I don't see much change except in the area of health care, which, regardless of how one regards ACA details, was in need of considerable reset...a quarter of the economy supposedly and already involving healthcare subsidization of senior care...and by every measure of degree of growth of expense a major problem requiring effort to control costs. Again, I'm not sure the ACA resolves the existing problems and I suspect "affordable" will mean less innovation & advance in treatments. Any alternate ideas at this point to deal with health care system problems? That's the bottom line there. Otherwise I see little "fundamental" Obama change.

Here is an article that describes what may be the truth about what is happening in this administration. I have read several of his columns and he makes a lot of sense.
Why Obamacare is a Fantastic Success.

Please take a moment to read, it may send a chill down your spine.

By Wayne Allyn Root

There are 2 major political parties in America. I’m a member of the naïve, stupid, and cowardly one. I’m a Republican. How stupid is the GOP? They still don’t get it. I told them 5 years ago, 2 books ago, a national bestseller ago (“The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide”), and in hundreds of articles and commentaries, that Obamacare was never meant to help America, or heal the sick, or lower healthcare costs, or lower the debt, or expand the economy.

The GOP needs to stop calling Obamacare a “trainwreck.” That means it’s a mistake, or accident. That means it’s a gigantic flop, or failure. It’s NOT. This is a brilliant, cynical, and purposeful attempt to damage the U.S. economy, kill jobs, and bring down capitalism. It’s not a failure, it’s Obama’s grand success. It’s not a “trainwreck,” Obamacare is a suicide attack. He wants to hurt us, to bring us to our knees, to capitulate- so we agree under duress to accept big government.

Obama’s hero and mentor was Saul Alinsky- a radical Marxist intent on destroying capitalism. Alinksky’s stated advice was to call the other guy “a terrorist” to hide your own intensions. To scream that the other guy is “ruining America,” while you are the one actually plotting the destruction of America. To claim again and again in every sentence of every speech that you are “saving the middle class,” while you are busy wiping out the middle class.

The GOP is so stupid they can’t see it. There are no mistakes here. This is a planned purposeful attack. The tell-tale sign isn’t the disastrous start to Obamacare. Or the devastating effect the new taxes are having on the economy. Or the death of full-timejobs.
Or the overwhelming debt. Or the dramatic increases in health insurance rates. Or the 70% of doctors now thinking of retiring- bringing on a healthcare crisis of unimaginable proportions. Forget all that.

The real sign that this is a purposeful attack upon capitalism is how many Obama administration members and Democratic Congressmen are openly calling Tea Party Republicans and anyone who wants to stop Obamacare “terrorists.” There’s the clue. Even the clueless GOP should be able to see that. They are calling the reasonable people the patriots the people who believe in the Constitution…the people who believe exactly what the Founding Fathers believed the people who want to take power away from corrupt politicians who have put America $17 trillion in debt terrorists?

That’s because they are Saul Alinsky-ing the GOP. The people trying to purposely hurt America, capitalism and the middle class are calling the patriots by a terrible name to fool, confuse and distract the public.

Obamacare is a raving, rollicking, fantastic success. Stop calling it a failure.

Here is what it was created to do. It is succeeding on all counts.

#1) Obamacare was intended to bring about the Marxist dream- redistribution of wealth. Rich people, small business owners, and the middle class are being robbed, so that the money can be redistributed to poor people (who vote Democrat). Think about it. If you’re rich or middle class, you now have to pay for your own healthcare costs (at much higher rates) AND 40 million other people’s costs too (through massive tax increases). So you’re stuck paying for both bills. You are left broke. Brilliant.

#2) Obamacare was intended to wipe out the middle class and make them dependent on government. Think about it. Even Obama’s IRS predicts that health insurance for a typical American family by 2016 will be $20,000 per year. But how would middle class Americans pay that bill and have anything left for food or housing or living? People that make $40K, or $50K, or $60K can’t possibly hope to spend $20K on health insurance without becoming homeless. Bingo. That’s how you make middle class people dependent on government. That’s how you make everyone addicted to government checks. Brilliant.

#3) As a bonus, Obamacare is intended to kill every decent paying job in the economy, creating only crummy, crappy part-time jobs. Why? Just to make sure the middle class is trapped, with no way out. Just to make sure no one has the $20,000 per year to pay for health insurance, thereby guaranteeing they become wards of the state. Brilliant.

#4) Obamacare is intended to bankrupt small business, and therefore starve donations to the GOP. Think about it. Do you know a small business owner? I know hundreds of them. Their rates are being doubled, tripled and quadrupled by Obamacare. Guess who writes 75% of the checks to Republican candidates and conservative causes? Small business. Even if a small business owner manages to survive, he or she certainly can’t write a big check to the GOP anymore. Money is the “mother’s milk” of politics. Without donations, a political party ceases to exist. Bingo. That’s the point of Obamacare. Obama is bankrupting his political opposition and drying up donations to the GOP. Brilliant.

