Morning. Our top stories for 2013. 26 said it was the 2010 implementation and overhaul of health care in general, eight percent said it was the death of Nelson Mandela and another eight percent was the federal governments budget troubles. Six or sent that it was a National Debate over gun laws and Mass Shootings and four was the Boston Marathon bombing. That the the top five Associated Press found as a top stories of 2013. What is your pick for the top story . Could be president obamas presidency in 2013 . Your pick for new story of the year. Lillian in pacifica, california. Youre up first, lillian. Go ahead. I think the Approval Rating for obama is low, but i think he is doing the best for the people. I think that he that the people do need health care and i know so many that are so happy that they have obamacare right now. Lily, what do you think about his agenda, his congressional agenda, what he wants to see past, legislation in 2014. Should he be accommodating or confrontational . Caller i think the immigrations should go through. He is trying to do work for the people. I dont understand why his Approval Rating is so low. He is for the people. The republicans are not for the people. They never have been and never will. We are listening, lillian. Caller thats all i have to say. Host are id let me move on to ahmed in virginia. Democratic caller, go ahead. Caller i do see the Health Care Issue go forward for the people. Everybody gets care. , what Edward Snowden, why you left the country and why he is telling all these things. What is hurting america are helping america, i would like to sell these things. Thank you. Host denny, independent caller, top to you think is the news story for 2013 . Caller i think the snowden things, the spying on americans and the loss of our rights under a long and protracted war that our Founding Fathers warned us against that we would lose our rights in a long a protected work. Here we are and im hoping everyone will wake up and not let our liberty slide anymore. Host what you think should happen in 2014 on that issue . Caller i think everyone who voted to keep the patriot act should be kicked out of office. Host thereve been proposals about the patrick leahy. He has teamed up with jim sensenbrenner, a republican from wisconsin. Yes, i think theyre disgust ofare of the the American People for that think anyone who voted to renew the patriot act is unpatriotic. And should be voted out of office. Host what do you think the president should say on it . His reached to make and talk about recommendations. What you want to hear from them . Caller i want to hear his total rejection of it. Ofis not a democratic way governing people. Constitutional scholar you should know this. I have been waiting for him, im the ones that disapprove on him because of this issue. Ive been waiting for him to make a turnaround in stand up for democratic leaves. On a Facebook Page here are a couple of comments. Here is president obama back in november accepting blame for the health care website. I understand why folks are frustrated. I would be, too. Look at what is taking place in washington and they say not enough is getting done that helps me with my life. You know, regardless of what congress does, ultimately i am the president of the United States and expect me to do something about it. So in terms of how i intend to going to keepm on working as hard as i can around the priorities that the American People care about. And i think it is legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this Health Care Law in particular and on a whole range of these issues in general. That is on me. We fumbled the rollout on this Health Care Law. Int president obama back november accepting blame for healthcare. Gov. Is that your top news story of the year . That is our question for all of you this morning on this december 31st, but he 13. December 31, 2013. Tweet from House Speaker john boehner and what he had to say about the Affordable Care act. The speaker saying you can see the different tweets and the new debates that will be happening in 2014 as we close out onto 13 here on the washington journal. Susan in sarasota florida, an independent caller. Susan, what do you think . What is the top story of the year . Regardless of what story receive the most income i think that snowdens disclosure should be the top story of the year. I think that the Health Care Act has its quirks and it has its problems, but it is an effort to improve the country and the countrys health care system. But the nsa surveillance and what it means to all americans is overwhelming. I dont know how they will ever get a hold of it. It is like there is an underground government that has been operating without any oversight and we have seen the tip of the iceberg and i dont know how we can take care goal iceberg. That is the top different perspective on our Society Story of the year as far as i am concerned. Susan fromthat is sarasota, florida. Independent caller saying that it is Edward Snowden and the leaks of an essay Surveillance Program as the story of the year. Ryan in new orleans, democratic caller. What do you think, ryan . Caller i think that president obama is the story of the year. Ecause he came with obamacare i think he is the story of the isr and i think the south the worst of the year. The people of the south are the worst, that is all i have to say. Thank you very much. Go to coleman in tulsa, oklahoma, a republican caller. Caller what is being exposed as a Global Warming hoax. Freezing, the epa and Obama Administration is moving forward with a lawless tack on carbon. We couldnt live without carbon. Plants can survive without co2. It is all based on a