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U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday that Russia would remain in isolation in the international community if President Vladimir Putin continues to violate international law in Ukraine. (Reuters)

BRISBANE, Australia President Obama dismissed renewed criticism of his signature health care law Sunday and disputed an assertion from a former architect of the policy who claimed the administration had deceived lawmakers.

Jonathan Gruber, an economist, suggested last year that the administrations signature health-care legislation passed in part because of the stupidity of the American voter and a lack of transparency over its funding mechanisms.

I just heard about this, Obama said at a new conference, after wrapping up two days of meetings with world leaders here at the G-20 Summit. The fact that some adviser who never worked on our staff expressed his opinion that I completely disagree with it is no reflection on the actual process that was run.

It marked the first time Obama has weighed in on the video, which became public after he left Washington for a week-long trip to Asia. Gruber is an MIT economics professor and health care policy expert who was a paid consultant for the Obama administration on the Affordable Care Act.

His remarks were captured on a video that recently surfaced on social media and have been seized on by Republicans who want to dismantle the law. Conservatives in both chambers of Congress said they might call on Gruber to testify on Capitol Hill, a process that would reopen the ugly political fight over a law that has already enrolled millions of Americans in new health care plans.

We had a year-long debate, Obama said. Go look back at your stories. One thing we cant say is that we didnt have a lengthy debate over health care in the United States. Every press outlet here should go back and pull up every clip and every story. Its fair to say there is not a provision in the health care law that was not extensively debated and was not fully transparent.

In a news conference that touched on several diverse topics, Obama also spoke for the first time about his face-to-face meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders, whose relations have turned icy over Russian support for Ukrainian separatists, spoke informally several times at an economic forum in Beijing last week and at the G-20 Summit in Brisbane.

Obama called the discussions business-like, and said he warned Putin that if he continues down the path that he is on ... the isolation that Russia is currently experiencing will continue.

On Syria, Obama reiterated that his thinking had not changed over his refusal to send in U.S. ground troops to fight in the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq. The president has authorized an increase in troops to act in support and advisory roles in the Middle East, but he said suggestions that his military advisers are requesting U.S. forces to fight on the front lines is wrong.

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Obama dismisses renewed criticism of health care law

President Barack Obama said he doesnt expect Republicans to attempt to use a year-end spending bill to counter his executive actions on immigration, a move that would threaten to shut the government.

Theres no reason for it to shut down. We traveled down that path before, Obama said a press conference in Brisbane, Australia, where he was attending the Group of 20 summit. It was bad for the country, it was bad for every elected official in Washington and at the end of the day was resolved in the same way it wouldve been resolved if we hadnt shut the government down.

Obama is in the final stages of crafting a plan that would provide relief from deportation to many undocumented immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens and possibly also parents of legal residents and immigrants brought to the country as minors, according to people familiar with administration planning.

Obama may use his executive authority to expand an order he issued in 2012 that staved off deportation for qualified undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Doing so would be a direct challenge to House Republicans, whove refused to act on immigration legislation already passed by the Senate. Republican congressional leaders, including Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner, warned Obama at a White House meeting last week that acting unilaterally would poison relations. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters Nov. 13 in Washington that the party will fight the president tooth and nail on this.

McConnell previously said there would be no government shut down, and Obama said today he took McConnell at his word.

To avoid a politically risky showdown, Republicans in the House are considering pushing the immigration fight with Obama into early next year by attaching language to a stop-gap funding bill that would keep the government open past Dec. 11.

Under the option, Congress could block funding for agencies involved in immigration, such as the Department of Homeland Security, so that a presidential veto would lead to a shutdown of only the agencies covered in the bill. The tactic means the final decision about immigration spending in the current fiscal year would fall to the next Congress, with Republicans in control of both chambers.

Obama said he is primarily concerned with calibrating the executive order in the proper way, not how Republicans will react. The executive action will require adjustments to how the Homeland Security Department operates and where it deploys resources, Obama said.

I want to make sure weve crossed all our Ts and dotted all of our Is, Obama said. He said the Justice Department has ruled that his action would be on firm legal footing.

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Obama: No Reason for Government Shutdown on Immigration

No matter how many times President Barack Obama insists the U.S. is committed to being a Pacific power, the skeptics remain unconvinced.

Yesterday, he tried again, saying the U.S. has an ironclad commitment to its allies and that American leadership in the Asia-Pacific will always be a fundamental focus of my foreign policy.

With little more than 26 months left in his presidency, that reassurance may offer Americas allies scant comfort. To cement the Asian rebalancing that he ordered three years ago, the president stressed the long-term nature of the U.S. role in the Pacific.

Generations of Americans have served and died in the Asia-Pacific so that the people of the region might live free, Obama said in a speech at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. So no one should ever question our resolve or our commitment to our allies.

Nearly 80,000 American GIs were stationed in Brisbane at the peak of World War II, one sign that the U.S. Pacific role is anchored in history. And the president made his remarks on a university campus to a crowd of about 1,500, including many students who will live in a world shaped by current U.S. policy.

If similar presidential vows had been heard before, this time the president added an appeal tailored to the young. Obama underscored the need for action on climate change, saying the region -- including its low-lying island states -- are among the most vulnerable to the effects of a warming planet.

Fighting climate change cannot be the work of government alone, Obama said, adding that citizens, especially the next generation need to make their voices heard to avoid seeing Australia ravaged by more frequent droughts and wildfires.

The presidents climate remarks were striking, too, since Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the host of the Group of 20 summit Obama is attending, has expressed skepticism about scientific findings on the subject. The presidents call for young Australians to act drew repeated, sustained applause.

It was as much a speech to peoples, as it was to nations, an acknowledgment that states do not alone solve our global problems such as on carbon emissions, said Elvin Lim, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. In doing this, Obama was playing the long game of winning hearts and minds.

That has been part of the administrations strategy for some time. In April, the White House scheduled a presidential speech at the University of Malaysia during a brief visit to the country, the first trip by an American president to Malaysia since Lyndon Johnson in 1966 during the Vietnam War.

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Obama Plays Long Game in Building Asia-Pacific Influence

Special Assistant Medeiros Previews President Obama #39;s Trip to East Asia and the Pacific Region
Evan Medeiros, Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council (NSC) Senior Director for Asian Affairs, previews President Obama #39;s upcoming travel to East Asia and the Pacific...

By: U.S. Department of State

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Special Assistant Medeiros Previews President Obama's Trip to East Asia and the Pacific Region - Video

Obama Hails Burma Transition to Democracy
Obama Hails Burma Transition to Democracy -------------------------Link--------------------------- subscribe channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=TheUSnewsdaily google...

By: USnewsdaily

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Obama Hails Burma Transition to Democracy - Video