#5) Obamacare is intended to make the IRS all-powerful. It adds thousands of new IRS agents. It puts the IRS in charge of overseeing 15% of the U.S. economy. The IRS has the right because of Obamacare to snoop into every aspect of your life, to go into your bank accounts, to fine you, to frighten you, to intimidate you. And Obama and his socialist cabal have access to your deepest medical secrets. By law your doctor has to ask your sexual history. That information is now in the hands of Obama and the IRS to blackmail GOP candidates into either not running, or supporting bigger government, or leaking the info and ruining your campaign. Or have you forgotten the IRS harassed, intimidated and persecuted critics of Obama and conservative groups? Now Obama hands the IRS even more power.

Big Brother rules our lives. Brilliant.

#6) Obamacare is intended to unionize 15 million healthcare workers. That produces $15 billion in new union dues. That money goes to fund Democratic candidates and socialist causes- thereby guaranteeing Obama’s friends never lose another election, and Obama’s policies keep ruining capitalism and bankrupting business owners long after he’s out of office.

Message to the GOP: This isn’t a game. This isn’t tiddly-winks. This is a serious, purposeful attempt to highjack America and destroy capitalism. This isn’t a trainwreck. It’s purposeful suicide. It’s not failing, it’s working exactly according to plan. Obama knows what he’s doing. Stop apologizing and start fighting.

Oh and one more thing…Conservatives aren’t “terrorists.” We are patriots and saviors.

We represent the Constitution and the Founding Fathers. We are the heroes and good guys. Unless you get all this through your thick skulls, America is lost forever.

No one can be a conservative. Change and progress are the apparent only two constants in our existence: where is there room for a conservative?

But there are basic moral constants, right? Yes, but not agreed upon; so how to traditionally maintain them as a good conservative? Impossible.

Conservatism is delusional albeit heartfelt. Duck Dynasty a prime example. It has a favorable intellectual forte against unbridled change or progress, a prominent Devil's advocate standing, yet conservatism is just a foil, and nothing more, for clear thinking and rational choices for humanity's progress.

Now that I have read all that is here and reflect on the title of this forum,"Obama is tearing America apart" it is clear that a lot of responses have got off the path of addressing the topic. Hate and racism have many of the same ingredients and they both are learned behaviors. If we focus on the good a president brings to the office he leads we could rid ourselves of some of the misinformation that has clouded our abilities to fairly judge ones accomplished and deeds. The trueth in it self shows that America is and has been getting torn apart for a long time way before most of us were born. It would be better if we as a nation could find some common ground and work together to fix whats wrong. But the problem with doing that is that some of the hard right wing conservatives have inbeded so much hate into their followers they believe this president is the problem. When in trueth, the record shows that Obama administration has brought America out of a reccession and the growth of the economy has steadily grown. Also the bail out of GM save over three hundred thousand jobs. The bail out of banks saved millions of jobs and more important it saved all the innocent people's money(savings). Yet there is no credit given to this president for forseeing the need to do these things. I notice no conservative that has visited this site mention that the shutdown cost tax payers about 24 billion dollars done by republicans. No mention of how this congress has done less work than any congress in history, and they were sent to capital hill to do work. No mention that in 230 years of goverment 182 filibusters have occured and 86 of them happened when this (black) president was in office in five years. No mention of the decision to obstruct, block and deny this president any and all attempts to govern and get things done is what this GOP has done. Lead by right wing tea party members who are on record saying they were only going to stop this president from accomplishing anything. So they use mis information like he was not born in America, the ACA (Obamacare)is a train reck. No one is talking about how bad it is that the health care system was causing a lot of people to go bankrupt before this president was elected and yet this president chose to help get that fixed and give health care to all Americans even though republicans decided to not help nor come up with a plan to fix a broken health care system already broken. So when you speak of this president speak of the trueth and solutions, and not all this anger to get rid of someone who has done much to improve all Americans,including those who hate him for reasons that we all know. And consider all have made mistakes, yet this president has been openly disrespected at every turn he has made. Remember, when you follow some one make sure he or she is on the right side trueth.

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it."

And each time we forget the past and repeat our past mistakes, the price gets higher. Americas are capable of incredible acts of political amnesia. This tendency is nowhere more evidence as when the right harps upon deficits and the national debt.

A Bush fetish? Not at all. I simply remember what happened and the complete, total silence of the right. Just trying to find out why it was alright with the right back then but now is some sort of imagined evil.

The president is the Commander in Chief. He shares with the military successes and is blamed for the military's failure. Had Seal Team Six failed, or worse, had they been killed, the right would have been all over Obama like white on rice. Am I wrong on this? Or would it been "well, Seal Team Six failed." I doubt it.

Look at what happened in Benghazi, which ultimately rests on the president. There are posters on this forum who claim Obama had Ambassador Stevens killed "because he (Stevens) knew too much." Or that Obama called directly to have aid for Stevens held back. It boggles the imagination.

If you want a culprit, look at the Republican House who cut the president's budget for embassey and consulate protection by 75%.

But tell me, had Seal Team Six failed, who would you have blamed?

And, no, you don't hate. Keep telling yourself that. Have I every given George W. Bush or Ronald Wilson Reagan a derogatory name? No. It's the serial Obama haters who disrespect not only the man, but the office.

Again, who would you have blamed if Seal Team Six failed? that's an easy one.