 55-31 percent.
Eighty-five percent of Democrats think Clinton is more respectful, while 68 percent of Republicans say Trump is -- including 66 percent of Republican women.  Among independents, 41 percent say Clinton, 34 percent say Trump and another 20 percent think there’s no difference.
Overall, voters are twice as likely to say Bill Clinton’s sex scandals have done more to hurt Hillary’s political career:  46 percent say hurt vs. 21 percent help.  Another 29 percent say they haven’t made a difference.
Men and women are about equally likely to say the scandals have done more to hurt than help.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,006 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from January 4-7, 2016. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters, and 5 points for the Democratic primary voter sample (360) and 4.5 points for the Republican primary voter sample (423).