cuban foreign ministry. and those are proceeding well, albeit slowly. so there are executive actions and orders that president obama can take in the arenas of trade, allowing u.s. telecommunication industry to go in more firmly. aviation agreements. we seen this obviously with the excitement over travel potentially increasing. and obviously the lifting or softening of visa restrictions for u.s. tourists. but there are other arenas in which the president simply cannot act. what i found interesting is that the cuban leader wants compensation for the 53 em forward goeed. they re putting a price tag on that. there s not a snowball chance of that happening, right? snowball chance. obviously the president has made this an issue since he campaigned for president in 2007 since closing guantanamo bay. but i think there s a snowball chance of returning this territory to the cuban government. but that being said, there s tremendous enthusiasm and
policy in the middle east has been essentially ad hoc, never dealing comprehensively with the region but dealing with its separate parts. i think we re now beginning to pay the cost of that. we have to redeem ourselves in this respect, and this is where i agree, i think, with richard that an outcome in congress can be troublesome because the president precedent is being established that the president cannot act. we have to launch a comprehensive regionwide international initiative which engages the major countries of the world that have a stake in this region of blowing up. these countries are not just western countries. in that context we might be able to seduce the russians into a more positive stance because the russians don t want to be isolated in the end and they are fearful of stability in the caucuses. putin has a stake in the winter olympics. there is leverage here that we
500-mile border with syria. you just heard my take. now let s hear from two experts on u.s. foreign policy. he served as national security adviser to president jimmy carter and richard haas is the president of the council on foreign relations. he served as director of policy planning at the state department and he is the author of foreign policy begins at home. welcome. let me start with you. secretary kerry revealed on cnn on the preceding show that the united states now has independent confirmation of sarin signatures. do you believe that this case is now both clear and important enough for the united states to act? i think the fact is that we are very heavily committed to act. presidential leadership is at stake. american credibility is at stake. i think the worst outcome would be now to act indecisively.
view that the united states ought to try to remake other countries abroad. and you ve got those in between. i think there s also those in the republican party who want to weaken the president. that said, my guess is many will rally around some form of a resolution, simply because the cost of not supporting this would be enormous. i also think that whether, fareed, the next president is republican or democrat, this sets a strong precedent of going to the congress, not simply for approval, but for authorization. it in some ways diminishes presidential prerogative. it also puts the president in real trouble if congress narrows the authorization. so i think there s a lot of precedents here that are unfortunate for future republican or democratic presidents. and i think that what will happen as a result is that this republican party will be loathe to make it impossible for the united states to act, but this is not going to be, if you will, uncritical support.
the provide an option this would be completely by choice for people who don t want to pick this public option, among the private sector choices within a health exchange, and rates for premiums are estimated to be about 5 to 7% lower, meaning those people in the exchange that needed a subsidy would take fewer tax dollars and it is also estimated that it would serve as an anchor, because there s competition, to bring down the cost of health care, even in the private sector as well. when is the government when is the government ever done that? with george bush s plan, you were critical and had a right to be for prescription drug benefit. the argument ises that it would drive down the cost of those drugs. if anything they have soared since that benefit came in because the government cannot act as a source of even buying in bulk for cutting prices.