— Adolph
Hitler, Mein Kampf, Chapter 6.
Controlling the message.
This administration has seemingly adopted the Joseph Goebbels' (the infamous Nazi Minister of Propaganda under
Adolph Hitler) strategy that history has labeled 'the big lie.' Hitler was a master of manipulating
large numbers of people. He intuitively understood that if you simply tell a lie, people who know (or
find out) the truth will easily reject it. But if you tell a huge, enormous lie that is blatantly false,
and repeat it over and over, people eventually will question their own ability to properly process the
information, and they will come to believe it.
The Obama Administration — No
Class, Bad Character. In short, the Obama administration falsely claimed that the Bush administration
had done no planning or analysis regarding the worsening situation in Afghanistan, even though it (1) knew
this was false, (2) had asked the Bush administration not to disclose its work, and (3) relied
in part on the same work it claimed the Bush administration had not performed.
Death, Taxes and
Two Trillion Lies. President Obama promised not to raise taxes on people earning less than
$200,000 per year and vowed not to increase the national debt "by one nickel." He promised that his
nearly-trillion-dollar stimulus plan would keep the unemployment rate below 8%. (Last month, our
unemployment rate was 9.8%, the highest it's been in 26 years.) In January 2008, then-candidate
Obama promised not to negotiate behind closed doors with health care lobbyists. ... After his election,
President Obama said, "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency."
What Obama and the Media Aren't Telling You about Taxes.
Even if Barack Obama does adhere to his income tax plan, his promise that he won't raise taxes on the common man
is still a lie. A continual theme of the Barack Obama campaign has been his vow that no one making less
than $250,000 a year would get a tax increase. Now he has provided more details, pointing out that to
qualify for a tax cut you must earn less than $200,000. Then, on Tuesday, Joe Biden said during an
interview that tax breaks should go to "people who make $150,000 a year." My, my, when Obama said he
was the candidate of change, he never mentioned that it applied to figures and campaign promises.
A pay-to-play White House.
Finally, it is clear what President Obama meant when he said this would be the most "transparent administration
in history." He wasn't saying that his White House would be open and accountable; he was saying that his
administration didn't feel much need to come up with plausible lies, they'd be fine using the transparent kind.
General disingenuousness
We know more about the Obama's marriage than we do about healthcare.
False
transparency: I've given up hope of ever finding out what young Barack actually did at Occidental and
Columbia or even reading a snippet of what he wrote, if anything, for the Harvard Law Review. ... I'm not really
interested in Obama as a man (or as a husband). I'm interested in what he does. And most of that, of late,
he has done in secret. We know more about his marriage than about how the healthcare legislation was
drafted or how its contents are being negotiated.
Stop the
'jobless recovery' madness! It's time to stop glorifying our economic doldrums with this
"jobless recovery" nonsense. ... So far there is no sign of an employment turnaround — and
without one, and soon, all the other gains could prove fleeting.
$230,000
per job. The administration will report this week that roughly 650,000 jobs have been created or
saved on spending of $160 billion. [But] The Associated Press checked the administration's initial
jobs claims and found numerous exaggerations, duplicate counts and outright misstatements. Even using
the administration's more generous projection, it's still $160,000 spent for every job created or saved.
Stimulus
saves nine out of every five jobs. I've always believed that President Obama will take credit
for saving 2 million jobs as long as there are 2 million jobs left in the United States. But
his jobs report apparently goes beyong this, the Associated Press reports, taking credit for saving jobs
that really don't exist.
Lies,
damned lies and stimulus jobs. "If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your
job," HHS spokesman Luis Rosero said. Save a portion of a job? That doesn't make sense on any
level. How can they justify plundering stimulus funds to preserve already existing government jobs?
To do that and claim it's evidence that of the stimulus' success at "creating or saving" jobs is simply deceitful.
More
about the so-called stimulus.
Painting a
street green hasn't stimulated one new job. In Baltimore, the 300 block of
East 23½ Street is getting patched up in time for winter. One economic stimulus program
is paying to insulate 11 rental rowhouses, another is paying for furnaces and a third is covering the
cost for reflective roofs to be installed by prison inmates in a job-training program. The block is
part of one of the biggest initiatives ever undertaken by the federal government, a nationwide push to
improve the energy efficiency of buildings. But ... the work on East 23½ — even with
all of its activity — has so far not produced a single job.
Obama's Dover Device. Astonishing
though it may be, there are Americans who actually believe that Barack Obama's vist to Dover was an authentic
expression of concern for our troops and empathy for their loved ones. Of all the Obama fabrications,
this has to be one of the more preposterous. The Narcissist in Chief was not showing empathy because
he doesn't have any.
Obama Similes. Obama
is like Oprah. Much like the media queen, Obama can change vernacular faster than you can say
"ebonics." ... He can simultaneously exist in the world of down home commoners and international elites.
For a guy raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, and educated at Columbia and Harvard, we can see through it,
though. ... I'll never understand the need for vernacular shifts, and many could argue that President
Bush's twang became more evident when speaking to particular audiences. But when Bush's voice
slipped to Southern, it was to his natural dialect; Obama's shift is purely for show.
Obama
is Overreaching. So there is President Barack Obama, giving a speech to a bunch of Democrats, and
he is saying "y'all" do this and "y'all" should consider that, and pretty soon I am asking myself, how did he
become habituated to saying "y'all?" In his youth in Indonesia and Hawaii? From his Kansas
grandparents? At Harvard Law School?
Jobs Created or Saved' Is White House
Fantasy. When the government distributes lucre or loot, people spend it. If your interest is national
income accounting, spending other people's money is great. Spending is a back-door way for government
statisticians to measure what matters, which is the real output of goods and services. But the government
has no money of its own to spend; only what it borrows or confiscates from us via taxation.
GOP on health
care: In 568 words, what's wrong with 1,990 pages. Texas Republicans on Friday [10/30/2009]
ridiculed claims by the White House that President Obama's stimulus package had created or saved exactly
19,571 jobs in Texas — and 640,329 jobs nationwide. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio.
Citing recent Labor Department figures, said the Obama administration promised the stimulus would create
269,000 jobs in Texas "but we lost 225,300."
The Recoveryless Recovery.
The [National Bureau of Economic Research]'s Business Cycle Dating Committee is the "official" caller of
recessions. It looks for peaks and troughs in economic indicators. ... It might just be coincidence that
of the seven members on the NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee, one is the husband of Christina Romer, the
Chair of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors. Mrs. Romer herself was a member of the NBER's
board, along with her husband, until just after Obama's election.
Our Lowered Economic
Expectations. The stock market reaches an old milestone and the unemployment rate is below
10%. In Obama's America, that's worthy of celebration.
The
three envelopes. Is there anything he hasn't blamed George W. Bush for? The economy,
global warming, the credit crisis, Middle East stalemate, the deficit, anti-Americanism abroad —
everything but swine flu. It's as if Obama's presidency hasn't really started. He's still taking
inventory of the Bush years.
NY jobs don't add
up. [Scroll down] The spokesman could not immediately give a breakdown of what the new
jobs entailed. But a memo issued by Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler suggested the number of stable new jobs
was under 300. The memo had a footnote explaining that the city used a formula required by the feds to
count 2,882 "full-time-equivalent" as created jobs. That number was based on 19,518 youths who took part
in a summer employment program, Skyler said.
Obama's Health Care Rot, Calls For A Massive
Boycott. It's an old propaganda gimmick. If the rhetoric heats up against a government
initiative, they change the name and re-package it. They have been doing it for 100 years or
more. Remember man-caused global warming? Now it's climate change which obviously leads to
mandatory Cap and Trade legislation.
Record Time to Nowhere. It's
all a lot like his economic stimulus, which somehow never seems to dent the unemployment rate. On the
contrary, joblessness continues to grow in tandem with the deficit. But who cares? This president is
articulate even if he doesn't actually say anything, a great leader even if he isn't actually leading. It's
the talk that counts, don't you see?
Welcome to the
P.T. Barnum Administration. Now the latest is health care. [Obama] and the Hill Democrats are
pushing through health care reform bills based on numbers that are virtually meaningless. ... The cost estimates
for health care reform aren't worth the paper they are printed on.
Understanding
all the facts about the uninsured. To support his sweeping makeover, Obama and
other liberal Democrats repeatedly point to the 46.3 million uninsured Americans. ... A
careful examination of the data, however, reveals that Obama and his allies are misrepresenting
the problem of the uninsured. Democratic plans would not come close to driving the number
of uninsured to zero. At best, about only 29 million would be covered.
Welcome to the World
of Newspeak. [Scroll down] Newspeak usage also crops up in legislation with titles that
are the exact opposite of a bill's intent. With ever-shortening American attention spans and media's
increasing focus on entertainment news, Newspeak is not simply a fictional danger but a real threat to the
practice of democracy in America. Some recent examples include: "The Respect for Marriage Act,"
"The Employee Free Choice Act," "Internet Freedom Preservation Act," "American Clean Energy and Security Act"
and "America's Healthy Future Act." A quick examination of each reveals Newspeak at work.
Harry Reid's disingenuousness
on health care reform. The Senate Majority Leader is pulling out all the stops to get health care reform
passed. And the way he is trying to do it is just plain dishonesty.
You Mislead!
It is a good thing that other congressmen did not follow Rep. Joe Wilson's lead. If they yelled out every time
President Obama said something untrue about health care, they would quickly find themselves growing hoarse.
Excuses wearing thin for Obama,
media pals. [Scroll down] Just a few months ago, the Obama camp ... was under criticism for
the $787 billion stimulus package it bulldozed through Congress on grounds that massive spending was needed
to keep the unemployment rate from breaching 8 percent. When joblessness hit 9.5 percent in June, Vice
President Joe Biden said, "We misread how bad the economy was." They inherited the worst economy since the
Great Depression, or the economy turned out to be worse than they thought. Which is it? It can't be
both — unless your brain is completely addled by the Obama charisma.
Unmasking Obama. It is now
abundantly clear that the image of Barack Obama sold to the American electorate was tightly edited, air-brushed, and
exaggerated. He has worn a series of masks — eloquent orator, brilliant scholar, centrist, and
literary sensation. All of these masks are coming off as he copes with a job for which image will not suffice.
By hook or crook...
House Approves
Hate-Crimes Measure as Part of Defense Funding. Legislation to punish hate crimes became a flashpoint on
Capitol Hill on Thursday [10/8/2009], as a measure expanding the definition of such crimes was attached to the bill
outlining the Defense Department budget and approved by the House over the strong objections of Republicans.
The monster behind the mask.
Once the bill has been signed (make no mistake, the mask will stop at nothing to accomplish this), then the
mask — the façade of comfort and compassion — can be removed, for then it will be too late to
push the monster back into the dark cave from whence it came. This Halloween, Americans will be treated to the most
sinister — the most evil of all conceptual monsters: A monster of lies and deceit.
Obama's Theorems.
Part of the problem with the president's agenda is that it is predicated on a number of radical ideas that are asserted,
rather than proven. His experts and the elites assure us of a reality that most people in their own more mundane lives
have not found to be true. In short, they may find Obama personally engaging, but they no longer believe what he says.
New Survey on Islam Calls Into Question Population
Figure Used by Obama. A comprehensive new survey of the world's Muslim population finds that
nearly one in four people on the planet is an adherent of Islam, but the number of Muslims it gives for the
United States is significantly smaller than those routinely cited by Islamic organizations — and
used by President Obama in his Cairo speech last June.
What Is
Yosi Sergant? Here's how Obama-era "transparency" works in practice: A government agency
is caught in a scandal. The chairman of the agency issues a statement blaming the scandal on an unnamed
"employee," who, the chairman asserts, "has been relieved of his duties." The statement omits the fact
that the offending employee still works for the same agency, in the same office, as he did before. When
a journalist inquires about this, he is told by a colleague in that very same office — the
communications office! — that she knows nothing about his new assignment. It's hard to
imagine government being more evasive and opaque.
The article above refers
to this scandal.
Obama's Speech: Did It Help Him?
From a policy standpoint, there was nothing new in President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress
tonight [9/9/2009]. It can only be assessed, therefore, in political terms. Here are some excerpts
from the speech that I thought were noteworthy: "
Instead of honest debate, we have seen scare
tactics." Then, a few minutes later: "
Everyone in this room knows what will happen if we
do nothing. Our deficit will grow. More families will go bankrupt. More businesses will
close. More Americans will lose their coverage when they are sick and need it most. And more will
die as a result." By far the biggest scaremonger on this issue has been Obama himself.
There's No Free Health
Care. Give President Obama credit for persistence. And stubbornness. And lack of
imagination. He declared again last week that his health care plan "will slow the growth of health care
costs for our families and our businesses and our government." ... Does he think we're stupid? ... When you offer
more — much, much more in this case — of a good, it's going to cost more. Somebody
has to pay for it. Yet Obama says we'll all be paying less, and that includes businesses and government.
Obama uses fear to sell
health care. President Obama has begun a new phase of his effort to overhaul the nation's health care
system by trying to gird Americans for the perils that await them if his effort fails. In recent speeches,
including his weekly radio address Saturday, the president has begun using stark language to warn Americans that
failure to act on his proposed health care reform could lead more families into bankruptcy and could leave them
stranded when they get sick.
No, Mr. President. In
his
60 Minutes interview to be aired tonight [9/13/2009], President Obama apparently says, "I intend to be president for a while
and once this bill passes, I own it....I'm the one who's going to be held responsible. So I have every incentive to
get this right." No, Mr. President. It's not about you. If legislation passes, you don't own it.
We all own it. Any health care bill will become part of the U.S. Code, not simply an item on the Obama White House
web site. We will all feel its effects. We are all responsible for the future of our country. Here the
people rule.
Obama Won't Give Federal Insurance Benefits to Illegal Aliens,
He'll Make Them Legal First. It is true that both the House and Senate health care bills as they are now
drafted would make illegal aliens ineligible for federally funded health care. But President Obama has stated as
recently as last month at a press conference in Mexico that he will seek "comprehensive immigration reform" legislation
that will put illegal aliens on a "pathway to citizenship."
Distortions — or Truths? Does the House bill
fund abortions? No. However, while the House Energy and Commerce Committee at first voted to exclude abortions
from "essential" services, to the howls of NOW, Chairman Henry Waxman conducted a second vote, to drop the anti-abortion
amendment. That vote carried. In short, funding for abortions remains an open question. ... Obama is a
pro-abortion absolutist. And if abortion-funding is not in the final health care bill, does anyone doubt that
Democrats will move swiftly to incorporate it in future legislation?
Kill
Grandma or Terrorists Win. Remember when George W. Bush was pushing his plan for partial
privatization of Social Security, and he warned that if Congress didn't pass it, it would weaken his
presidency, with dire results for the war on terror? Neither do we. He never said any such
thing. As best we remember, no one thought to make such a ludicrous argument. Add that to the
list of things that have changed in the age of Obama.
Obama Bill For Illegals
Healthcare. You would never know if from the protestations in his speech last night and in other venues, but
way back in May of 2006 US Senator Barack Obama co-sponsored a bill to federally fund healthcare for illegal aliens.
An American Socrates and Other Myths.
It is not enough for Obama to repeat his false claims, day after day, speech after speech. No, he must also
portray himself as America's Socrates, our voice of reason amidst the angry mob, an intrepid truth teller, a singularly
unifying and visionary figure, and a man astonishingly free from the ideological baggage that defines his critics.
He views himself as the adult in a world of children. This is all quite silly. Obama is, in almost every
respect, the opposite of what he portrays himself to be. He is a divisive, polarizing figure, among the most
divisive and polarizing we have ever seen.
Obama as the Wizard of Oz.
Even as
Science magazine is hastily backing off on the media fraud of "global warming," Obama's Medi-Scare Campaign
is using precisely the same fear tactics perfected by climate fraud peddlers to take over American medical care. ... But
neither climate fraud nor Medi-Scare do anything to fix the dire "emergency" they are trying to scare us about.
There is no emergency: There is no global warming doom coming up, and there no crisis in American medicine.
War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.
