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About 1 million people in the U.S. need treatment for opioid addiction but cannot get it. President Obama added $1.1 billion in new funding in 2016 for treatment, calling it "grossly underfunded."

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This editorial in the WSJ says that President Obama's failure in Syria-Iraq policy and his sticking to his idea that his policy is working, including his address after the San Bernardino attack, has given Donald Trump the opening he needed to call for a total ban on Muslims entering the country. This appeals to the American public dissatisfied with current policy, by calling for the opposite extreme. It says Obama's leadership failures on this issue have allowed demagoguery to influence the American public, including citing FDR's action against Japanese-Americans as an example.

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Instead of a car czar Obama will have aPresidential panel oversee the restructuring of GM and Chrysler. This panel will be overseen by Geithner and Lawrence Summers.Ron Bloom, arestructuring expert, who advised the airlines and the steel industries unions in their restructuring will be named asenior adviser to Treasury on the auto restructuring. And the President will remain involved reserving for himself any decisionon the viability of GM and Chrysler.

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Dana Milbank points out the real reason Hagel was asked to step down- the reverses in Syria and Iraq. This was not even mentioned in the gathering of officials where the president announced his departure and praised Hagel. Hagel looked weary of the event throughout and must have been relieved to get though it, says Milbank. As even former president Carter says the U.S. acted too slowly, and even Rand Paul calls for aggressive action against the Islamic State, president Obama now has to engage in military action from which he wanted to exit. President Obama looks for a new defense secretary to provide better guidance for the new situation he faces.

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A sense of public perceptions that the IRS scrutiny of conservative groups is not something that happens in America.

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Wallsten describes the tense and now frayed relationship between Obama and immigration groups and the way this has evolved from idealism to frustration to mere coexistence amid loss of faith. Obama's frustration expressed in words such as "I am not a king." And the immigration groups voicing their concerns about Obama's loss of credibility, as minorities especially Hispanics have fared poorly during his adminsitration, hit by rising deportations, foreclosures and the impact of high unemployment in construction and other sectors.

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New York Times readers respond to Drew Western's article in Sunday Review, NYT of August 7, 2011. Readers express disappointment with President Obama's lack of courage and initiative.

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Anything that smacks of the status quo or keeping the elites is frowned upon in 2026- Clinton/Obama and Bush/Bush elites that cost America $20 trillion in wealth transfer to China and EU/Canada/Mexico, 5 million manufacturing jobs, and reduced growth to 2% after 2000 (these are USTR Lighthizer and Jamieson estimates in 2026 Foreign Affairs magazine). Call it the TRIPLE BLOW- 5-20-2- or 5 million, $20 trillion and 2%.

 

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A partnership between rivals and the movement towards the 2016 U.S. elections.

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The fiscal 2016 U.S. budget of president Obama proposes government spending at 7% or $74 billion above the caps set in a bipartisan deficit reduction deal reached in 2011. It proposes $561 billion in defense spending with an increase of $38 billion, and $530 billion in non defense spending with an increase of $37 billion. Across the board cuts known as the sequester were set in 2013 following a 2011 bipartisan budget deal plan to take $2 trillion out of the federal budget deficit over 10 years. Spending caps were set at the time and a supercommitte was setup to look for ways to trim $1.2 trillion from the federal budget. With the failure of the supercommittee the sequester went into effect until Sen. Murray (Democrat) and Sen Paul Ryan (Republican ) agreed to ease cuts through fiscal year 2015 ending in September. The Democratic president's effort is to remove the caps in 2016 to invest more in infrastructure, medical research, other strategic priorities and defense.

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How Obama appealed to both sides, the religious and the secular in Turkey, choosing his words with care. For the secularists the emphasis on Turkey as "a strong and secular democracy" and not as moderate Muslim which has different connotations, and for the religious references to the Muslim world and the idea of mutual interest and mutual respect. Its hard to say but it may have created some sense of comfort on both sides and created asense that these two can coexist and should coexist peacefully in contrast to the tension in the past.