The president gave a populist you-can-have-it-all speech with only a throwaway line about his willingness to tweak Medicare and Medicaid.

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So was his playing down of the Taliban threat a foolish throwaway line, which reflected the brigadier's personal view rather than the consensus among the British military?

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It was not much more than a throwaway line in the midst of the expansive government-led agenda which President Obama laid out in his fourth State of the Union address.

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