Obama
and the Permanent Campaign. The administration's rhetorical tricks extend to issues beyond health
care. The economy continues shedding jobs, yet the administration keeps saying the president's policies save
jobs. ... What Team Obama says not only runs counter to the experience of ordinary Americans, it's causing many to
conclude that their White House is misleading them.
One of several T-shirts and bumper stickers
at
Cafe Press.
Liberal Lies About National Health Care.
[Scroll down] Apparently, promising to cut costs by having a panel of Washington bureaucrats (for short,
"The Death Panel") deny medical treatment wasn't a popular idea with most Americans. So liberals started
claiming that they are going to cover an additional 47 million uninsured Americans and cut costs ... without
ever denying a single medical treatment! Also on the agenda is a delicious all-you-can-eat chocolate cake
that will actually help you lose weight!
Reclaiming Popular Sovereignty: The
deceptions and contradictions are astounding. [Obama's] premises for policy change are consistently
duplicitous. He's embarked on a course to deliberately bankrupt the nation; he is at war with
mainstream American values; he is undermining our national security during wartime (prosecuting our
protectors — and otherwise); and he's pursuing unprecedented government control of the private
sector. Just look at his handling of Obamacare. His stated goals aren't arguably fraudulent, but
verifiably so.
ACES Up Her Sleeve. Well before
Barack Obama brought hope to the White House, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi was adamant that something new and different and
wonderful had arrived. In 2006, the incoming Speaker pledged that hers would be the "most honest, most open, and most
ethical Congress in history." At the time, we were skeptical — to say the least. Our refusal to accept
her rhetoric was roundly vindicated last week. That was when Madam-Speaker used every dirty trick at her
disposal to coldly ram a 1,500 page global warming bill through the House of Representatives.
Relentless Cuts Net 0.0025% In Savings.
The administration has fulfilled a promise to cut spending by trimming $100 million from the 2009 budget. That's
right — $100 million with an "m," an imponderably small slice of this year's expenditures.
Preparing
for War: Boning Up on the Left's Health Care Myths. [President Obama] enjoys
saying — incorrectly — Americans pay $6,000 more per year on health care than people
of other advanced nations for no better care. The statement is abominably false. Just
as Obama is manipulating the cost and benefit numbers to enlist popular and Blue Dog support for
his socialized medicine conspiracy, he distorts statistics to make the specious claim that our
health care system isn't far superior to all others.
Some of the Democrat's Healthcare Lies
Discussed. For example, the new government run plan will supposedly "compete" with private
companies; however, the bill exposes employers operating group health plans to state law remedies and
private causes of action, but the government run plan can only be sued in federal court.
Obamacare
is losing support for good reason. During a town hall meeting by telephone this week, U.S. Rep. Paul
Hodes discussed his support for a trillion-plus dollar health care reform package with his constituents. "We've
got to lower costs for everybody," he said. Who does he think he's kidding? If we "lower costs for everybody,"
where exactly is the trillion dollars going to come from?
No, you won't be able to keep your insurance if you like it.
Dissecting the Kennedy Health Bill:
Last September Sen. Barack Obama promised that under his health-care proposal "you'll be able to get the same
kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves." On Monday [6/15/2009], President Obama repeated
that promise in a speech to the American Medical Association. It's not true.
Obama's
Top Five Health Care Lies: President Barack Obama walked into the Oval Office with a veritable
halo over his head. In the eyes of his backers, he could say or do no wrong because he had evidently
descended directly from heaven to return celestial order to our fallen world. ... But when it comes to health
care reform, with every passing day, Obama seems less God and more demagogue, uttering not transcendental
truths, but bald-faced lies. Here are the top five lies that His Awesomeness has told — the
first two for no reason other than to get elected and the next three to sell socialized medicine to a
wary nation.
Insurance Is No Answer.
Health care "reformers" keep talking about getting us more health insurance. Then they talk about cutting
costs. This is contradictory nonsense. Insurance, whether private or a government Ponzi scheme like
Medicare, means third parties pay the bills. When someone else pays, costs always go up.
Destroying Jobs in Order to Save Them.
President Barack Obama is very insistent on the need to "save American jobs." ... But instead of saving
American jobs, Obama's new corporate tax is apt to worsen what is already the highest unemployment since 1983
and make America's companies even less competitive in the global marketplace.
White House 'Reality Check' Web Site Claims.
A new Web site launched Monday [8/10/2009] by the Obama administration to rebut alleged disinformation about the
administration's efforts to reform the health care system claims that reform "would not add one penny to the
deficit" — despite the fact that the two health care reform bills that have been analyzed by the
Congressional Budget Office are predicted by the CBO to increase the national debt by $239 billion and
$1.042 trillion respectively. The administration, meanwhile, has not produced any health-care reform
legislation that has been independently determined to be deficit-neutral.
Let's Go With That
Analogy. President Obama recently drew an analogy between the proposed, government funded,
health care option and the United States Postal Service. He reasoned: a government funded postal
service hasn't put private parcel carriers out of business; therefore a government funded insurer will not put
private insurers out of business. His logic is sound and his facts are truthful, but only in a very
technical sense.
Something "fishy" when Obama's Organizing for America
plays doctor. [Scroll down] Behind the public stage is the staging of Obamacare that really matters.
It's called Organizing for America (OFA), and its main hallmark is deceit. In their own words, this is how OFA is
fighting "insurance companies" and "partisan attack groups" they accuse of "stirring up fear with false rumors about the
President's plan". "
So we've cooked up an easy, powerful way for you to make a big impression: Office
Visits for Health Reform." That's right. The OFA comes right out an admits to their activists that their Office
Visits for Health Reform are "
cooked up".
Health rationing by other
names. When Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a key presidential health care adviser, told The Washington Times on
Thursday [8/13/2009] that his "thinking has evolved" on the subject of health care rationing, he was making a distinction
without a difference. Even his "evolved" ideas amount to nothing more than government rationing by another name.
Obama's punctured
gravitas: Barack Obama's political glass jaw is the illusion of gravitas that was successfully
sold to enough Americans to get him elected. His stentorian deep voice persuades many, never mind the
pablum of vague clichés he dishes out. Rush Limbaugh brilliant punctures the illusion by speeding
up the tape and raising Obama's register when he plays excerpts of the president speaking. Minus the deep
voice, with an altered rhythm no longer hypnotically caressing the listener, the banality of the actual words
becomes clear.
Obama's Health
Care Mess. Health care is stalled and insidiously undermining the presidency of Obama precisely
because the public senses he has not leveled with the American people. Of the uninsured, how many millions
are young people who feel no need right now to buy insurance, how many million are illegal aliens, how many
millions chose to use their optional income for things other than a low-cost catastrophic health plan, how
many millions still find care outside the insurance system? Nor do most Americans feel their system
is broken.
Make way for Obama the Bogeyman.
The World Health Organization (WHO) — helping the Obama administration stir the pot on panicking
the public into believing a deadly viral pandemic is headed our way this Fall — is getting a big
leg up from the Discovery Channel. It's been a summer of Internet warnings "the pandemic is coming", and
now the Discovery Channel will telecast the definitive Viral Pandemic Survival Show. News of the coming
scare show is available courtesy of Kurt Nimmo at Infowars, those folk challenged by mainstream media as
"conspiracy theory advocates".
That sounds to me
like an example of Low-level environmental terrorism.
Some economists warn Barack Obama's economic
predictions too optimistic. President Barack Obama's economic forecasts for long-term growth are
too optimistic, many economists warn, a miscalculation that would mean budget deficits will be much higher
than the administration is now acknowledging. The White House will be forced to confront the disconnect
between its original, upbeat predictions and the mainstream consensus about how the economy is likely to
perform in a new budget forecast to be unveiled next month.
Cap and Trade; a Solution to a Non-existent
Problem with Devastating Consequences. D.H. Lawrence said, "
Never trust the teller. Trust
the tale." But what happens if the tale is wrong? What happens if the teller knows or should
know the tale is wrong? The key word is trust. A relationship must have trust. A society can
only exist with trust. Political leaders can only succeed with trust. Trust cannot exist when an
unnecessary end is reached by false means, which is happening with the US climate and energy policies.
Did
someone mention Cap and Trade?
The U.S. Government's
Climate Con-job. Suppose a company doctored data, misrepresented study findings, replaced observations
with computer simulations and hired PR flacks to promote its new "wonder drug." News stories, congressional
hearings and subpoenas would be in overdrive. Fines and jail sentences would follow. And rightly
so. But the standards change when "climate catastrophe" is involved.
Overheated White House
Environmental Campaigns. [President Obama] has said on global warming, "The science is beyond
dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We've seen
record drought, spreading famine and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season."
Fortunately for the world, not a single one of those claims is accurate.
Obama Revisionism.
During his 4th of July message to the United States, Barack Obama engaged in another round of historical revisionism.
Many have probably not heard the speech ... but the message Obama attempted to sell was a clear distortion of the founding
principles of the United States. Uneducated or undereducated Americans, the products of liberal, politically correct
"instruction" in most public schools, probably would not be able to challenge his slick, deceitful incorporation of the
founding generation into a speech about big government.
Obama Falsely Claims There Are 47 Million
Uninsured Americans. President Obama's inflated claim of the number of uninsured Americans was not
an off-the-cuff remark. It came in the prepared text at the beginning of the president's press conference
[7/22/2009] that should have been checked and vetted by White House staff. The president cited no source
for his claim that there are 47 million uninsured Americans. Since the White House first falsely claimed
in June that there were 46 million uninsured Americans, CNSNews.com has reported on the correct Census Bureau
figure [35.92 million uninsured Americans] on multiple occasions.
Obama's Health Care Fibs.
President Barack Obama has been busy attempting to sell his government takeover of the health care citizen.
In doing so, he contines to be, shall we say, a bit lax with the facts.
Did
someone mention socialized medicine?
Dem. Shill as 'Attendee' in Obama's Healthcare Townhall
Audience. One of Obama's first questions from the audience wasn't from a mere concerned citizen, but from a
former Democratic Party candidate for Congress that wants a socialist, single payer system to be implemented, raising the
suspicion that the administration knew exactly who was going to ask questions and what they were going to ask.
Still Decoding Obama.
I recently devoted a piece to trying to decode President Obama. In reading more of his comments, I've
noticed a tendency that now almost qualifies as a reflex: the more strongly the president denies
something — and especially, the more he mocks his critics and feigns amusement at what they
say — the greater the odds are that he will do what he denies.
Who's
Funding the Obamacare Campaign? If you believe the White House, there are 30 million
Americans who support a government health care takeover. But if you look at the funding behind the
Obamacare campaign, it's the same few leftist billionaires, union bosses and partisan community organizers
pushing the socialized medicine agenda. Let's connect the dots.
Myths,
Lies and Stupidity About Health Care: President Barack Obama's health care plan, we are told,
will spend $1 trillion over the next 10 years. But since trillion is the new billion, Americans
aren't supposed to worry about that. Obama's health care plan will cause employers to stop providing
private health insurance for millions of employees and instead shift employees to public care. But Obama
says that government is the best arbiter of your health, so Americans aren't supposed to worry about that.
More
about socialized medicine.
Imagine what he thinks of
cigarettes. This gem just in from Tuesday's press conference: Obama: "At a time of
great fiscal challenges, this legislation [Waxman-Markey bill coming to the House floor Friday] is paid for
by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and
pollute the air we breathe."
The Editor says...
Even Obama's speech writers and teleprompter operators can't possibly believe that carbon dioxide
pollutes "the water we drink" and "the air we breathe." When you turn on your garden hose,
if carbonated water comes out of it, you'll have the greenest grass in town. Simply stated,
carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.
Understanding the Age
of Obama. Are you confused by all that has changed since President Barack Obama took office in
January? If so, you're not alone. ... Wanting to cut $17 billion from the budget, as President
Obama has promised, is proof of financial responsibility. Borrowing $1.84 trillion this year for
new programs is "stimulus." The old phrase "out-of-control spending" is inoperative.
Government Won't Allow
Fair Competition. Proponents of socialized medicine learned an important lesson from the 1993
failure of Clinton Care, and recognize that they must hide their agenda in the rhetoric of market competition.
Government is not going to take over insurance, they say; it merely wants to compete.
Obama: America
"One of the Largest Muslim Countries in the World". As we noted earlier, and as ABC now confirms, Obama's
speech in Cairo will focus on his Muslim roots and the unique perspective it provides him. Obama also teased the
contents of the speech in an interview with a French television station: "...Now, the flip side is I think that the
United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points
I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim
countries in the world."
Obama's
Muslim comment sparks debate. President Obama's assertion that the United States is one of the world's
biggest Muslim countries has sparked debate about the comment's accuracy and how far the president will extend himself
to the Muslim world. "If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim
countries in the world," the president told French television station Canal Plus on Monday [6/1/2009], the eve of
his five-day, overseas trip with stops in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The Not So Golden Mean.
The best way to view President Obama's speech in Cairo is to understand the way Obama views himself and the
rhetorical devices he employs. In this case, the key to unlocking Obama's speech may be Aristotle's golden
mean, the search for a mid-point between extremes. Obama's rhetorical template is an increasingly familiar
one: he gives voice to one side of a dispute and then the other.
Sorry Barack, but there were no Muslims on the
Mayflower. Speaking at the University of Cairo, President Barack Hussein Obama said that
Americans are indebted to Islam for the great contributions Muslims have made to the history and development
of the United States. "I know that Islam has always been a part of America's story," Mr. Obama told the
throng of unenlightened Muslims.
More
about Obama's speech in Cairo, June 4, 2009.
Obama pretends to be frugal as we sink deeper in
debt. Remember President Obama's New Era of Responsibility? It got off to an inauspicious
start, with a $787 billion economic stimulus package, a $410 billion appropriations bill, and a
record $1.8 trillion budget deficit. But now Obama wants to signal that he's getting serious
about cutting the federal budget. Unfortunately, his plan hinges on the assumption that Americans
do not know how to calculate percentages.
Biden Claims Stimulus Spending
Has Created 150,000 Jobs. Vice President Joe Biden last week claimed that the federal stimulus
spending program has created or saved 150,000 jobs since February, when President Barack Obama signed the
stimulus bill into law. ... However, the basis for his claim is elusive at best.
Relief is too
slow. President Obama's claim that his economic stimulus plan has "saved or created" 150,000 jobs
is all but meaningless, given a 9.4 percent unemployment rate. Nobody can measure plausibly a "saved"
job. ... But Democrats are touting the phony concept of "saved" jobs because they know it's impossible to
disprove, too. It's a lame attempt to spin criticism that the federal recession-fighting plan isn't
fighting the recession very effectively so far.
Untangling the Spaghetti. A couple
of years back, I happened to catch an intriguing headline up north. "The Canadian economy is picking up
steam," reported the CBC. Statistics Canada had just announced that "the economy added 56,100 new jobs,
two-thirds of them full time." ... But I was interested to know just what sectors these jobs had been created
in. And, upon investigation, it emerged that, of those 56,100 new jobs, 4,200 were self-employed, 8,900
were in private businesses, and the remaining 43,000 were on the public payroll. "The economy" hadn't
added those jobs; the government had: that's why they call it "creating" jobs.
Healthcare
Crusaders Out To Plunder System. The number of uninsured people is grossly misleading.
Just because you are uninsured doesn't mean you have no access to medical care. And just because you are
insured under universal systems doesn't mean you will receive care. If you don't think the administration
is parlaying the crisis angle, then you must have missed the feigned urgency in Obama's declarations that
"reform" must be completed this year.
The Mystery of the $2 Trillion
in Health Care Savings. Kathy Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, just held a
conference call with reporters in which I hoped to learn more details about how the health care industry
plans to save $2 trillion in projected health care costs over ten years. ... But when it came time for
questions, she could offer little in the way of details about the so-called savings.
Mission Accomplished?
Eight years after war was declared on the US and the most heinous attack on the USA was launched on American soil,
the war has been won (according to President Obama). Done. Over. Does not exist. No
need to call it the war on terror, so says Obama. Now it is merely an "overseas contingency operation".
