"Formidable team"?

Funny

It will be entertaining (in a train wreck sort of way) to find out who wins the GOP nomination in 2016. The quadrennial question that the public never really gets an answer for is, what are they going to do if elected and how is it going to help everybody who is not them and/or their "base"? Try as they might, they just don't have any policy prescriptions for anything that seems helpful/realistic for a vast majority of people in this country. Unless I were extremely wealthy and jonesing for more tax breaks or wanting to have more "freedom" to pollute and/or oppress my workers or wanting the GOP to spend more time, energy, and taxpayer money to repeal a law that helps people obtain health insurance and care or filing bills that harass and turn the screws on "teh gays", women, and anybody else they don't like, what's in it for voting Republican? This does not describe the vast majority of the public.

My understanding is that there will be no further changes for the next two years

I think that stevenleser had an OP around here about this. I sort of agree with you but I also think that any huge law like this has got to be phased in slow enough for people and businesses to adjust and avoid any major disruptions. Also, the whole "If you like your plan....." thing really hit us bad at the end of last year, so I can see why he would be a little nervous about this during these upcoming midterms and willing to allow them to go for a little while longer. Same goes with the employer mandate, which has got to be handled even more carefully. Still, it's not like he's changing huge, massive chunks of the law unilaterally. The meat of the bill is either already implemented or is being implemented (the Exchanges being the big piece), so I'm not really too worried about it. Plus, the law is already showing some positive results and is no longer- at least at the moment- seen as a huge electoral liability for the Dems in the upcoming midterms, so there is that as well. The only people really worked up over the changes/tweaks in the law seem to be the Ted Cruz "Obama is a dictator" types, which fortunately don't include huge swaths of the public.

We'll forgive you

I'm sure that being around people who call it a bill probably rubs off after awhile.

They will DEMAND the RIGHT to drink it

They don't want Barack and Michelle telling THEM what to drink!!!!

He must really be desperate/running scared at the moment

to be resorting to voting for Democratic measures. Too bad, he can't use his clout as Minority Leader to urge his colleagues to not filibuster this bill. *sigh*

The best thing that we can do to get 'ready' for the next (hopefully) Democrat in the WH in 2016

is ensure that he/she has a Congress with a strong majority of Democrats in it able to drive a progressive agenda over a defanged Republican minority in both chambers.

Aside from the Ukraine situation and their apparent Putin worship

their level of ferocity towards repealing/undermining/sabotaging ACA in Congress and throughout red states is what really upsets and sickens me. It's one thing to me for them to disagree with it and want to change it more to their liking (though they clearly have a dearth of ideas about how to do it differently) but the way that they are taking all kinds of steps/measures to prevent people from accessing it (i.e. harassing Navigators, refusing Medicaid expansion). They can't just accept that ACA is established law and sanctioned by SCOTUS and learn how to live with it (or just be miserable with it), which is fine, but they shouldn't be allowed to deprive other people of their right to access available services/opportunities if they want to.

He's President

and it's driving the GOP further and further into the rabbit hole. In the short term, things look pretty bad in general but in the long term, the right-wing GOPers are continuing to drive their party into a ditch. I mean, I'm worried about 2014 but who are their "heavy hitters" for 2016? Who are their up-and-coming stars? And what do they stand for? The Republicans will always find themselves people to vote for them out of fear or a host of other "reasons" but their policy positions- when examined critically- aren't going to resonate with newer and younger voters.

Had to find a way to shoehorn Benghazi! into this Ukraine situation, didn't they?

Republicans have finally found the perfect country for themselves

And it is...........Russia. Oh, irony of ironies.