great deal of ignorance that is not reported by the media in the co2 and using of carbon as fuel. Basis where costs are going to go up. Sort of like in pagan times people would sacrifice the most orutiful maiden to a climate global or volcano god. Now we are sacrificing our standard of living to an attack on carbon and Global Warming god which is false. Oscar,ll right, cleveland, ohio, democratic caller. My top story is just i think it is a shame that the republicans have done what they have done. They have not done anything to try to help our president. He was elected twice. That should tell everybody something. I think the republicans should be voted out. Everything that our president has tried to do, they have fought against it. Medicare, immigration, all of that. What is wrong with our republican zach are thought they were supposed to be a free country year. It is just not right for them to keep doing our president this way, disrespecting him. They didnt do to another president like that. Theyre only doing it because he is black. It is a shame. Host front pages of the wall woods says the winners of the boring investors of 2013. M, roseville, michigan. Democratic caller. High, mike. Caller i feel that o obamacare is a big issue. Equally as important, i feel that what was in the media but should have been, i feel was a fact that Congress Pass a law that they couldnt profit from the information that they received and the hearings that they held. Happened withhat martha stewart. They tried to get her for what. He was doing for the average people to do insider trading, why would it ever have been a law passed for that to happen in congress . Texas. Ector in edinburg, what is the top story of 2013 . Think president obamas redline turned out to be a puff of smoke. Host are you talking about syria . Caller host yes. Thank you so much. What you think it will come back to be a big story . Caller people will realize that United States threats will not have much meaning to it anymore and other countries will not think much of it. Host speaking of Foreign Policy , afghanistan is on the front page of the wall street the picture they have. Children staying in the snow outside of the shelter in kabul. The headline on the story is massachusetts, republican caller, high, brian. Caller mine is snowden. Cant believe that the government is snooping on everybody like that. It is just ridiculous. I thought we were a free country. That is not a free country. That, a show on cspan2 about a week ago on trade, it said that china wants to buy 200 planes from boeing but they are going to start making the planes there. All our Companies Want to get into china because theyre buying up everything. Theyre willing to sell this country down the tubes. Company wantll his to sell stuff area to make it here. Dorothy in pine bluff, arkansas. Caller i think the worst thing that happened to us was a Government Shutdown because when i look at the number of families , real American Families that are already struggling and being they were shut down and inconvenience for 16 days, i dont see how any american can ever vote republican. Those republicans are not for families. They crush families and i think it is very hurting and i think obama is trying to help families. That is how i separate it as a retired educator having seen so many children suffer and try to go to school. Many of them not getting much help and also now my niece is starting to teach and she is totally frustrated with what is happening in the schools. I think that when you work against families you work against america. Host all right, dorothy. And theyork times. Washington times are squaring off over what they believe othered in benghazi and subjects. The New York Times. Titled theage is facts about benghazi. Heres what they write. That debate rages on this morning in the editorial pages. Sitsitter, adam schiff who on the Intelligence Committee, a democrat of california represents a 28th district, heres what he had to tweet out yesterday about the back and forth. Your pic for a news story of the year. Claude in ledbetter, texas. High, claude. Go ahead. Caller im thinking the cover up of benghazi and the coverups our targets and nsa spying would probably be the stories of the year. Now the investigation seem to go nowhere. Whenever they do think they found somebody that may be culpable, nothing ever happens to them. That ouring probably congress has not been able to get to the bottom of these problems. Host all right, claude. We will go to robert next from los angeles, a republican caller. I think the best news story of 2013 is the hacking of our computers nationwide all the way up to the pentagon. Spurs fromms our vices being manufactured in foreign countries. At will get worse if we the American People dont stand up and say that we want to be secure. It seems like these politicians are just working for the companies and most of these companies who are manufacturing these devices do not even have residence here. Most of these corporations dont care at all they want is cheap labor. Havoc on American People with Identity Theft and spying. Even informs may lands were not friendly to us. You take him home to your office and their beacons. They can grab any information that they want. I think hacking is most important to this country. Systemw our information that we use every day for our banking and everything is very bad. That needs to be dealt with. Host all right, robert. Here is an email from one of our viewers. Mark in maine, democratic caller. High, mark, what do you think i think ther biggest story is a Affordable Care act. There are a lot of stories but that is the big issue. Cant something this big is not