The Politics of Stupidity: Crazy Word Games from Team
Obama. It looks like the "intelligence" in the Obama administration isn't too intellectual.
Instead of using the word "terrorism" to describe things such as the terrorist attack on 9/11, Janet Napolitano,
head of Obama's Department of Homeland Security, says we're now supposed to use the words "man-caused disasters."
That sounds like a wreck at the Indy 500. ... That change to nicer wording puts Mohamed Atta, ringleader of the
9/11 hijackings and the suspected pilot of the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center, in the same
boat as those folks who shipped the contaminated peanut butter from that plant in Blakely, Ga. Both
produced "man-caused disasters."
The Half-Penny Solution.
President Obama unveiled a budget Thursday with a 2010 price tag of $3.5 trillion financed with
$1.2 trillion of new debt. For domestic agencies, that's a 9.3% spending hike over last year.
Mr. Obama and his advisers know the public won't accept gigantic governmental expansions without at least some
effort to pare the waste in Washington. So they scrubbed "line by line" through this historically huge
budget and identified $16.7 billion of budget savings. This is less than a penny, about 0.47 cents,
of savings out of every dollar Uncle Sam will spend this year.
Rephrasing
Obama's lexicon. In the debate over his top environmental goals, President Obama is backing away
from "cap and trade." Not the policy. It's the phrase itself, deemed confusing by Democratic
pollsters, that has all but disappeared from the president's vocabulary of late. Now when Obama talks
about forcing companies to bid at auction for the right to emit greenhouse gases, he is more apt to mention
"market-based" proposals and "clean energy jobs," hinting at a rich new employment source.
Obama At the Plate.
It's been clear for some time that Barack Obama knows every technique in the debater's handbook, and he must have used most
of them during the course of that first White House press conference: There was the dubious revisionist history rolled
out ever so casually, as if it were accepted fact (tax cuts don't work); the assumption that any fault lies not in us but
elsewhere ... The man can say the most unbelievable things in the most matter-of-fact way, for example, his claim that
there's "not a single pet project" in his stimulus bill.
We don't have a moment to spare, but evidently we
have $1 trillion. Last October, while campaigning in Toledo, Barack Obama called for "a new
ethic of responsibility." The nation's economic troubles, he said, occurred partly because "everyone
was living beyond their means," including politicians who "spent money they didn't have." In his
inaugural address last month, Obama regretted "our collective failure to make hard choices" and heralded "a
new era of responsibility." Now President Obama, as one of his first priorities, is pushing a gargantuan
"stimulus" plan that will add around $1 trillion to the national debt and cannot possibly work as
advertised. Welcome to the new era of responsibility.
The Bread and Circuses Presidency.
Call it the Bread and Circuses Presidency, or better yet the Bailouts and Reality TV Presidency. Forget
expecting results or ethics from the occupant of the White House. Just join an organization or a cause
and stick your hand out for your share of of misappropriated taxpayer money, and get ready to vote online for
which puppy the Obamas should adopt.
Obama
is a Great Pretender. To those who believe that Barack Obama is a different kind of politician —
more honest, more courageous — please don't examine his administration's budget. If you do,
you may sadly conclude that he resembles presidents stretching back to John Kennedy in one crucial respect.
He won't tax voters for all the government services they want. That's the main reason we've run budget
deficits in 43 of the past 48 years.
Michelle Obama serves food
to D.C. poor and homeless, but... First Lady Michelle Obama showed up Thursday as a surprise
and welcome volunteer at Miriam's Kitchen, a soup kitchen for homeless poor people not far from the White
House. She brought with her some food donated by White House staff. ... [But] If this unidentified meal
recipient is too poor to buy his own food, how does he afford a cellphone? And if he is homeless, where
do they send the cellphone bills?
Obama's
Diversionary Tactics: Stickers and Straw Men. From unveiling new emblems to attacking
Rush Limbaugh, Obama sure knows how to change the subject from a tanking economy.
Obama: Pro-Israel
talk, anti-Israel walk. Barely a month into the presidency of Barack Obama, a profound
realization is spreading among the pro-Israel community: we do not have an ally in the White
House. ... So how exactly did this get by most Jewish voters during last year's election?
Ostracized by Obama.
President Obama has used events such as community discussion groups and last week's summit to foster the
impression that he is soliciting opinions from all angles of the health care debate, but the reality is a
lot different. Obscured by the Administration's theatrics is the fact that it has kept at bay those
who advocate free-market solutions rather than government-run health care.
Who's
Obama Kidding? In 2007, the federal budget deficit was $162 billion (1.2% of gross domestic
product). For 2009, the budget deficit is projected to be 11 times larger: $1.752 trillion.
... Nonetheless, contrary to the spin of big-government types, these deficits are not just temporary.
In fact, the Obama administration uses every trick in the book to convert an understandable and potentially
temporary budget lapse this year into a structural lack of fiscal responsibility.
No More of Obama's Talk,
Tone, or Temperament. Another "means into end" abuse of Obama's lies with the word "bipartisan."
Obama has used the word to suggest he is uniquely blessed with the skills to bring people who otherwise would
find it difficult to "come together" to satisfying compromises. Without the approval of both sides,
obviously, a result would not be bipartisan. So "bipartisan" as used by Obama is suggestive of a skill
and process in which he is skilled. Yet "bipartisan" has developed into an end in itself. ... The
process of actively engaging Republicans and incorporating their positions has turned into an end signified
by simple physical participation in photo opportunities.
Tim Geithner's
Black Hole. Pity Barack Obama's economic advisers. The blogs are now demanding their
scalps, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and his colleagues face a nasty dilemma: There are no
solutions to the banking crisis without extraordinary political and financial risks. Thus, they have
adopted a three-pronged approach, delay, delay, delay, in the hope that somebody comes up with a breakthrough.
The President Politicizes Stem-Cell
Research. Yesterday President Barack Obama issued an executive order that authorizes expanded
federal funding for research using stem cells produced by destroying human embryos. The announcement
was classic Obama: advancing radical policies while seeming calm and moderate, and preaching the gospel
of civility while accusing those who disagree with the policies of being "divisive" and even "politicizing
science."
Obama's $80 Billion Exaggeration.
The basis for the president's proposal is a theoretical study published in 2005 by the RAND Corporation, funded
by companies including Hewlett-Packard and Xerox that stand to financially benefit from such an electronic
system. And, as the RAND policy analysts readily admit in their report, there was no compelling evidence
at the time to support their theoretical claims. Moreover, in the four years since the report,
considerable data have been obtained that undermine their claims. The RAND study and the Obama
proposal it spawned appear to be an elegant exercise in wishful thinking.
The Obama Rosetta Stone:
[Scroll down slowly] One of the first technical examinations of the Romer-Bernstein projections has
been released by Hoover Institution economists John Cogan and John Taylor, and German economists Tobias Cwik
and Volker Wieland. They conclude that the growth and jobs stimulus will be only one-sixth what the
administration predicts. In part, this is because people anticipate that the spending burst will have
to be financed by higher taxes and so will spend less than anticipated.
Obama has it both ways on pork.
President Barack Obama had it both ways Monday when he promoted his stimulus plan in Indiana. He bragged
about getting Congress to produce a package with no pork, yet boasted it will do good things for a Hoosier
highway and a downtown overpass, just the kind of local projects lawmakers lard into big spending bills.
Obama's sales pitch on the enormous package he wants Congress to make law has sizzle as well as steak.
He's projecting job creation numbers that may be impossible to verify and glossing over some ethical problems
that bedeviled his team.
The more things change. Barack Obama
is already finding things more complicated as commander-in-chief than when he only aspired to that
title. ... It was always easy, for instance, to fire up the fruitcake left by promising a quick withdrawal
from Iraq, but now, with responsibility for American security, which also means responsibility for security
in Iraq, rapid withdrawal suddenly becomes unfeasible.
Limbaugh Responds to
Obama. "If I can be made to serve as a distraction, then there is that much less time debating the merits
of the trillion dollar debacle. One more thing, Byron. Your publication and website have documented Obama's ties
to the teachings of Saul Alinksy while he was community organizing in Chicago. Here is Rule 13 of Alinksy's
Rules for Radicals: 'Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.'"
Obama
wields pen at historic pace. Looking to move quickly on his campaign promises, President Obama
has turned to the one tool that he has to ignore Congress and take unilateral action — he signed
eight executive orders in his first 11 days in office, making him by far the most activist new president
in modern history on that score.
Suddenly Obama has Muslim roots. During the U.S
presidential campaign, Barack Obama's handlers vigorously pointed out his Christian faith whenever the
misconception arose he may be Muslim (even though the politically correct response should have been his
religion doesn't matter). ... Once elected, however, he personally insisted on his middle name being spoken
at his swearing-in ceremony. And now — in a gesture to the Muslim world — he has
not only granted the first sit-down interview of his presidency to a pan-Arab television network, but uses the
occasion to gush about his Muslim ties.
Obama: A Profile in Cowardice.
Meet Barack Hussein Obama. The man who turned his own middle name into a no-go zone during the election,
only to bring it out of the closet when he trotted down to a Muslim country. The man whose associates
labeled talk about his Muslim background as racist, only to proclaim his Muslim background loudly and proudly
from the podium of a Muslim country. There's a word for a man like that. Coward.
Good Morning, Suckers.
Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats are playing the voters for fools with the so-called stimulus package.
The massive $825 billion package is not even targeted on programs to stimulate the economy. Instead,
it is laced with runaway government spending for increased welfare, overgrown bureaucracy, pork, political
payoffs, and other waste.
Did someone mention
the so-called stimulus bill?
Obama's
Collectivist Nationalism. Run-of-the-mill politicians try to hide their duplicity. Only
the most gifted of that profession brag that they intend to confound and confuse the public. Such an
effort is beyond ingenious; it is brazenly ingenuous. And it is working.
Four Safe Bets about Obama.
[Scroll down (obviously)] Second, we will hear more and more from Obama and his supporters about the severe difficulty
of the situation they face. The days of healing the planet and reversing the ocean tide are gone. Indeed, the
notion that we can expect any progress in 2009, we will be told, is utterly fanciful; just write it off. In fact, have
you noticed how everything seems harder now that Obama is president?
Obama's Administration of
Grand Gestures. In its first week the Obama administration revealed itself to be infatuated
with dramatic gestures and sweeping pronouncements: Guantanamo is going to be closed, enhanced
interrogation ended, Middle East peace re-established, Iraq to be "left" to the Iraqis, and bipartisanship
restored. But the reality is quite different, leaving open the question as to whether President Obama
really believes his own rhetoric or is slyly wielding symbolism to conceal the very familiar contours of his
not-so-groundbreaking policies.
Obama
runs into trouble with lobbying rules. President Obama's new lobbying rules that intended to close
the revolving door on lobbyists-turned-government officials have run into immediate complications. Obama
has granted some of his nominees waivers when it comes to their lobbyist past — an action that has
resulted in criticism from government watchdog groups.
The rules apply only when they are convenient.
Geithner names ex-lobbyist as
Treasury chief of staff. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner picked a former Goldman Sachs
lobbyist as a top aide Tuesday, the same day he announced rules aimed at reducing the role of lobbyists in
agency decisions. Mark Patterson will serve as Geithner's chief of staff at Treasury, which oversees the
government's $700 billion financial bailout program. Goldman Sachs received $10 billion of
that money.
Obama's Ethics Reform Promise
Faces Early Test. During almost two years on the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to slay the
demons of Washington, bar lobbyists from his administration and usher in what he would later call in his
Inaugural Address a "new era of responsibility." What he did not talk much about were the asterisks.
The exceptions that went unmentioned now include a pair of cabinet nominees who did not pay all of their taxes.
Then there is the lobbyist for a military contractor who is now slated to become the No. 2 official in the
Pentagon. And there are the others brought into government from the influence industry even if not
formally registered as lobbyists.
Obama's exec
orders have loopholes. President Obama's first moves earned him triumphant headlines:
"Obama Freezes Pay, Toughens Ethics and Lobbying Rules," and "Obama sets new course." But some of his
biggest accomplishments are twinned with the word "but": Lobbyists are banned, but exceptions can and
will be made; orders on ending torture and secret prisons contain loopholes and provisos. Call it the
fine print, an exception, a waiver, but there have been caveats to many of Mr. Obama's first actions.
The Editor says...
Loopholes, indeed. Sounds like
equivocation to me.
Watch out
Greens! Here Comes The Bus. Will Obama's environmental constituency get thrown under the
bus to make this pig of a stimulus bill fly? The only way large scale infrastructure projects will
stimulate in the near term is if all environmental regulations are bypassed and litigation resulting from
any construction collateral damage is squashed in advance.
Pentagon pick shows challenges of Obama's
ethics rules. The man President Obama nominated to become the No. 2 manager at the
Pentagon isn't the first person for that job to come from the defense industry. But Mr. Obama's own
executive order on ethics has now become a stumbling block as the White House seeks to push the former
lobbyist through confirmation.
Hope He Can Change.
[President Obama should] drop all the talk about the best, the most, the greatest ethical, moral, legal etc.
Just keep quiet and call in Senate leaders of both parties and show them the names of nominees and ask for
pre-hearing advice. I think Geithner cannot now stay: not when Obama confesses that Daschle had to
go to avoid two tax laws for elites and mass. But Geithner's sin was far worse, since he was the nominal
head of the IRS itself. He should step down, and Obama should likewise distance himself from Rangel.
Advice: Keep quiet and carry a big ethical stick.
Obama spokesman defends ethics
standards. Despite the tax problems faced by high-level nominees, and the exceptions made to
the no-lobbyists pledge, President Barack Obama's spokesman is defending the administration's ethical
standards. Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday [2/3/2009], "The bar that we set is the highest
that any administration in the country has ever set."
No Consensus on "Stimulus"
Bill. President Barack Obama has done more in the first three weeks of his presidency to validate the suspicions
of his critics than I thought possible. But of all his objectionable actions, nothing compares to his falsely labeled
"stimulus" bill, which he is trying to force upon us with fear and deception.
Obama's
Un-Nourishing Prayer Breakfast: No one wants to stir up controversy regarding an annual gathering meant
to unify religious believers, so it's understandable that press and pundits largely ignored President Obama's profoundly
peculiar remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5th. Nevertheless, his brief prepared talk (the
White House released a text of his comments before he spoke) February 5th in the nation's capital contained so many
provocations, contradictions and flat-footed misstatements that they deserve more serious attention than they've received.
Obama's Doomsday Scenario Doesn't Add
Up. In Elkhart, Ind., on Monday, President Obama spoke as if America were approaching a doomsday
that only a massive increase in government could avert. ... Do we really face the possibility of an irreversible
crisis? Well, yes. Not the one Obama describes, but the one he may cause.
Obama's Failed and Tired Ideas From the
Past. The entire U.S. GDP is roughly $14 trillion. The government currently spends roughly
$3.5 trillion of that. In his stimulus plan, Obama proposes effectively to borrow another $1 trillion from
the private economy to add to $1 trillion in still further government spending. How exactly is that supposed to
stimulate economic growth and recovery? Is America's economic growth and prosperity produced by increased government
spending, deficits, and debt? I don't think so. The American people don't either.
Our Clever President.
[Scroll down] Along with a fair amount of blarney, Joe Biden also makes more honest and candid observations in an
afternoon than many politicians make in a lifetime. One comes away from a conversation with Biden with at least one
truthful nugget. The same cannot be said for President Obama. Both Monday night and usually, the president
offers his audience one of the finest verisimilitudes of sincerity and manly vigor this side of an old Laurence Olivier
performance of "Henry V."
Reaganomics vs. Obamanomics: In his
inaugural address, President Barack Obama said, "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or
too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford,
a retirement that is dignified." ... Unfortunately, this rhetoric is not true. Mr. Obama's economic policy is
following not what has been proven to work but liberal ideology. The best way to understand this is to compare
what's being proposed now with what Ronald Reagan accomplished.
