Word: givens
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...package that will work, not getting one right now," he told reporters. "If we adopt it in the next two or three weeks or we adopt it in January, we need to make sure it'll work." Either way, the Senate cannot pass a comprehensive bill until next year given the current preoccupation with health care. But some of the provisions, such as unemployment insurance, food stamps and COBRA, must pass before they expire at the end of the year...
...Still, given that more than 3 million jobs have been lost since Obama took office - and in that time his approval ratings have plummeted - Congress feels more must be done. Indeed, the Congressional Black Caucus, upset that Main Street, and especially hard-hit black communities, has received little aid compared with the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, last week held up a crucial vote on financial regulatory reform, an Obama Administration priority. And some 128 House members, including 17 Republicans, have banded together to form the Jobs Now! Caucus, working with the leadership to craft a jobs bill...
...asked him what instructions he had given the military to make the next 30,000 troops more effective than the 21,000 troops he sent last March, whose presence didn't seem to improve the situation on the ground at all. "Look, the fact that there were increased casualties this year I think is to be expected from increased engagement by our forces." True enough, but the NATO coalition lost ground to the Taliban this year, by Obama's own admission. And the President could only come up with speed of deployment and a clearer sense of mission as strategic...
...oxymoronic perception that he is spending too much and doing too little to ease the economic crisis. It is a real problem he faces - and, to some extent, has brought upon himself by focusing so much attention on health care reform - but its proper place is in another speech. Given the feeling of abandonment that many of the soldiers I've spoken with during the past few years have, a more appropriate message to the American people might have been: I know you're hurting, but we're at war. We're trying to stabilize the most dangerous part...
...more tiresome habits in Latin America is over-emphasizing elections as a political panacea. A transparent vote is of course a good thing - but for too long the U.S. has given Latin countries the impression that it's the only thing, muffling the harder message that real democracy is what happens after elections. Critics may call Chávez an authoritarian Castro wannabe. Yet he's remained in power for 10 years, and may well last another 10, in part because he's exploited Washington's election obsession. He's been cleanly voted in three times and that's helped...