going to work right away. Medicare years ago, they had problems at that and they never thought that was going to work. It is come to a point now a day where there are some people that dont have it because of these. Reexisting conditions every american citizen should have some type of health insurance. Way we are putting men on the moon and done all kinds of things. Theres no reason we cant come to a resolution between both parties and make this work. I think the worst thing that is going on i dont want to say this is shutdown that occurred, thathe extreme differences have erupted from the parties. We have got to come together as a country. It is just going too far right. You have to have a balance in between. We have to come together and put our differences aside and what is best for this country. Host so, mark, what do think the president should do . Do think you should be accommodating or confrontational with the republicans over the budget issue . Done upi think he has to now, even now he has tried we aredes host listening, mark. Caller i think he is trying to be accommodating, but it has taken him all this time to get this far. He has really been up against the wall. His first term, i felt bad for the guy. He really, i really and truly believe he wants to do what he can for the people. We have got them together. Host lets show our viewers what House Speaker boehner had talking about 12 the Government Shutdown. Frankly i just think that they have lost all credibility. They pushed us into this place to defund obamacare and shut down the government. Know, that wasnt exactly the strategy that i had in mind. If you will recall, the day before the government reopened, one of the people from these groups stood up and said well, we never really thought it would work. Are you kidding me . you all know me, right . Mean mean and i mean when i say. Im as conservative as Anyone Around this place. Donehe things that we have over three years that ive been anyker have not violated conservative principle, not once. Host there was this bigger the house on december 12 before they left washington to go back to their districts for the Holiday Season talking about the Government Shutdown and the role that conservative groups played in that. Was that your top story of that year yucca that is our question for all of you this morning. We will keep taking your phone calls. But first, in other news, on those russian bombings, the wall street journal. Their headline reads usa today their story says that in other news is morning, several papers have stories about an announcement by the faa yesterday on drones in this country. Washington times take a look at the local. Ewspapers around the country here is a front page of the pits kurt postgazette. Alaska, nevada, new york, north dakota, texas and virginia will all host the testing sites. Were talking about your topics for the new story of the year. Jim in minneapolis, an independent caller, hey, jim, what do you think . I basically wanted to talk about benghazi and the coverup. Al qaeda definitely played a role in going in there and manipulating certain groups to go in and attack heard it might not have been a highranking al qaeda, but they definitely had an effect in that area. For us to sit by for several hours during a firefight and not come to the rescue is pathetic. To leave them high and dry is the most to have no common ability whatsoever is just the most ridiculous thing. Every time Something Like that breaks, mr. Obama or slick as i call him, he goes out and hopes that after certain. Of time the American Public will just let it wash away and forget about it, which seems to be the atlosophy of the government the point whenever it messes up. Theres no accountability. The irs scandal, there is no accountability for them taking an election ruling it your way , beingure the government able to shut down certain groups. Both of those two stores are pretty scary. Our government, the direction that theyre taking is scary. It is not the way this country should be run. Host all right, jim, you mention accountability. Many of your member generally in january of 2013, while secretary of state Hillary Clinton testified, she responded to gop senator ron johnsons assertion that the Obama Administration to liberally misled the American Public regarding those attacks in benghazi. Here it is. That theremisled were supposedly protests and that something sprang out of that, and assault sprang out of that. That was easily ascertained that that was not the fact. American people couldve known that within days. They didnt know that. With all due respect, we had four dead americans, whether it was a protester guys out on a walk when i do decide to kill americans. At this point, what difference does it make . It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator. Host then secretary of state 2013on back in january testifying about what happened at benghazi. Is that your top story of the year . Lori on twitter says this dakota, aouth republican caller. Dylan, what do think . Caller im a disabled veteran from vietnam. How can you trust a government that sprayed us with agent im going to give you to my wife. Ptsd husband has severe and he fought 43 years for his service connected. The sad thing about it is that the backsveterans on of the shutdown and then while theyre out there on the shut down for 16 days they are voting on this mouse is. I think benghazi, the economy, the irs and nsa surveilling us, what you think these drones are going to do . He wanted to do that last year in 2011 and he said no to it because he will kill us. I do not trust president obama. I think he is an evil man with evil intent, just like on the news, it