Doomsday scenario doesn't add
up. Do we really face the possibility of an irreversible crisis? Well, yes. Not the one Mr.Obama
describes, but the one he may cause. Forget, for a moment, the economic weathermen forecasting the economic
equivalent of global warming. Look instead at the historical data. Claims Mr. Obama, "We have inherited an
economic crisis as deep and as dire as any since the Great Depression." But the historical figures for the gross
domestic product (GDP), calculated by the U.S.Bureau Economic Analysis, say something else.
Failure To Launch. Even
before winning the election, [Obama] began assembling a much-vaunted "team of rivals" to guide U.S. foreign and domestic
policy. ... We were assured that the Obama administration would be ready on "day one." Apparently, that's not the case.
Fiscal
Stimulus Is a Ruse Absent Fed Pixie Dust. It's a jobs-creation program. No, it's
investment in our future. It's a tax-relief plan. Wait, it provides assistance to consumers
hardest hit by the economic recession. It's legislation to jump-start the economy. No, it's a
recovery program. It's a life raft for state and local governments. It's a spending bill.
Which is it? Fiscal stimulus is all things to all people. In other words, it represents the
triumph of faith over reason.
Dukes of Moral Hazard.
[Scroll down] In part to avoid putting an astronomical price tag on this plan, the Administration doesn't
necessarily fix loans for the long term. In fact, the program encourages mortgage servicers to keep the
payments low only for five years, after which rates will rise. During the housing bubble, these were
called "teaser" rates. ... What investors, businesses and working Americans want to hear is a President with
ideas to spur economic recovery. What they've been getting are plans for a long national Chapter 11
workout.
Bogus Bipartisanship.
A timely front page article in the February 4th Washington Post provided desperately needed insight into the most
misunderstood term in Washington today. Of course, I refer to the term "bipartisan." The media
demands it. The political pundits love it. It polls extremely well — almost as high as
"change." It is antithetical to its ugly twin — "partisan." ... So, what
does it
mean?
Picking
Winners and Losers by Executive Fiat. [Scroll down] Perhaps the most chilling aspect of this particularly
noxious stealth provision of the stimulus scheme is not what's in it, but how it — and other such free
market-destroying provisions — were rushed through under deliberate cover of darkness. McCaughey attributes
this strategy to Daschle, as well. A year ago, McCaughey tells us, Daschle warned that the next president should not
make the same mistake the Clintons made with Hillary Care, which was to allow debate. Daschle wrote: "If that
means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it. The issue is too important to be stalled by
Senate protocol." So much for "liberal" democracy. So much for transparency. So much for a new era of
hope and change.
Obama
administration lobbyist count increases. Washington lobbyist Christine Varney is poised to take her
third pass through the revolving door of lobbying and government with her nomination by President Barack Obama to
be his administration's top antitrust enforcer. Also, on Thursday, Obama nominated Derek
Douglas, a former lobbyist for the O'Melveny & Myers law firm and Center for American Progress, as special
assistant on urban affairs.
Obama's First Month:
Obama may not be eloquent, but he is glib and clever and at times persuasive. One of his favorite rhetorical devices
is setting up a straw man, then knocking it down. He invoked this classic ploy subtly in his inaugural address,
crudely in his press conference. "We will restore science to its rightful place," Obama said at his inauguration.
Really? Where had science been? "We are ready to lead once more," he said, as if we —
America — hadn't been. He may have disapproved of the prior administration's policies in the world, but that
doesn't mean it wasn't leading. Also in his inaugural speech, Obama said, "we can no longer afford indifference to
suffering outside our borders." When we were indifferent? Not in Obama's lifetime.
Orwell Knew. After a month in
complete control of the federal government, Democrats in Congress and the White House have quickly dispensed with any notion
that we have entered into a new post-partisan era of governance. Their campaign claims of wanting to govern inclusively
were greeted with optimism by the more gullible among us. However, their recent actions leave no doubt as to their
true intentions. They will push through whatever they want whenever they want. The minority party need not
participate.
'Absurd' Understates Obama
Plan. Many are in favor of the Obama Housing Plan that was announced on Wednesday, February 18, 2009.
It was touted as the first plan designed to help struggling homeowners who were unable to refinance because they owe more than
their homes are worth. ... The plan isn't all it's cracked up to be. There are several issues on both the homeowner
and investor side as well as the lender and builder side that make this plan problematic in the long term.
Fuzzy
Green Math: There's something odd in what the administration is telling the press.
According to Greenwire: "The climate program would generate nearly $650 billion between 2012 and
2019, according to Obama's proposal. About $80 billion of the climate revenues would go toward
Obama's proposed middle-class tax cut each year beginning in 2012, the draft says, and the government
would spend $15 billion per year on 'clean' energy technologies." This is absurd on its face, of
course: $650 billion taken in over 8 years, used in part to fund $640 billion over
the same period to help ease the pain it causes, and the ... er, remaining ... $120 billion going for
green pork, leaving us a balance of
minus $110 billion.
Common sense missing in Obama
bailout. There's a reason that English is the most widely spoken language on the planet:
It's the most highly adaptable, capable of evolving to meet new needs in the blink of an eye. For
example: Just last year, offering mortgages at a cheaper-than-market teaser interest rate with little
or no money down was known as "predatory lending." But conditions changed — specifically,
the party occupying the White House — and now we call that style of lending "national policy."
Obama's
trillions dwarf Bush's 'dangerous' spending. Pelosi and Reid called Bush's budgets "dangerous"
and "unpatriotic," but with Obama, they've changed their tune.
Read Obama's Lips.
Obama seems intent on running a permanent campaign, and he's still making the kind of over-the-top promises
that campaigns toss around like Monopoly money. In this speech he promised cap and trade and health care
reform this year. He promised universal college education. He promised a cure for cancer.
Obama also promised that he, too, would "sacrifice some worthy priorities for which there are no
dollars." ... It's only been a few weeks, but so far all the American people have to show for Obama's
election is $1 trillion in new debt and a thousand point drop in the Dow.
Obama's 2% Illusion.
President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to
do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end "tax
breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans," and he promised that households earning less than $250,000 won't
see their taxes increased by "one single dime." This is going to be some trick. Even the most
basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and
capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can't possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama's new
spending ambitions.
Judging Obama:
Obama promises to "save or create" 3.5 million jobs, but if the unemployment rate is unchanged in four
years, do we credit Obama for saving 3.5 million jobs that would have been lost? If new jobs are
created, should stimulus get the credit? If the gain is in the government sector or in areas fed by
taxpayer money, how do we know that the job creation didn't crowd out the creation of more and more productive
jobs?
The Obama
Way: Hit the Ground Promising. One of President Obama's first actions on his first
full day in office was to announce a pay freeze for White House staff. ... The original
intent to
freeze salaries was announced to the press, dutifully reported by the press, put in writing and made
available on the White House's web site. The actual "report" was an oral one, given in private,
with no known details, and we know this only from an unnamed spokesman. And still no pay freeze.
This is worth noting only in respect to the insight it gives us into how business is conducted in the Obama
White House. Announce something good-sounding, follow it up with nothing real, and no one's the wiser.
President's Inner Circle Has
Earmarks in Omnibus. Funny how items show up in spending bills without any notice —
like an earmark for a president who promised not to seek any. President Obama, who took a no-earmark
pledge on the campaign trail, is listed as one of dozens of cosponsors of a $7.7 million set-aside in the
fiscal 2009 omnibus spending bill passed by the House on Wednesday. But not for long. On Thursday,
Rob Blumenthal, a spokesman for the Senate Appropriations Committee said the one earmark in the bill that
carries Obama's name will be edited. The committee will attribute that earmark to other senators on
the list of that provision's supporters, but not Obama.
The Difference Between Change
and Reform. Republican candidates now have talking points about Democrats: The party that talks
about ethical government but hires tax cheats; The party that talks about open government but practices lobbyist-friendly
government; The party that talks about stimulus but enacts "porkulus." Above all the Democratic Party is the
party that takes care of its special interests before it steps up to fix the credit system, a party that reverses welfare
reform without even a public hearing, a party that criticized a president's defense policies for eight years and then
turned around and continued them.
Obama's Phony
Pullout: Forcefully delivered, his speech to the Marines served up more waffles than the International
House of Pancakes. Consider his big sound bite: "Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31,
2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end." What does
that mean? Will the 50,000 troops he intends
to leave in Iraq, the trainers and maintainers, be forbidden to defend themselves? Are they just going to
hang out?
Obama Dons the Presidential Cloak. The
White House no longer uses the phrase "stimulus package." They always say "recovery plan." Stimulus is
yesterday. When you say it, they give you a wonderfully blank-eyed look and two sentences later weave in the
phrase "recovery program."
The Power Of Life And Death Is
In Our Words. Words can shield the most blatant reality. Legislation to take away workers'
rights to a secret ballot, when deciding whether or not they want to be represented by a labor union, is
called the "Employee Free Choice Act." The merits or demerits of this legislation have seldom been
debated. Who could be against "freedom of choice"? The Obama administration's new budget, with
deficits that make previous irresponsible deficits look like child's play, has a cover that says "A New Era
of Responsibility." You want responsibility? He'll give you the word "responsibility." Why
not? It costs nothing.
Congress to Erase Obama's Name From
Earmark. Congress will scrub President Obama's name from a list of earmark cosponsors in the $410 billion
omnibus spending bill. The reason: Whether Obama cosponsored the earmark depends on what the definition of
earmark is and when an earmark becomes an earmark, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee. The
provision itself is still considered an earmark, and it's staying in the bill (HR 1105) — but it's
losing the Obama brand.
The Return of Big
Government. Twice last week, [President Obama] insisted he doesn't favor "big government." Then he
proposed a budget that would vastly expand the size and reach of the federal government, add $600 billion to the
deficit, and produce a one-year shortfall of $1.2 trillion (or more). This prompted House Republican leader
John Boehner to proclaim, quite accurately, that the "era of big government is back."
The word is subterfuge.
How Obama's team gets his
messages out while you're not looking. Here's how President Obama's team is using his vast donor
e-mailing list to circumvent any intermediaries and get his pure political message out to millions of supporters
to marshal support for whatever he wants, in this case support for his budget: They send out an e-mail to
an estimated 12 million or 13 million names with a short text message from David Plouffe, the political
campaign's manager and now the campaign manager for "Obama for America."
He'll Only Break Your
Heart. Remember when he told you he would have the most transparent government in history?
He vowed to have a "clean break from business as usual" and said he would protect you from the undue
influence of lobbyists. And what has happened since he made this promise? How many have been
granted an exception? If he respected you, would he make a promise that he knew he would break?
If he cared about you, would he walk all over you?
More on earmarks: Obama's chief of
staff has some in bill. Even though President Barack Obama has repeatedly pledged to ban
congressional earmarks, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has 16 such projects, worth about
$8.5 million, in the bill the Senate is scheduled to begin debating Tuesday. The earmarks
include funds for a Chicago planetarium and a Chicago suburb. Obama has been relentless in
criticizing the use of earmarks; in his address to a joint session of Congress last week, he
boasted how the economic stimulus package was "free of earmarks."
The Never-ending
Surge. It turns out that $1.6 trillion of the "savings" Obama is anticipating are based
on the surge in Iraq continuing for 10 more years — even though Obama has already
announced all combat troops will be out of Iraq by 2010 and the Status of Forces Agreement is set
for 2011.
It's
Not the Economy, Stupid — It's Limbaugh. As the tax-and-spend policies of the Obama
administration extend and deepen the recession, the new administration's strategy to deal with the fallout
becomes clearer and clearer. Blame Rush Limbaugh.
The Magic of Barack
Obama. [Scroll down] Obama shamelessly says his trillion-dollar "stimulus" plan from
which taxpayers will be enslaved for generations, will cut the taxes of the 95%. "That's insane," you
might exclaim. Well, yes, if words retain their customary meaning. When Obama said in 2004 that
people don't want their tax money wasted, the meaning of the word "wasted" is the key to understanding
The One. Obama believes that "reinvesting" tax money into the welfare system is a responsible use
of government-forced contributions from the "wealthy." When Obama speaks of tax cuts, often he is
actually speaking of redistributing tax money. In Obama's world, government spending can actually
mean cutting taxes. Words take on new meaning when Obama the Great performs his magic.
Barack
Obama's most troubling tendency. There are many things that bug me about Barack Obama —
the insane laundry list speeches, the silly rhetoric, the hostility to the free market — but these
are all talked about. He has another habit that hasn't been talked about so much and, of all the
things he does, it makes me the most queasy.
The Stupid
Party. The economy is nowhere near recovery. The banks remain plagued with toxic
assets. The markets are engaged in a limbo contest. Congress is about to take up a budget
that will increase the national debt and decrease the chances for long-term growth. But don't
worry! Lucky for us, the Obama administration, its allies in the Democratic party, and the media
have decided to lead the country in a debate over who the leader of the Republican party is.
Deception at
Core of Obama Plans. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," said Chief of Staff Rahm
Emanuel. "This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."
Things. Now we know what they are. The markets' recent precipitous decline is a reaction not just
to the absence of any plausible bank rescue plan, but also to the suspicion that Obama sees the continuing
financial crisis as usefully creating the psychological conditions — the sense of crisis bordering
on fear-itself panic — for enacting his "Big Bang" agenda to federalize and/or socialize health
care, education and energy, the commanding heights of post-industrial society.
The Big Tent in the
Wilderness: Would parents wish success for a math teacher who taught their children that
two plus two equals five? No, they would hope for the teacher's failure and firing. A president
who proposes policies based on falsehoods deserves no less. ... At this moment in American history,
"bipartisanship" is just another complacent name for tyranny.
The Obama Double Tax
Whammy: President Obama's proposal to provide only a 28 percent benefit for charitable
contributions by top-bracket taxpayers is part of a double whammy, since he proposes at the same time to
raise the top bracket from 35 to 39.6 percent. The double-barreled increase/decrease reflects
a two-part strategy that is much more than a simple tax increase. Less civil society and more government
power is the result.
Unbelievable, Isn't It?
Wasn't it Obama's political hit men who cooked up the scheme to Limbaugh-ize the GOP? Wasn't it Gibbs and
Rahm Emanuel who egged on reporters? It is not the Republicans who are claiming Limbaugh should be
crowned head of the party. To the contrary the GOP's elected leaders have been imploring the media to get
back to the economy, the grotesque omnibus spending bill, and, frankly, the president's cluelessness about the
market crash.
Hint: They were promised a tax cut during the Obama campaign.
Who Pays for Cap and Trade?
Cap and trade is the tax that dare not speak its name, and Democrats are hoping in particular that no one notices
who would pay for their climate ambitions. With President Obama depending on vast new carbon revenues in
his budget and Congress promising a bill by May, perhaps Americans would like to know the deeply unequal ways
that climate costs would be distributed across regions and income groups.
Obama's Political
Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. The country cared little that much of FDR's "New Deal" policies
had been originated by Hoover, or that Roosevelt and his "Brain Trust" viewed the Country's dire situation as
chance to experiment. Action was called for and what mattered most was
change. FDR (Obama)
appeared to be so caring and attentive, few suspected any wrongdoing. Just as in the case of the abusive
parent, FDR (Obama) was jovial, cool, and unusually calm in the face of serious adversity. In both
versions of MPS, blame is typically placed on a previous caregiver as part of the deception and to provide a
scapegoat. ... The denial of reality is crucial.
Present at the
creation. President Obama, who repeatedly criticized earmarks while campaigning last year, is
supposedly not happy with the 9,000 projects individual legislators tacked onto the $410 billion spending
bill, but his boss will sign the bill anyway, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel says. It's hard to
believe Mr. Obama is really unhappy with earmarks, which date back to last year when the bill was starting its
trek through Congress.
Anatomy of
Vero Possumus. It is odd that after five weeks we can pretty much see the next four years. ... We
will get utopian rhetoric about a new ethical bar, followed by the nominations of serial tax dodgers, lobbyists,
and DC insiders. We will hear sermons about a new bipartisanship, followed by comical attacks on talk
radio, and deeming "unpatriotic" any who resent the ramming through of the largest increase in debt in
a half-century.
The
Orwellian Presidential Bully Pulpit. The president brazenly sermonizes against scientifically
challenged conservatives while triggering federal funding of research that is scientifically controversial and
preparing to impose cap and trade penalties on corporate America in deference to global warming junk science.
