What’s New At The White House?

Whether you support President Obama or not, I thought you might find it interesting to see what he is doing lately. First of all we know the G8 has become the G7 after Russia was put out over Ukraine. President Obama attended a G7 conference in Germany and the topic was more about ISIS and the Ukraine than anything to do with trade. There were the usual pledges to reduce global emissions, but security issues were the main topic. The president stated we had a need to accelerate the training of the Iraqi army and he said he was going to ask the Pentagon for a plan. In other words we had no plan. This is exactly what his critics had been saying and this statement surprised some. When I look at what is going on I can’t help but remember Vietnam and things seem to be going the same way. Here is what the president said, “We don’t have, yet, a complete strategy, because it requires commitments on the part of Iraqis as well. The details are not worked out.”

The Supreme Court is deciding whether to strike down health care subsidies in federally run marketplaces. This would have the effect of disrupting the Affordable Care Act which the president sponsored. A decision is due this month. The president said, “This should be an easy case. Frankly it probably shouldn’t have even been taken up, it’s important for us to go ahead and assume that the Supreme Court is going to do what most legal scholars who have looked at this would expect them to.” The president went on to say this about the Supreme Court, “I’m optimistic that the Supreme Court will play it straight.” In other words I think he is intimating if the court rules against the health care subsidies it will be a political decision. Lately many cases have been decided by Republican judges voting one way and Democratic judges voting the other way. The problem for President Obama is out of the nine Supreme Court judges, five are Republicans which must have him worried.

There has been a lot of talk lately coming from the Obama administrating stating Iraqi troops have no will to fight.Β  President Obama seems to feel the same way and has met with the Iraqi Prime Minister. He has been told the Iraqi troops didn’t have the weapons or munitions to carry out the fight. The president said despite setbacks he is confident we will drive ISIS out of the area.

President Obama did win a case in the Supreme Court lately. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law which would let American citizens born in Jerusalem have Israel listed as their country of birth on their passports. The court said it encroached on the president’s exclusive power to recognize foreign governments. The case was decided by a 6-3 vote. The president said if the court had voted against this it would have caused “irreversible damage.” He said this, because the United States has a long standing policy not to recognize Jerusalem as part of Israel. He was talking about America’s ability to influence the peace process in the area.
It is being said President Obama’s administration is on the verge of requiring employers to pay overtime and Congressional approval is not needed. It could extend time and a half overtime pay to millions of American workers. The Republicans are saying it will kill jobs and force employers to cut hours for workers. The AFL-CIO said, “This is probably the most significant step they can take to raise wages for millions of workers.”

Gun owners are becoming very worried, because the Obama administration has put forth a proposal which it states clarifies how to handle releases containing technical data on weapons and ammunition and it proposes before this data can be posted in the future, government approval will be necessary. Public comments will be accepted by the government until August 3, 2015. I guess I don’t have to tell you the NRA is not very happy about this.
President Obama said he was frustrated with a district court decision which temporarily blocked his executive actions on immigration. Here is what the president said, "With respect to immigration, obviously, I'm frustrated by a district court ruling that now is winding its way through the appeals process.” The president has asked for the Appeals Court to hear arguments on the preliminary injunction against his immigration policies. He said he is being as aggressive as he can legally be. Immigration reform has become a very hot topic and has evoked deep feelings on both sides of the issue.

President Obama says he did not express concern about the U.S. dollar’s strength at the Group of Seven summit. The president said at a news conference we should not believe unnamed quotes and that he did not say that. An unidentified official was said to have stated he said the strong dollar posed a problem. President Obama went on to say, “I make a practice of not commenting on the daily fluctuations of the dollar or any other currency.” The summit is said to be largely closed to the press and the president never said exactly what he told the delegates.

During the G7 Summit there was much talk about the Ukraine and Russia, Here is what President Obama had to say about that, "We think that there can be a peaceful, diplomatic resolution to this problem, but it's going to require that Europe, the United States and the Transatlantic Partnership, as well as the world, stay vigilant and stay focused on the importance of upholding the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty." In a meeting the president and other leaders also, "agreed that the duration of sanctions should be clearly linked to Russia's full implementation of the Minsk agreements." The Minsk agreements had to do with a cease-fire in the Ukraine in March 2015.

A group of conservatives in Britain wants British Law to be sovereign over European Union law. This, it is said, would kill the European Union. President Obama met with David Cameron and told him he was looking forward to Britain staying in the EU. Mr. Cameron wants to renegotiate the UK’s EU membership.