"A mere three weeks remain before the ObamaCare exchanges open for business. The likely result will be the closing doors on Main Street, as shopkeepers and entrepreneurs shut down, unable to make ends meet. It’s clear that the wounded economy can’t cope with the exploding costs ahead.  ... 

"In the past month alone, 312,000 Americans abandoned the search for a job, as labor force participation, already at levels not seen since the Carter administration, dropped another notch. This can only grow worse with ObamaCare telling employers and employees to work less — or not at all. 

"A vibrant economy is the reward of hard work by a lot of Americans, and the government should encourage productivity, not penalize it. ObamaCare is a prescription for a shrinking economy, and the nation won’t recover from stagnation as long as it remains the law. In the weeks ahead, the House will get one last chance to prevent the train wreck. The House must stand firm and refuse to fund the president’s health care takeover."

"In an astonishing display of either ignorance or brazenness, the White House will mark the first anniversary of the Benghazi terrorist attack this Wednesday by sending National Security Adviser Susan Rice to Capitol Hill to argue the administration’s case for military force in Syria. Rice infamously delivered false talking points on national television, blaming the Benghazi attacks on a spontaneous demonstration against an anti-Islam YouTube video. Sending Rice to Congress to brief members on Syria is like sending Typhoid Mary to lecture on public health. Her credibility is, to use a diplomatic term, limited."

"What should Congress do? ... 

"Unless Obama can show the country that his don’t-mock-me airstrike is, in fact, part of a serious strategy for altering the trajectory of the Syrian war, Congress should vote no."

"Grab a chair: Congress is about to get as fascinating and powerful as it gets. 

"In the next two months, the most unpopular institution in America will decide the fates of a president’s power, a military strike, defense contracts, the budget, health-care implementation, the Federal Reserve chairmanship, illegal immigrants, and all of us who would be hit by a debt default. 

"It will be bitter, ugly, extremely high stakes and in every case wildly unpredictable. 'In 33 years, we’ve never come back from summer break with the number of very critical, important issues that we’re going to confront over the next 90 to 120 days,' House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told us. 'It’s an amazing time.'"

"The grim reality is that key people in positions to shape our foreign policy during the Obama administration -- the President, the Vice President, two Secretaries of State, and the current Secretary of Defense -- all have a track record of grossly misconceiving the issues, our enemies and our national interest. 

"This is the administration that is now asking for a blank check from Congress to take unspecified military action to achieve unspecified goals."

"The president of the United States is preparing in advance to shift the blame if his strike on Syria proves to be unpopular and ineffective. He’s furious about the box he’s placed himself in, he hates the ridicule he’s (rightly) incurring, but he doesn’t see any way out. 

"What he does see is a political (and geopolitical) disaster in the making. And so what is emerging is what comes most naturally to Mr. Obama: Blame shifting and blame sharing.  Remember: the president doesn’t believe he needs congressional authorization to act. He’s ignored it before. He wants it now. For reasons of political survival. To put it another way: He wants the fingerprints of others on the failure in Syria.  

"Rarely has an American president joined so much cynicism with so much ineptitude."

"Without labor nothing prospers."

"Republicans have long blamed President Obama's signature health care initiative for increasing insurance costs, dubbing it the 'Unaffordable Care Act.' 

"Turns out, they might be right. 

"For the vast majority of Americans, premium prices will be higher in the individual exchange than what they're currently paying for employer-sponsored benefits, according to a National Journal analysis of new coverage and cost data. Adding even more out-of-pocket expenses to consumers' monthly insurance bills is a swell in deductibles under the Affordable Care Act."

"What happens when American military action has neither public support nor congressional approval? Looks like we're getting ready to find out.

"Americans did not much like President Obama's 2011 decision to intervene in the Libyan civil war, and the looming entry of American forces in Syria's conflict is shaping up to be even less popular. The consequences, especially with a president famously unwilling to put his own political clout on the line for national security policies, could be serious. ... 

"The implicit promise of the post-Vietnam understanding of presidential military authority largely unchecked by Congress is that the wars will be popularly supported. What happens in the absence of such support will set a new course for foreign policy and the use of force."

"Vladimir Putin surely isn’t the only one in the world who regards the president of the United States with barely disguised contempt. As the Syria crisis burns hotter, President Obama has never looked so feckless. He has perfected the art of speaking reproachfully and carrying little or no stick. The grand theory of his foreign policy coming into office, that more national self-abasement would win us greater international good will and respect, has done the opposite. Adversaries don’t fear us, and allies don’t trust us. ... 

"Elsewhere in the region, Iran progresses toward a nuclear weapon, Iraq reverts to civil war, and al-Qaeda gains in Yemen and Somalia. In an essay in Commentary magazine, analyst Elliott Abrams argues that the guiding principle of Obama’s foreign policy is, as he put it in an early speech as a presidential candidate, to end the old 'habits' of American international activism and leadership. The new habit, evidently, will be tolerating irrelevance and humiliation."