While you won't hear much about this in the mainstream media, there is a meeting currently taking place in
New York City that serves as an ironic backdrop for Obama's embryonic stem cell order.
Obama
grants two more lobbyists waivers. President Obama has issued waivers allowing two appointees
who were formerly registered lobbyists to work for his administration. The waivers ensure the two
appointees can work for the administration under his executive order on ethics, which was intended to
reform the revolving door between K Street and the government.
Obama's New 'Council on Women' Seen As
Vehicle to Promote Feminist Agenda. President Barack Obama on Wednesday created a new bureaucracy to
deal with women's health, domestic violence and economic security. But some conservatives fear the new council will
actively promote the feminist agenda in the government. ... Although the president did not say exactly what issues
the council would address, the group is likely to promote feminist causes such as expanded litigation and the abortion
rights, said Janice Crouse, a senior fellow at Concerned Women for America, a conservative advocacy group.
Obama's
Impractical Pragmatism. The Obama administration is nothing if not pragmatic, we're told.
Obama is not guided by ideology, according to his hagiographers in the press, but is instead simply committed
to doing what works. And that may be true, if you understand that to mean what works politically for
Obama. It's pragmatism, true enough, but pragmatism in the cause of satisfying Democratic interest
groups.
Wrong Move: Obama's
Liberal Agenda. Obama's proposed budget shows all the vision, restraint and grace of a grasping committee
chairman, using the cover of a still-unresolved banking crisis to push through a broad liberal wish list before anyone
notices its costs and complications. The pledge of "responsibility" has become the massive expansion of debt, the
constant allocation of blame to others and the childish cultivation of controversy with conservative media figures to
favorably polarize the electorate. The pledge of "honesty" and "sacrifice" has become the deceptive guarantee of
apparently limitless public benefits at the expense of a very few.
Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty
a 'National Security' Secret. President Barack Obama came into office in January promising a new era of
openness. But now, like Bush before him, Obama is playing the national security card to hide details of the
controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated across the globe.
Copyright treaty is classified for 'national security'.
Last September, the Bush administration defended the unusual secrecy over an anti-counterfeiting treaty being negotiated
by the U.S. government, which some liberal groups worry could criminalize some peer-to-peer file sharing that infringes
copyrights. Now President Obama's White House has tightened the cloak of government secrecy still further, saying
in a letter this week that a discussion draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and related materials are
"classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958."
From Catastrophe to Not
so Bad? Talk of the Great Depression was necessary to enact a massive spending bill with a $1.6 trillion
deficit; then, once the European-like spending was in place, it was important to flip, drop the gloom and doom, and talk
up the economy for the midterm elections to come.
Please Get Serious, Mr. President.
[Scroll down] Optimism and patience were not on offer just a few weeks ago, when the president was telling us
we were on the verge of CATASTROPHE!!!! unless Congress immediately authorized the spending of some $800 billion.
Obama is asking us to believe that the so-called stimulus was both necessary and sufficient to turn things around in less
than a month. He is straining the limits of our credulity and testing the limits of his own credibility.
The Obama
3-Step. Barack Obama has perfected a three-step maneuver that could never even be attempted by a
politician lacking his rhetorical skill or cool cynicism. First: Denounce your presidential predecessor
for a given policy, energizing your party's base and capitalizing on his abiding unpopularity. Second:
Pretend to have reversed that policy upon taking office with a symbolic act or high-profile statement. Third:
Adopt a version of that same policy, knowing that it's the only way to govern responsibly or believing doing otherwise
is too difficult.
Global gun control: There
may good reasons for deploying the National Guard along the U.S.-Mexican border, but illegal firearms isn't one of them.
The administration recently launched a study to examine whether soldiers should patrol the Southern border to staunch the
flow of firearms headed for drug dealers in Latin America. The silence you hear is the concern about armed drug gangs
headed here. In short, the administration seems more concerned about the guns going south than the non-citizens
streaming north.
Obama,
Kruschev, and Limbaugh. Today, I heard the latest pronouncement from our glorious leader, the
great and powerful Oz. He said he didn't want Americans whipsawed by bursts of either bad or good news,
and that he was highly optimistic about our economic future. Oddly enough, yesterday he announced that
this was the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. So the way I figure it, in order to avoid
being whipsawed, the secret is to only listen to Obama on either odd or even days of the week.
Electing a Child to be President.
[Obama] had, on taking office, already written two autobiographical memoirs, but people are slowly becoming aware
of the fact that there is virtually no paper trail by which to measure him. His birth certificate and legal
standing to be President are in dispute. Records from his college days are hidden from view. His
record as a one-term Illinois legislator is replete with "present" votes that revealed little about his political
positions. He did not even wait to complete a full term as a U.S. Senator before almost immediately beginning
to run for the highest office in the land. In terms of political leadership, he is a child among grownups
and a petulant one at that.
March Madness: How the White House Plays
Defense. Part of the Obama mystique — one his own aides work hard to promote — is
that he and his team are sublimely calm and collected, too cool to care about Washington chatter, too disciplined
to be thrown off message by the uproar du jour. The reality is that the Obama team can be every bit as
reactive and improvisational as any other political operation.
The Banality of Obama:
Pundits have been critiquing the new administration for its socialism, for its willful ignorance of foreign policy,
for its puerile missteps, but the salient fact of the Obama Presidency is its banality. He who promised
change has dredged up the failed nostrums of the past as if they were something new and fresh. In fact,
the ordinariness, the dullness, the lifelessness of the Obama Administration is obvious.
Mr. President: War Is Not
A 'Struggle' Or 'Situation'. First, President Obama jettisoned the admittedly empty and useless
phrase "war on terror," a label which pleased pretty much no one, primarily because it didn't specify an
enemy; it's often been pointed out that the phrase was like calling World War II a "war on blitzkrieg."
Next, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano avoided even mentioning the word "terrorism" in her first
congressional testimony. Now the Department of Justice has announced it is dropping the legal designation
"enemy combatants," which referred to suspected terrorist detainees. The aim of all this muting of the
language in the War with No Name is twofold: for the Obama administration to distance itself from George W.
Bush's "politics of fear," and to whitewash a plain fact that liberals are suicidally reluctant to
acknowledge — that we are at war with radical Islam.
Obama's rhetoric and reality clash.
Barack Obama's optimistic campaign rhetoric has crashed headlong into the stark reality of governing. In office
two months, he has backpedaled on an array of issues, shifting positions as circumstances dictate while ducking for
political cover to avoid undercutting his credibility and authority. That's happened on the Iraq troop withdrawal
timeline, on lobbyists in his administration and on money for lawmakers' pet projects.
The "Depression" for
Us Idiots. I feel like Winston Smith in Oceania, confused about all the doublethink coming out of Washington.
Great Depression — no Great Depression. Recession for years; its end at the end of this year. Signing
statements bad; signing statements good. Fundamentals hardly strong; fundamentals really sound. Earmarks terrible;
8,000 wonderful. Bush's $500 billion deficit reckless; Obama's $1.7 [trillion] sober and judicious; Iraq
horrific and the worst whatever; Iraq suddenly quiet, democratic, and hopeful; highest ethical bar in an administration
ever — Richardson, Daschle, Killefer, Solis, etc. cannot meet the lowest; ... Obama not to be blamed for
massive collapse of stock prices since November; Obama to be praised for modest gains last week. At some point,
someone in the media must be getting embarrassed that they are all working at the Ministry of Truth.
Obama toils as communicator. Before
he took office, White House aides told us Obama would spend his first months telling hard truths about the complexity
of the economic problems and the complexity of the solutions. There's been very little of that. ... One reason
is that White House officials aren't anxious to explain the depths of the problems. They tell us they
anticipate unemployment to exceed 10 percent next year...
The Myth of the 46 Million:
Whether it's in political speeches, commentary, newspaper features, or hard news stories, the statistic of 46 million
uninsured is one of the most-widely cited numbers in the health care debate. It promotes the idea that nearly one out
of every six Americans does not have access to health care and it plays into the arguments of those calling for massive
expansion of government to fix the problem. Yet the ubiquitous figure is highly misleading.
New Obama lOgO for RecOvery.gOv.
Guess what it lOOks like? [It has] gears to represent the American automobile industry that's on its way
out and the manufacturing sector that's already vanished from the land. It has eight stars to represent, uh, some
of the 13 original Colonies. It's got the "website number" that Vice President Biden couldn't remember on TV.
And the new logo has poison ivy leaves to represent the green revolution that hasn't quite caught on yet because few
people can afford the extra costs that come with it and the ones that can are gonna get taxed extra because they can
afford it and didn't vote for the winner anyway.
Obama: Editor in chief? At
4:52 p.m., the White House sent out embargoed excerpts from President Obama's planned remarks
tonight. ... But then at 5:16 p.m., the White House sent out revised — and now
unembargoed — excerpts from the president's comments. But there were two changes in wording
between the two versions that were an indication that the White House was continuing to tinker with the
language even as airtime approached.
The butler did it. It was the mystery
of the week in Washington: Who stuck that language into the stimulus bill allowing $165 billion in
bonuses to the very executives at AIG (Americans Into Government, Inc.) who had just about ruined that
financial insurance company and a good part of the American economy with it?
Obama's Prime Time Pitch. President Obama
sometimes strayed from the facts or made dubious claims during his hour-long evening news conference
March 24. He said his budget projections are based on economic assumptions that "are perfectly
consistent with what Blue Chip forecasters out there are saying." Not true. ... He said he is reducing
"nondefense discretionary spending" to less than it was under the past four presidents. Not true.
Barack Obama's delivery
of no news is quite smooth. Obama created real problems in his first national news conference
by promising Geithner would deliver too much the next day. And when the inarticulate bureaucrat didn't,
the markets plummeted. But this news conference seemed anticlimactic. At times the president
appeared to be mailing in his delivery. He made no notable news and did so quite smoothly. Unless
sticking by his guns over cutting charitable deductions is news.
Obama
Scraps 'Global War on Terror' for 'Overseas Contingency Operation'. The Obama administration has
ordered an end to use of the phrase "Global War on Terror," a label adopted by the Bush administration shortly
after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. In a memo sent this
week from the Defense Department's office of security to Pentagon staffers, members were told, "this
administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' [GWOT.] Please use
'Overseas Contingency Operation.'"
Homeland Linguistics.
The Obama administration has made great changes in the way we handle national security. And judging by
its actions so far, it seems that the most important failing of the previous administration has been in
semantics. The changes started with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano deciding that the
word "terrorism" was too harsh. She has made a point of not using it, opting instead for "man-caused
disasters." That was merely phase one.
Transparent
Obfuscation. One problem with the Obama financial rescue plan is that it is almost as
complicated and obscure as the problem it is designed to solve. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner,
testifying yesterday [3/26/2009] on Capitol Hill, called for greater simplicity in financial regulation.
Good luck with that.
FCC Won't Allow 'Diversity' Chief Mark Lloyd to be Interviewed
about Public Policy Views. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) won't allow its Chief Diversity
Officer Mark Lloyd to be interviewed by the news media about his views and past statements on federal communications
policy. Lloyd, who cites the radical author Saul Alinsky as an inspiration, has argued that public broadcasting
outlets in the United States should be funded on a level equal to the funding of private broadcasting companies —
with the money coming from licensing fees levied on private broadcasters by the government.
Obama, Charity, and
Fairness. Leave it to Barack Obama to justify a tax proposal that would significantly reduce
the amounts going to charity — on grounds the proposal is necessary for "fairness."
Taking Debt To The Next
Frontier. In his budget message, the president says "the time has come to usher in a new era
of responsibility." But a new report shows the only thing his budget delivers is an unprecedented era
of deficits and debt.
Congressman Wants to Know Why
Geithner Contradicted Congressional Testimony in 24 Hours. Geithner told Congress under oath
Tuesday [3/24/2009] that he wouldn't consider China's proposal to shift away from the U.S. dollar toward a world
currency — then the following day said the U.S. would "be open" to the idea. Rep. John
Shadegg (R.-Ariz.) thinks the Treasury secretary's swift about face demands an explanation.
It's Not the Economy, Stupid. If the
multi-trillion-dollar credit card, massive redistribution schemes, and behemoth budget seem so zany, why is anyone
continuing to think of any of this is economic policy at all? Why don't we think of it as, well,
politics? Shrewd and well-played politics at that. For if we do, everything the current leadership
is doing makes perfect sense.
1984 in 2009. Last
week President Obama announced that we would no longer call enemy combatants "Enemy Combatants." Yesterday
[3/26/2009] the Office of Management and Budget sent a memo instructing people who are fighting the Global War
on Terror that it was no longer Global, nor a War, nor had anything to do with Terror.
Hiding
a Mountain Of Debt. With a bit of bookkeeping legerdemain borrowed from the Bush
administration, the Democratic Congress is about to perform a cover-up on the most serious threat
to America's economic future. That threat is not the severe recession, tough as that is for
the families and businesses struggling to make ends meet. In time, the recession will end, and last
week's stock market performance hinted that we may not have to wait years for the recovery to begin.
Obama's
War on English. In an age when a waiter is a server, an actress is a female actor, and a
dubiously-competent socialist cult leader is an American president, it was only a matter of time before
the "Global War on Terror" became an "Overseas Contingency Operation" (OCO). Thus Spoke Zarathustra
this week via a memo sent to the Pentagon and select speech writers, officially establishing Team Obama's
redesigned terminology. The War is over, long live the Operation! ... Victory through euphemism!
Speaking Obama.
In order for us morons on the right to understand the newspeak of the Obama administration I offer this
glossary of terms before and after being "Obamized." Feel free to add to my list while you are still
able.
What
Do You Mean 'If We Ever Want to Leave' Afghanistan? Beware, America. You are about to be duped
by an alliance of Obama-niks and Bush-ites who, together, are laying the groundwork for nation-building in
Afghanistan — nation-building in Iraq having worked out so well (insert acid shot of sarcasm here).
Only they are not going to call it "nation-building." Worse, they are forging ahead without heeding the
remedial lesson of Iraq: No matter how many American dollars spent, no matter how many American lives lost,
it's not possible to transform an Islamic republic that enshrines Islamic law (Sharia) into an ally against Islamic
jihad ... .
The Three (Ways of Making Us)
Stooges: Fans of Barack Obama are impressed with his ability to do two or three things at one time,
as am I. Here is a classic twofer: he succeeded in exposing both the intellectual inadequacy and the
moral bankruptcy of his worldview in one terse statement. As a bonus he threw in an example of his
deceitful manipulativeness.
Obama's
Childish Vision of Politics: Despite his "hard choices" rhetoric, Barack Obama's favorite political
tactic is to claim that no choices need be made at all; all political differences of opinion, he says, can be chalked
up to misunderstanding rather than conflicting fundamental values. All choices are "false choices" if we just
think deeply enough. Or rather, if Obama thinks deeply enough. And so Obama claimed in the Chicago Tribune
that Americans "need not choose between a chaotic and unforgiving capitalism and an oppressive government-run economy."
That choice, he said, is a "false choice." It is a false choice as he phrases it — capitalism isn't
chaotic and unforgiving.
The Master of
Misdirection. President Obama is the master of misdirection. His skill in using this
tactic is a key to his success as a candidate and to his popularity as president. He is a great
salesman, marketing his product — the liberal agenda, plus a few add-ons — in a manner
that disguises what he's really up to. Misdirection isn't the same as exaggeration. Everyone
understands that politicians inflate their accomplishments. So their self-puffery is discounted.
Misdirection is different. It is meant to deceive.
What
Does the President's 'Meaningful Coverage' Mean for Health Care? Upon taking office, President
Obama hit the ground running on comprehensive healthcare reform that he originally referred to as "universal
health care" but now calls "meaningful coverage." What is "meaningful coverage," and what do the few
specifics we've been given concerning it portend for our future physical health and the viability of our
nation as a whole?
Misrepresenting Mexican Gun Origins. Fox
News has completely blown apart the mantra being chanted by politicians and the news media that 90 percent of
the guns used in crimes in Mexico come from the United States. Fact is, says Fox News, only about 17 percent
are trickling in from north of the border, and some of those legally. Why such a disparity in the numbers?
The Price of Extremism. [Scroll
down] One school of thought suggests that Obama is deep down a far-left ideologue and would rather achieve his
agenda than build a lasting coalition. He has to hurry to beat the clock to the 2010 election and wants to do
everything he can to tick off the items on the liberal wish list. In this scenario, his moderate language and
bipartisan themes, as central as they were to his campaign, were essentially deceptive. He's not a centrist
and has no interest in governing as one.
A
Bogus 'Anti-Cigarette' Bill. A law ordering the Food and Drug Administration to regulate cigarettes is
moving through Congress — but is it truly good for public health? Hint: Cigarette maker
Altria (formerly Philip Morris) is one of the bill's strongest supporters. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has
already gotten the measure passed in the House; Sen. Ted Kennedy is on track to get it through the Senate soon.
Obama's Unreality Tour. Barack
Obama vowed to turn to the U.N. Security Council for strong action following North Korea's weekend missile launch.
He would have done better by turning to Dr. Phil. So, as the good doctor likes to say: Get real.
Get real about North Korea. Get real about the U.N. Get real, also, about NATO, arms control,
Russia, the global financial system, and every other item headlining the president's unreality tour through
the capitals of Europe.
Transparency
Killer at HUD: Another Disastrous Obama Nominee. If you need a shining example of the utter
disingenuousness of Barack Obama's commitment to government transparency, I have two words for you:
Ron Sims. This lifelong political hack is to transparency what sunlight is to Dracula, what salt is to a
slug, what kryptonite is to Superman, what "The View" is to intelligent debate.
Deception is the Root Cause of
America's Ills. In 1998, 46 state attorneys general and major tobacco companies signed the Master
Settlement Agreement. The major tobacco companies agreed, among other things, to give states $240 billion
over 25 years to provide for smoking cessation programs and cover the health costs associated with using
their product. ... Of the $80 billion extorted so far, states have spent about 30% on health, not all
tobacco-related, and less than 6% on smoking cessation programs. Instead, state legislatures spent the
bulk of their tobacco money for items such as museum building, tax relief, rainy-day funds and other expenditures
having nothing to do with tobacco or health.
Mr
Obama's Traveling Circus. While the United States writhes in the agony of seeking a way out of the current
financial mess, President Obama, his wife and a cast of 500 aides and hangers-on took the show on the road, crisscrossing
the old world well-equipped with a supply of the trusty teleprompters needed to render him eloquent. ... It was like a
sideshow featuring never-before-seen characters that the rubes couldn't wait to observe — as they might flock
to see the bearded lady. The Obamas took all this attention as an indication that what was really curiosity was,
in fact, adoration.
How Democrats Make Millionaires.
Even in these hard economic times, Democrats across the nation are working on plans that will turn some of you into
instant millionaires. There's only one catch. You're not actually going to be bringing in a million-dollar
income. ... To pay this ["millionaires'"] tax, you won't have to make anywhere near a million dollars. If
you make even $300,000 a year, the cash-strapped Empire State will consider you a millionaire.
A Fool And Your Money. Once
again we have stubborn liberals who refuse to admit that their strategy is wrong and will not work, and instead not only
give credence to their agenda with this scheme, but do so under the guise of "fairness". Massachusetts Democrats
recently advocated voting rights for illegal immigrants because it is an issue of "fairness". President Obama aims
to change the social fabric of this country because as is the system lacks "fairness".
Earmarks:
Online hide and go seek. Scores of House members are hiding their earmark requests in obscure corners
of their official websites — sticking to the letter of their new rule while shunning its spirit. The
lawmakers are interpreting an ambiguous rule liberally, disclosing their requests as required on their official
congressional webpages but avoiding any prominent display.
Is Barack Obama a Muslim wolf in
Christian wool? Obama wants it both ways, has always wanted it both ways. Black and
white, Indonesian and American, Muslim and Christian. He loves playing one off the other, using
one to hide the other even as the traces of the truth may be assembled to reveal the whole cloth of
deception and self-promotion he has been weaving so skillfully since his childhood. No wonder
he is a man of change. He IS a changeling, a veritable chameleon, adapting and amending his
life story to fit the circumstances.
Back to the Future on
Cuba. The repeal of a largely symbolic policy is more than Obama is ready to contemplate. The
administration portrays his new approach as a "major" shift. The Washington Post said he is "breaking from
policies first imposed by the Kennedy administration." As if. He's doing little more than dropping
a few extra restrictions imposed by George W. Bush, leaving the basic embargo encased in rock, like the fossil
it is.
Obama
continues to send mixed messages on economy. President Barack Obama on Tuesday [4/14/2009] shifted
focus back to the economy, but continued offering a mixed message on where things stand and prospects for a
turnaround. "There is no doubt that times are still tough," Obama told an audience at Georgetown
University. "By no means are we out of the woods just yet. But from where we stand, for the
very first time, we're beginning to see glimmers of hope."
Obama's Dodge:
In a speech at Georgetown University yesterday [4/14/2009], Pres. Barack Obama tried to explain how his economic
policies "fit together in a single, overarching strategy." The only constant we could discern, however, was
the president's desire to use the financial crisis to justify enormous expansions of government power.
Obama's code of secrecy.
Government secrecy has become the norm under this administration, particularly when it comes to the financial bailout.
Exhibit A is a gag order preventing banks from divulging how they performed on the Treasury Department's financial
"stress tests." These tests were instituted Feb. 25 to gauge the liquidity of the country's 19 biggest banks and
determine whether they could survive another dramatic economic downturn. Federal officials told the bankers to keep
mum about how stressed out the tests say their institutions are.
Fed Shrouding $2 Trillion in
Bank Loans in 'Secrecy,' Suit Says. U.S. taxpayers need to know the risks behind the Federal Reserve's
$2 trillion in lending to financial institutions because the public is now an "involuntary investor" in the nation's
banks, according to a court filing by Bloomberg LP. The Fed refuses to name the borrowers, the amounts of loans or
assets banks put up as collateral under 11 programs, arguing that doing so might set off a run by depositors and unsettle
shareholders.
King Barack? You might think
the repeated conservative complaint about Obama's egregious lack of transparency is, by now, a tired talking point.
But we're not just referring to minor procedural matters that are substantively inconsequential. He hasn't just
breached his promise to make his legislation available for public preview. He and his congressional cohorts are
burying very important matters in legislation.
What
Obama's hiding and the media are ignoring. It is no accident that history and literature are
replete with rocky tales of doubtful succession, of the maladjustment brought on by pretenders to thrones.
There is something in human nature that yearns for the rightful leader. And there is something in our
Constitution that requires it. So why won't this president, who, after all, promised the American people
an unprecedented level of transparency, reveal his original long-form birth certificate?
Where's Obama's Birth Certificate?
[Scroll down slowly] I am suspicious when a candidate for president has virtually no paper trail
of documents. ... Here's a list of documentation that, as of 2008, was "unavailable":
1. Occidental College records -- Not released
2. Columbia College records -- Not released
3. Columbia Thesis paper -- "Not available"
4. Harvard College records -- Not released
5. Selective Service Registration -- Not released
6. Medical records -- Not released
7. Illinois State Senate schedule -- "Not available"
8. Law practice client list -- Not released
9. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate -- Not released
10. Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth -- Not released
11. Harvard Law Review articles published -- None
12. University of Chicago scholarly articles -- None
What does anyone REALLY know about Obama?
Obama: American Demagogue. All
during the long campaign leading to his election and inauguration, the media kept telling us what a genius Barack
Obama was. He was a lecturer on the Constitution at the University of Chicago. He was in the Illinois
State legislature. He had graduated from Harvard Law School and, before that, Columbia University.
Curiously, throughout all that time, few of his fellow students or faculty had any recall of him. No records
from those days exist or are available. He was (and is) a cipher.
You Might Be a Birther
if... [Scroll down] I might be able to get past the whole long-form birth certificate
issue if this president had released the whole host of other life documentation, generally required for
high-level job applications. To whit, (sic) what is in the following documents that might diminish
the Obama "narrative," as sold to the public by marketing guru, David Axelrod, and a strangely incurious
media?
• Panahou Academy school records, 5th through 12th grades
• Occidental College records, including financial aid information.
• Columbia University records, including the missing senior thesis and financial aid information.
• Harvard University records, including information on how a student who never wrote anything (that
can be found) was elected president of the prestigious law review, and including information on how
Harvard Law School was afforded by humble community agitator, Barack Obama.
• Obama's Illinois state senate records and papers, mysteriously lost.
Obama Used 'Invest' or
'Investment' 18 Times in Press Conference to Describe Government Deficit Spending. When
the government engages in deficit spending it has to borrow money — part of it from foreign
sources — and then charge future taxpayers to pay the interest on the borrowed
money. As long as the government's loans are not paid off, the taxpayers must continue
paying interest on the debt year after year — just as an individual citizen would
need to pay interest year after year on a credit card whose principal is never paid down.
Passive Opaqueness.
The president went to Langely for some damage repair today, telling the CIA employees he knows "the last few
days have been difficult." Here is a tip: when a speaker uses the passive voice he is hiding something.
If the president had been more candid, he would have said "I made your jobs more difficult in the last few
days."
Obama's
Rounding Error: Did President Obama leave off a few zeroes when he ordered federal agencies to trim
$100 million from their budgets? ... Make no mistake: Obama's not asking for cuts of $100 mil from
each department — which would also be negligible. He's looking at a cumulative $100 million —
across the entire federal budget. And this, after he signed one piece of legislation for $787 billion and
another for $410 billion — and then introduced a record $3.6 trillion federal budget.
Will Obama Seize the Radio Stations
Next? Obama started his Administration repeating the mantra that he only cares about what works, not about
ideology. That was meant to draw attention away from the fact that Obama is all about extremist ideology, not
pragmatism. That is why he is so intent on sharply raising tax rates on savings and capital and top income
earners. Nothing practical about that in promoting the economy. Just the opposite. Obama's proposed
severe global warming regulation serves extremist environmental ideology, not practical economics. Misdirection
rhetoric is another trick Obama learned from Saul Alinsky.
Crazy
Times — Crazier Times to Follow. Bill Clinton balanced his last budgets but
raised taxes. George Bush increased deficits but cut taxes. But now taxes, spending, and
deficits soar all at once. We are lectured that prior reckless federal spending and borrowing
got us into this mess — but now are told that even more federal spending and borrowing will
get us out of it. ... In our Orwellian world, borrowing to spend what we don't have has been renamed
"stimulus." Those who pay no federal income taxes — almost half of
Americans — can somehow be promised an income tax "cut."
It's Not Easy Being Green.
In Barack Obama's America, there are no costs and benefits. There are only "false choices" that must be
avoided lest we fall into the dangerous trap of old thinking. We can increase deficit spending and
improve budgetary discipline, expand health care funding and reduce costs, and pay for social programs
unimagined by LBJ with the tax rates of Bill Clinton. ... Unfortunately, the laws of economics cannot
simply be repealed and benefits still do come at a cost.
Energy
Bill, Energy Tax, or Government Hand-Out?. The 648-page energy bill just penned by Democratic Reps.
Henry Waxman and Edward Markey is ostensibly designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money. But
conservatives contend that the bill is nothing more than a tax, adding costs to energy producers and distributors
for unproven methods of greenhouse gas emissions. These costs would be passed on to consumers to the tune
of $3,900 per year, per household.
Obama Outsources His Presidency.
The first 100 days can reveal a pattern of behavior that comes to characterize a presidency. In this
respect, there are two emerging habits of Team Obama worth watching. One is the gap between what Mr. Obama
said he would do and what he is doing. His administration is emphasizing in its official 100 days
talking points steps he has taken to "deliver on the change he promised." During the campaign, Mr. Obama
denounced the $2.3 trillion added to the national debt on Mr. Bush's watch as "deficits as far as the eye
can see." But Mr. Obama's budget adds $9.3 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years.
What happened to Obama the deficit hawk?
Obama strays from some facts, or
spins. [Scroll down]
— He told a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24 that "we import more oil today than ever before." That's
untrue. Imports peaked in 2005 and are lower today.
— He claimed in the same speech that his mortgage aid plan would help "responsible" buyers but not those who borrowed
beyond their means. But even prominent defenders of the program in his administration concede that foolish borrowers
will be aided, too.
— He said in an address on March 10 that the high school dropout rate has "tripled in the past 30 years."
But according to the Department of Education, it actually has declined by a third.
When the Obama Backlash Comes.
The contradictions between Obama's words and actions are many. He opposes big government, and then he vastly expands
it. He says he favors bipartisanship, but doesn't practice it. He says he is against earmarks, and then signs
the largest pork package in history. And that is just to name a few. Such inconsistencies are contributing to
a lack of confidence in Obama and his economic policies.
Good news!
First 100 days more talk than action.
What has the Obama White House really achieved in its first 100 days? Well, he did pass a stimulus bill that
was largely negotiated and completed before he got into office. ... He appointed a treasury secretary who didn't pay his
taxes, he tried to appoint a Health and Human Services secretary who didn't pay his taxes, and he decided not to appoint
a government accountability czar who didn't pay her taxes. He also visited with Jay Leno. He did very well on
his NCAA college basketball pool. He fired the CEO of General Motors. He appeared on "60 Minutes" a
couple of times. He went to a Bulls-Wizards game. He got a dog. His wife planted a garden.
Confessions of a Contrarian.
I followed the Obama senatorial campaign and even his early career in Chicago, and confess I was not impressed. I
think on any occasion he announces a moral standard it is reactive — not proactive — and we can
be sure it serves as cover for something of questionable morality. So when he says he won't do something,
it usually means he already has.
Obama the Sophist.
I have heard "there are those who say..." from this President quite a bit in the last three months. I think
it's time he start naming names. Who are these people who hold such backward-looking, unacceptable positions?
If they are elected members of the government, shouldn't the President tell us who they are so we can vote them out?
If they are unelected, how is it they have such power? Or maybe there are no such people, at least not of such
relevance they deserve specific mention by the President. Maybe this is just a rhetorical trick designed to
make Mr. Obama's position seem like the only one allowed by common sense.
"Never Again," Obama
Style. No president in modern times has managed to conceal so much of his biography as this
one. The journalists assigned to the Obama beat seem to have lost their traditional avidity for digging
out the missing details. We do not have a medical report, or a college transcript from Columbia, or a
notion of how well he did in Harvard Law School. These things are not automatically significant, but
they can be.
The 100-Day
Assault on America. Aided by an eagerly compliant Democratic-controlled Congress, a sycophantic
media, and a bunch of squishy Republicans, President Obama has taken the country on a radical, mind-boggling
leap into collectivism. ... Obama promises to use taxpayer money to rescue "responsible homeowners" —
whatever that means — from foreclosure, thus artificially propping up prices that shut out renters
who would love to buy now-much-cheaper houses. Obama proposes spending billions (or trillions?) more on
"creating or saving" — whatever that means — 4 million, 3.5 million or
2.5 million jobs. Pick a number.
Reality Knocks. Saying
unsupported piffle is the stuff of campaigns, but the current occupants of the White House seem unaware of their
higher obligation to provide complete and unspun information to the American people. While they may be
determined to throw out whatever hits them as an available political counterattack, neither their own intelligence
officials or the previous ones support the view that a single American was harmed because of interrogation
tactics. The available information suggests the contrary is true.
Doublethink is Truth. Of
course, the term "Global War on Terror" left something to be desired since it was really a Global War on
Radical Islam. Doesn't anyone in the political world believe in plain speaking and clear understanding?
Not exactly. Mostly they believe in "doublethink," the Orwellian concept of holding two contradictory
beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.
Let's
Declassify Obama's Birth Certificate Along With the 'Torture' Memos. As long as we're creating a
paper trail a mile long and a mile wide, Obama might want to keep the momentum going and release that long form
birth certificate we keep hearing so much about. ... Hey, if it's no problem to release classified documents,
the birth certificate should be an easy call, as to my knowledge it's not classified. Neither are his
undergraduate records. If he's as brilliant as everyone keeps saying he is, why not prove it by showing
off his stellar grades? What articles did he write while editor of the vaunted Harvard Law Review?
Inquiring minds want to know. Speaking of Harvard, how did he pay for his high priced law degree?
Let's not forget that trip during college to Pakistan in 1981...
Barack Obama aglow after 100-day honeymoon — just like
Carter. [Scroll down] The day has been seized as another opportunity to hone the Obama
image, which was carefully crafted and protected during a campaign in which his persona and life story,
rather than his policies, led to triumph. Advisers who publicly mock the theme of 100 days have
been discreetly parcelling out made-to-order anecdotes to the press, each one designed to show how
decisive, far-thinking or cool under pressure he is.
To Seem, Rather Than To
Be. To the conspiracy-minded, it could all be deliberate — an endless series of
dumb stunts and public flubs and embarrassing incidents serving as bright, shiny diversions
from the real work of the Obama administration. While we all point and laugh (or point and
howl) at these moves, they quietly go forward with their agenda — bringing the banks under
direct federal control, bringing the auto industry under direct federal control, "reforming"
healthcare insurance to bring that under direct federal control, going after the credit card
companies...
The Stimulus Saved or
Created 150,000 Jobs? Where? "We began by passing a Recovery Act that has already
saved or created over 150,000 jobs and provided a tax cut to 95% of all working families," the president
said Wednesday night [4/29/2009]. We wondered where the president got that from, given that the
Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 1.3 million jobs were lost in February and
March, with dismal April numbers to come.
Obama Again Uses the Word 'Investment' to
Describe the Deficit Spending He Plans. When President Barack Obama gave a primetime press conference on
March 19, he used the terms "invest" and "investment" 18 times to describe the deficit spending he wants the
federal government to pursue under his budget plan. In another primetime press conference last night, Obama again
used the term "investment" three times to describe the deficit spending while almost in the same breath decrying
"overleveraged banks" and those who "maxed-out on credit cards."
The Green Wind Of Destruction.
To say we're skeptical of the administration's claim that green jobs will bolster economic recovery is putting it
mildly. It's much easier to believe that needless environmental rules will cause widespread job losses.
Green
Job Efforts Kill 2.2 for Every One Created. The Spanish government's renewable energy initiatives
have destroyed 2.2 jobs for every new "green" job created, concludes a new study by economics professor
Gabriel Calzada of King Juan Carlos University in Madrid. Calzada says American jobs will suffer the
same fate if the United States similarly attempts to promote renewable energy at the expense of conventional
energy sources.
The Audacity of Socialism. Barack Obama
has styled himself a centrist, but does his record support that claim? In this series, we examine Senator
Obama's past, his voting record and the people who've served as his advisers and mentors over the years.
We'll show how the facts of Obama's actions and associations reveal a far more left-leaning tilt to his
background — and to his politics.
The News That
Didn't Happen. When the president of the United States spoke at Notre Dame the other Sunday, he
didn't so much speak about abortion as around it. ... There's no way to disagree with a stand not taken.
And yet what he said seemed to strike a chord. Never underestimate the power of the platitudinous.
Unpleasant
surprises buried in cap and trade. If cap and trade is an energy and global warming bill, why is
a three-year package of unemployment benefits, job training and relocation expenses buried deep within its fine
print? And why is a federally subsidized "job bank" needed if laid-off workers would quickly be rehired
for higher paying "green" jobs? The fact that generous unemployment benefits are buried in the bill
means that "green jobs are bunk," the conservative Heritage Foundation's Ben Lieberman told The Examiner.
The Buck Stops
Elsewhere. President Obama wants you to know that nothing is ever his fault. He gave a
speech on national-security matters Thursday [5/21/2009] the gist of which was: George W. Bush left
me a mess, and I'm doing the best I can to clean it up. A more forthright theme would have been:
Radical Islam has thrust the United States into a defensive war, and it's now my duty to protect the
nation — despite legal complications created by left-wing lawyers, many of whom are now working in
my administration.
First Round Knockout.
Proof is defined as confirmation of fact by
evidence. The concept of evidence escapes present-day
Obama because he believes so strongly in his gift: a commanding voice that delivers his ideological rhetoric
with overbearing force. The President actually expects us to believe his word should suffice
sans
evidence.
Obama, Hubris and Cheney. President
Obama's Thursday [5/21/2009] speech was simply breathtaking. ... Standing in the hall of the National Archives,
Obama began by claiming the Constitution as his ancestor. His sophistry soared, claiming that it was our
values that had defeated our enemies throughout history, their soldiers surrendering to ours because they knew we
would treat them better than their own governments.
O So Above It
All. Put Barack Obama in front of a TelePrompTer and one thing is certain — he'll make himself
appear the most reasonable person in the room. Rhetorically, he is in the middle of any debate, perpetually
surrounded by finger-pointing extremists who can't get over their reflexive combativeness and ideological fixations
to acknowledge his surpassing thoughtfulness and grace. This is how Obama, whose position on abortion is
indistinguishable from NARAL's, can speechify on abortion at Notre Dame and come away sounding like a
pitch-perfect centrist.
Still Politicizing
Our Security. Never has a sitting president been as obsessed with scapegoating the policies of the preceding
administration as Barack Obama. We are four months into his administration, folks, and he is still sneering
at — and blaming — Bush and Cheney for our economic woes and national security policies.
You-Won't-Get-A-Credit-Card-Unless-You're-Rich
Bill is Now Law. Amidst the anti-market frenzy in Washington, D.C., President Obama today [5/22/2009] signed
into law a bill that will drive up interest rates on credit cards and force people with good credit to pay more to
subsidize people with bad credit.
Obama's
Credit Card Reform is a Fraud. Congress explicitly rejected any limitation on the interest rate credit
card companies can charge. It remains perfectly legal for them to charge rates that would make a loan shark
blush. ... Competition can do nothing to force down rates since 90% of the credit cards are issued by a handful of
companies. And states are paralyzed when it comes to regulating rates. It is up to Congress to act.
Yet the credit card companies' massive campaign donations succeeded in buying off enough Democrats and virtually all
the Republicans to kill any limits on interest rates.
Where Are the Cries of 'Obama
Lied, Jobs Died'? In mid-February, I identified several clear fibs and pathetic straw-man arguments that
Barack Obama and his teleprompters (not necessarily in that order) employed in four statements he made at his first
presidential briefing and at an appearance in Elkhart, Indiana, earlier that day. It is now painfully clear that
Obama and his apparatchiks have entered an arena many thought Bill Clinton and his crew had all to themselves.
The Myth of Ever
Increasing Fuel Economy. By proposing a set limit for economy on all classes of passenger
vehicles, Barack Obama has basically said one of two things: In 2016, he wants only economy cars
to be sold in the US or he is instructing car companies to squeeze gas from a stone. Since he cannot
change the laws of physics, I envision the date those proposed standards take effect will either be repealed
by the next administration, or continually be delayed. This is just another dictate similar to all
the rest of Obama's plans: not based in reality, but wishful thinking.
More
about Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.
Hope and Change's
Shelf Life. Rather than explaining the bleak choices before us and explaining why his preferences have
the best chance of succeeding, Obama has so far reduced his presidency to two themes: "Bush did it" and "I'm
not your normal white male President." If he keeps this monotony up, at some point even the comedians are
going to notice the predictability.
Obama Blames 7 Straw Men for
Being 'out of money'. The deficit today is not due to Medicaid and Medicare, or even Social Security, all
failed government programs. It is due, in part, to the explosion in entitlements over decades. By shifting the
conversation away from the deficits today onto long-range problems, he creates Straw Man #4 and #5 —
Medicaid and Medicare.
I Feel Your Pain. Not Theirs. Yours. Concerned
that Sotomayor's famed "empathy" might not shine through in cases such as
Ricci v. DeStefano, the Democrats are
claiming — as Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said on MSNBC — that she was merely applying "precedent"
to decide the case. You know, just like conservatives say judges should. This was an interesting claim, in the
sense that it was the exact polar opposite of the truth.
Sotomayor: "Empathy" in
Action. "Empathy" for particular groups can be reconciled with "equal justice under law" — the motto
over the entrance to the Supreme Court — only with smooth words. But not in reality. President
Obama used those smooth words in introducing Judge Sotomayor but words do not change realities.
'We Are Out of Money'. President
Barack Obama handed his political opponents a bludgeon the size of Thor's hammer Saturday [5/23/2009]. In a story
played up by the Drudge Report but virtually ignored by the
New York Times and
Washington Post, C-SPAN's
Steve Scully pointed to the massive financial obligations taken on by his administration and to America's generally lousy
financial forecast. He asked Obama, "At what point do we run out of money?" "Well?" the U.S. president began
with his practiced nod to the unhurried, unflappable style of Ronald Reagan. Then he said it: "We are out of
money now."
Federal Deficit Becomes Nearly
Indecipherable. Did you miss the "good news" on May 12? The Treasury Department, led by tax cheat
Tim Geithner, retroactively reduced the deficit through March 31, the first six months of Uncle Sam's fiscal year, by
over $175 billion.
Obama's vanishing gray hair.
Steve Gilbert assembles the evidence, and it is conclusive. Either President Obama is dying his hair, or it has
miraculously gone from graying to solid black since he took office. At one point in the campaign, as a young and
inexperienced candidate, a little gray was a good thing. But now that he is energetically grabbing control of the
economy, a more youthful look is important.
Obama and the Amazing Trillion
Dollar Dreamcoat. Obama is amazing, a miracle worker in fact. So much so that he has decreed an end to
arithmetic. No way can he spend a trillion here and a trillion there without it adding up. But the O administration
is not very good at addition. Or subtraction.
The
Myth of 5 Million Green Jobs. [Scroll down] The central finding of the study is that —
treating the data optimistically — for every renewable-energy job that the government finances, "Spain's
experience reveals with high confidence, by two different methods, that the U.S. should expect a loss of at least
2.2 jobs on average, or about 9 jobs lost for every 4 created." Despite expensive and extensive
green-job policies, a surprisingly low number of jobs were created. And about two-thirds of those "green" jobs
were just to set up the energy source, in construction, fabrication, installation, marketing and administration.
Only 10 percent of the green jobs created were permanent jobs actually operating and maintaining the renewable sources
of energy.
Thousands of New Jobs 'Created' by Obama's
Stimulus Are Summer Jobs for Teens. At least 12,000 jobs "created" by President Obama's stimulus package
are summer jobs for young people, according to a White House report issued on May 27, 100 days after passage
of the $787-billion American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The White House report, "100 Days, 100 Projects,"
summarizes various projects on infrastructure, renewable energy and "jobs and job training."
Magician-in-chief.
Barack Obama's political magic is based on an ever-growing bag of tricks, relying on illusion, misdirection,
and the media's willingness to believe. Behind the stage presence of openness, bipartisanship, sincerity,
transparency, and geniality are tricks learned from the hardball politics of Chicago. Every magician
needs his stage assistants. Barack Obama has two key people helping to smooth his way: Rahm
Emanuel and David Axelrod. Each knows plenty of tricks of his own.
Transparent nonsense.
The administration repeatedly has stiff-armed Congress, the media, outside organizations and even a prestigious
independent government commission. It has raised "none of your business" from an adolescent rejoinder to
a public policy — to keep the public in the dark. Before examining examples of this alarming
trend, let's remember what newly inaugurated President Obama said in a big press conference on Jan. 21, his
first full day in office. His words and tone could not have been more clear...
"My
Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in
Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of
transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our
democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government."
— Barack Obama
Sources:
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
The Obama
Infatuation. Obama's rhetoric brims with inconsistencies. In the campaign, he claimed he
would de-emphasize partisanship — and also enact a highly-partisan agenda; both couldn't be true.
He got a pass. Now, he claims he will control health care spending even though he proposes more
government spending. He promotes "fiscal responsibility" when projections show huge and continuous budget
deficits. Journalists seem to take his pronouncements at face value even when many are two-faced.
Obama Motors.
President Obama claims to "have no interest" in running General Motors. He does so with a straight
face — and the same monotonous cadence that he employs whether condemning North Korea for nuclear
explosions or joking with Jay Leno. But his actions, as well as his words, betray him. ... Which is
more absurd — his implication that he is the embodiment of the U.S. government or that a former
community organizer, part-time lawyer, part-time lecturer, part-time author, and fulltime politician knows
beans about running the nation's largest automaker?
Double Standard.
Tiller's suspected murderer, Scott Roeder, is white, Christian, anti-government and anti-abortion. The alleged
gunman in the military recruitment center attack, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, is black, a Muslim convert, anti-military
and anti-American. Both crimes are despicable acts of domestic terrorism. The disparate treatment of the two
brutal cases by both the White House and the media is striking.
Obama's wrong numbers.
Appearing with executives of six industry groups on May 11, Mr. Obama announced what he called a "historic" and
"unprecedented commitment" by the medical care industry to "cut the rate of growth of national health care spending by
1.5 percentage points each year" that would yield $2 trillion in savings over 10 years. The story
got front-page play and nightly news coverage across the country. However, after American Hospital Association
President Richard J. Umbdenstock returned to his office, he was besieged by calls from AHA members opposing such
large cuts in spending. Days later, during a conference call with 230 members, he told them the
1.5-percent-a-year savings touted by Mr. Obama was a gross exaggeration.
Obama's Voodoo Health Economics. On
Monday [6/1/2009] President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers released a report called "The Economic Case for Health Care
Reform." The report argues that Americans must curb their consumption of medical care in order to avoid soaring
federal deficits, unsustainable burdens on family budgets, and damage to the economy. All of these claims are untrue.
Obama's
Health Care Reform "Paints the Roses Red". President Obama has correctly identified that Americans spend a
great deal more on health care than any other developed nation. According to the Administration's website, the U.S.
spent over "$2.2 trillion on health care in 2007, or $7,421 per person — nearly twice the average of other
developed nations". But, if Americans are spending too much for health care as the Administration contends,
why does the President's health care reform set aside an additional $634 billion over 10 years, over half
of which will come from tax increases? Apparently, as the Cheshire Cat might say, the new Wonderland logic
means that you lower costs by spending more.
Obama's Health Cost Illusion.
The main White House argument for health-care reform goes something like this: If we spend now on a hugely
expensive new insurance program for the middle class, we can save later by reducing overall U.S. health
spending. ... What if this particular theory turns out to be a political illusion? What if the speculative
cost savings never report for duty, while the federal balance sheet is still swamped with new social obligations
that will be impossible to repeal? The only possible outcome will be the nationalization of U.S. health
markets, which will mean that almost all care will be rationed by politics.
What
Happened While Barack Was 'Saving and Creating'. [Scroll down] And, as if "saved or
created" wasn't a fatuous enough standard to begin with, Obama continues to claim that he's "saved or created"
150,000 jobs during the same time the economy has lost 1.6 million. He could at least drop the
"created" half of the canard. Then, I guess, "Hey, if we hadn't gone $700 billion further into debt
in the last three months, we would have lost 1.75 million jobs" isn't an argument he wants to make.
Sure, the jobs news isn't great, but Obama has to start showing some bang for the buck he's "investing" in
"recovery," according to the newest Gallup numbers, which show his approval ratings slipping on spending and
handling of the deficit.
To
stimulate the economy, let it be free. Lobbying is about the only sector of the economy experiencing
a boom right now. This is a predictable effect of the tax-and-spend stimulus model favored by both major
political parties. Taking money out of the economy, wasting some of it on bureaucracy, and then putting it
back in is not going to spark economic growth. About the only thing that has been sparked is a lobbying
feeding frenzy over stimulus funding.
The Media Fall for Phony 'Jobs' Claims.
"Saved or created" has become the signature phrase for Barack Obama as he describes what his stimulus is doing
for American jobs. His latest invocation came yesterday, when the president declared that the stimulus
had already saved or created at least 150,000 American jobs — and announced he was ramping up some
of the stimulus spending so he could "save or create" an additional 600,000 jobs this summer. These numbers
come in the context of an earlier Obama promise that his recovery plan will "save or create three to four million
jobs over the next two years."
Obama's economic
spin machine. The Obama administration was out in full force defending the stimulus this
weekend. The mantra is that the economy is getting better but Americans need to be patient to see
progress. The problem is that, so far, there hasn't been any economic progress.
Obama
quotes verse 5:32, omits 5:33. The supposedly noble sentiments of the first verse, taken from a Jewish
source, are entirely undercut by the second verse, which becomes a bloodthirsty menacing by Muhammad of the Jews.
(And as an aside the Muslim sources estimate Muhammad killed 24,000 Jews in his jihad campaigns against them). Far
from abjuring violence, these verses aggressively insist that any who oppose the Muslim prophet will be killed, or
crucified, mutilated, and banished.
Health Care Huckster. The biggest
obstacle President Obama faces in selling his health care agenda could be the albatross of his own economic stimulus
package. During its last major sales push, the Obama administration promised the $787 billion stimulus
legislation would create up to 4 million jobs over the next two years, serve as a model of transparency, and be free of
earmarks. But those claims haven't held up so well.
The smothering
embrace of nanny government. When President Barack Obama tells you he's "reforming" health care
to "control costs," the point to remember is that the only way to "control costs" in health care is to have
less of it. In a government system, the doctor, the nurse, the janitor and the Assistant Deputy Associate
Director of Cost-Control System Management all have to be paid every Friday, so the sole means of "controlling
costs" is to restrict the patient's access to treatment.
Why
the suddenly shy press corps? The administration is trying to muddy the waters by its constant use
of the meaningless metric "jobs saved or created" -- as President Obama did yet again when he said that
the stimulus bill would result in 600,000 jobs "saved or created this summer." But the May
unemployment numbers put the lie to this slippery formulation. The administration told us that with
the stimulus bill we would have 8 percent unemployment and without it we would have 8.7 percent
unemployment. In reality, we have 9.4 percent unemployment. How did the stimulus manage
to "save" jobs when there are a million less jobs today than there would have been if Congress hadn't
passed it?
Watching How Hopenchange is Made:
It seems clear that, if the public knew what is in this [Waxman-Markey] bill, and how much it may cost them,
they would concur with this analysis: it is a "disaster." But the Democrats plan to ram it through
without hearings or even public availability of the relevant text. The same legislative process that brought
us trillion-dollar stimulus spending and trillion-dollar deficit budgets is about to replicate itself yet
again. Why so fast? Aside from the obvious reasons, there is a need to make room for the next bill
to be railroaded through on a fast track by a one-party Congress.
What
is going on with the Cap and Trade bill?. The bill is only available online at the House Rules
Committee and is reported as "text of the bill to be introduced." Despite having a bill, H.R. 2454,
that has been reported out of the Energy & Commerce Committee and discharged by eight other committees,
there is now, suddenly, a new bill that is almost 300-pages longer -- but it's still being considered
as H.R. 2454.
Did
someone mention Cap and Trade?
Democrats
are relying on deception again. Support for any Democratic policy initiative requires dishonesty, and
the health plan being pushed by President Barack Obama is no exception. Let's examine what the proponents of
government health care are saying. First, there are 46 million uninsured people in the United States.
Even though this may be literally true, it is deliberately misleading. And, it is often stated as "46 million
without health care," which is not just misleading, it's an outright lie.
Gibbs-erish. Such is the lot of
the White House press secretary that he will stick to the White House line, no matter how dumb it sounds. Robbert
Gibbs was up at bat on Thursday [7/2/2009] and went down swinging. In the process he pointed out just how untenable
the White House spin is.
The Empirical President.
Instead of data, the president offers humbug. The great genius of American ingenuity, he suggests, after
receiving billions in government "investments," will create new technologies for extracting usable and cheap
energy from wind, solar, and geothermal sources. But if those technologies are just a wish away, why have
they not been discovered already by businesses hoping to undersell oil and gas? Note that nuclear power,
the one "green" source that is empirically proven to provide relatively inexpensive power without producing
greenhouse gases, is not even on the president's agenda.
40 Acres and a President.
During the election, despite having been portrayed as America's first post-racial candidate, Barack Obama actually
represented the complete opposite. With astonishing cunning and guile, a type that his opponents could
have never imagined possible, Obama and his campaign unabashedly and tenaciously used race to goad Americans
into believing that voting for him would right the wrongs of America's racial history.
Obama's
Economic Incoherence. As the unemployment rate climbs beyond the administration's projections,
Vice President Joe Biden informs us that the administration "misread how bad the economy was." Apparently,
we were going to experience a once-in-a-lifetime economic crisis comparable to the Great Depression without a
particularly high unemployment rate. This was the promise of the Obama administration, which indulged in
hair-raisingly alarmist economic rhetoric while pumping out unduly hopeful economic projections.
Spread Freedom?
Not So Much. The Obama Doctrine is finally coming into focus. ... Obama himself insists that he's
guided by nothing other than a cool-headed pragmatism. Indeed, Obama has a grating habit of describing any
position not his own as "ideological," as if his is the only sober, practical understanding of the problems we
face. ... This attitude has allowed him to dismiss opponents of socialized medicine and the government takeover
of various industries as "ideologues," and critics of trillions in debt-fueled spending as small-minded
cranks.
'Put
nothing in writing,' Browner told auto execs on secret White House CAFE talks. Carol Browner, former
Clinton administration EPA head and current Obama White House climate czar, instructed auto industry execs "to
put nothing in writing, ever" regarding secret negotiations she orchestrated regarding a deal to increase
federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI, is demanding a
congressional investigation of Browner's conduct in the CAFE talks, saying in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman,
D-CA, that Browner "intended to leave little or no documentation of the deliberations that lead to stringent
new CAFE standards."
Stuttering Stimulus. Those who
pushed through this year's $787 billion fiscal "stimulus" seem to be counting on the American people's short memory.
Wasn't it just last year that we were told, repeatedly and with stark emphasis, that this economy was the "worst" since the
Great Depression? That was the pretense for not only the stimulus, but for the federal takeover of the U.S. auto
industry and the quasi-takeover of the U.S. financial industry. ... If the stimulus passed, the White House vowed,
unemployment would peak at 8%. Today, it's 9.5% — and rising. "The truth is, we and everyone else misread
the economy," said Biden. He used that phrase — "the truth is," or something similar — at
least three times in a talk with ABC's George Stephanopolous. But the "truth is" something quite different.
Obama's Op-Ed,
Annotated. At a press conference a few weeks ago, when confronted with the disparity between his
administration's projected unemployment figures under the stimulus (8 percent) and the real unemployment figures
(9.7 percent), Obama said, "Keep in mind the stimulus package was the first thing we did... If you recall, it was
only significantly later that we suddenly get a report that the economy had tanked." So Obama took office amid the
most severe downturn since the Great Depression, at a time when the country was hemorrhaging jobs and the financial
system was on the brink of collapse. He said as much a week before signing the stimulus into law. But
don't blame him for overselling the impact the stimulus would have — his administration was totally
blindsided by a sudden report that the economy had tanked!
Obama Can't Be Trusted With Numbers.
The administration consistently pledges unrealistic results that it later distances itself from. It has gotten away with
it because the media haven't asked many pointed questions. That may not last as the debate shifts to health care.
The Audacity of Conceit. It
is a common mistake of intellectuals to confuse IQ with common sense and verbal fluency with leadership qualities. ... Nobody
would deny that the members of Obama's circle of economic advisors are indeed academically adept, well-spoken men and
women. But have any of them ever run a lemonade stand, much less a bona fide business? Have they ever met a
payroll? ... So what do they bring to the administration other than long resumes and fearsome reputations as intellectual
polemicists? All these brilliant academics have been brought on board for the sole purpose of lending an intellectual
veneer to Obama's political schemes and validate his power grab.
Hoyer Says Small Businesses Don't Make
$280,000 Per Year So They Won't Be Hurt. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that job growth
and economic recovery would not be harmed by a Democratic plan to increase income taxes by $540 billion to pay
for their health-care reform proposal because the tax hikes would not affect small businesses.
The President Moves the Economic Goalposts.
So what's a president to do when the promises he made about his economic stimulus program fail to materialize? If
you're Barack Obama, you redefine your goals and act as if America won't remember what you said originally. That's
a neat trick if you can get away with it, but Mr. Obama won't. His words are a matter of public record and he will
be held to them.
Numbers Don't
Lie — Except When They're Fabricated. Anyone who remembers his campaign pronouncement that
a Kansas tornado had left "ten thousand dead" and "an entire town destroyed" (the 2007 storm actually killed twelve
people) knows that President Obama hasn't been one to worry about playing fast and loose with a few facts or numbers.
However, Mr. Obama's dogged refusal to deviate from his "150,000 jobs created or saved" by the $787,000,000,000.00
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is beginning to lend itself to more than a little head-scratching.
Mr. Obama and his administration have been making the claim for several weeks now.
Obama wags the dog. President
Obama's political strategy has finally crystallized: When all else fails, blame Bush-Cheney. And make no mistake
about it — all else has failed. ... Congressional Democrats and Obama seem to be disturbingly comfortable
with placing partisanship before national security and are not above manufacturing a scandal as a means to
achieve their objective.
Obama's Ethics: There was
an overwhelmingly fictional quality to President Obama's press conference last night from his opening remarks
on. Promoting his notional health care reform plan, whatever it is, he endlessly asserts a set of talking
points that would be demonstrably false if we had the text of a plan to check it against, such as the House's
thousand-page monstrosity. When he is about to unleash a whopper of special magnitude, Obama emits a
tell-tale sign. He prefaces it with "let me be clear" or "understand this." Last night [7/22/2009]
he achieved such "clarity" twice in his opening remarks.
IG-Gate: Connecting the
SIGTARP Dots. The Obama administration's promises of "transparency" are being revealed as lies
on the magnitude of "The check's in the mail" ... Avoiding public scrutiny of reckless misappropriation of
taxpayer dollars is at least one possible motive for the legislation sponsored by Rep. John Larson
(D-Conn.) ... that would give President Obama power to fire and replace five IGs at federal financial
oversight agencies.
Did someone mention
the Walpin scandal?
"Miss
Information". [Linda Douglass] makes no attempt whatsoever to prove her assertion that Obama's
comments were out of context or irrelevant. And that's what's sort of interesting to me. Her rebuttal
technique is truly Obamaesque, in that she does what Obama himself does: Quotes Obama as proof that
Obama is always right.
Obamacare Meltdown. The revelation
last week that a majority of Americans may actually disagree with the President was something for which his
team was clearly not prepared. Their attempt to marginalize citizens across the country who dared to
speak out against a government-takeover of health care is shameful, arrogant, and desperately sad. With
the American people growing increasingly unhappy with the President's health care plan, Democrats in Congress
are working feverishly to cast those who are concerned as radical props to the special interests. Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a sign of bold leadership, last week told reporters that protests of
government-run health care were "phony" and "staged."
Barry, Barry,
Quite Contrary. I want to express my deep disappointment with your continued refusal to address
my questions about the new health care reform bill currently being pushed through Congress. A few days
ago, I sent you several dozen questions about the bill. You did not answer a single one of them.
Instead, you keep sending me form emails.
White House Acknowledges Unsolicited
E-Mails on Health Care. The White House for the first time Sunday [8/16/2009] somewhat acknowledged
that people across the country received unsolicited e-mails last week on health care from the administration,
suggesting the problem on third-party groups it claimed placed the recipients' names on the distribution list.
In a written statement released exclusively to FOX News, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said the White House
hopes those who received the e-mails without signing up for them were not "inconvenienced" by the messages.
The Editor says...
The White House explanation was, in so many words, that their web site was hacked, and some malicious third
party loaded up the White House computer with email addresses. It's the old "somebody else did it"
excuse. If the White House story is true, then the people in charge of the White House web site are
incompetent. If the story is not true, then the White House is being run by liars. Take your
pick: they are incompetent or they are dishonest.
White
House Blames E-Mail Controversy on 'Sinister Conspiracy Theories' . The White House is blaming
the controversy over its Web site and mass e-mails on viral rumors, "fear-mongering" and "sinister conspiracy
theories" even as it acknowledges problems with its online practices. After confirming to FOX News over
the weekend that third-party groups could be responsible for official White House e-mails that have been sent
to people who never signed up for them, President Obama's new media director took to the official White House
blog to "clear up" the confusion.
Meet the new
crop of White House Fellows. Now I am sure all these people are fine people. But the
White House Fellows are supposed to be chosen on a strictly non-partisan basis. Do you think this crew
of community organizers, activists, and environmentalists were evenly split along partisan lines — as
is the nation is as a whole?
Who's Running the
Show? Is Eric Holder running the administration, or is the president disingenuous
when he denies responsibility for reactivating the investigation of CIA detainee-interrogation
cases? ... Either Obama is lying about his objectives at Justice or his attorney general is
seriously off the reservation. At the next prime-time press conference, someone might
ask Obama who is running the show.
Overcoming 'Remote-Control'
Government. The elaborate shell game local politicians play with our money is the biggest
threat to our freedom.
Senate Cloaks Obamacare. You can't read the bill
because they refuse to put it in writing. And you'd better not oppose it because the government will try to muzzle
you. President Obama has consistently refused to put his details into legislative language, and now the U.S. Senate
is doing the same thing. Rather than respecting public demands for transparency, they're figuratively spitting in
the public's face.
Obama's
foreign policy vision not so new age. President Obama's speeches often claim "the time has
come" for something, or "the days" of this or that "are over." It's as if his presidency has introduced
a new epoch. I used to think that invoking the vision of a new age was merely a rhetorical device to
distinguish him from George W. Bush. Now I think it is something more — a way to make
a very old philosophy sound new and failed policies of the past seem fresh and exciting.
Will the Real Barack
Obama Please Stand Up? In a clever twist on the 1960's quiz show, the President of the United
States is playing all three figures himself, all professing to be the real Barack Obama. The centrist
is a leftist, the post-racial plays the race card, the post-partisan is anything but. He supports free
markets, then nationalizes one after another. He swears to "preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution," but says it is defective and walks all over it. He denies being a socialist or a
fascist, but who is he really. Wright and Ayres were just a pastor and a guy in the neighborhood,
but seem to be more. Obama is an American, but seems to loathe America. Obama is the
chameleon in the White House.
The Obama team manipulates the news media
This subsection is now on another page,
located
here.
Flip-flops and broken promises
Congress and Obama Show Contempt for Americans.
Congress is showing contempt for the American people by excluding them from the crafting of Obamacare. The president
promised in his campaign he'd deliver transparency, saying, "I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table" with
everybody involved. Those that can't make it would be able to see "the negotiations televised on C-SPAN." Too
bad this isn't happening: yet another broken Obama promise.
If Obama Had Told Us Before His Election.
If Barack Obama had campaigned on what he has actually done in his first 300 days in office, would he have been
elected? ... If Obama had admitted that his health care plan would include the same provisions for which he ran negative
TV ads against Hillary Clinton (a federal mandate requiring every American to buy health insurance) and against John McCain
(a tax on high-cost employer-based plans), would Obama have been elected?
Barack
Obama's Top 10 unfulfilled pledges. Less than nine months into his four-year term of office, President Barack
Obama's record is already one of abandoned promises, sidelined issues and lack of action.
Obama the Great Divider.
In one of life's delicious ironies, the President, who campaigned as the Great Uniter, is worsening the split
between the right and left and losing support in the process.
Obama's missing millions.
Only last month In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, President Obama declared: "I don't have to explain to you
that nearly 46 million Americans don't have health insurance coverage today. In the wealthiest nation
on Earth, 46 million of our fellow citizens have no coverage." Tonight Obama declared that "[t]here
are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. The number of our fellow
citizens who have no coverage is 30 million."
Obama Signs Law Banning Federal Embryo
Research Two Days After Signing Executive Order to OK It. On Wednesday, only two days after he lifted
President Bush's executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human
embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicilty bans federal funding of any "research in which a human
embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."
Obama dodges transparency
pledge. If President Obama signs the $787 billion economic stimulus legislation Monday, he'll again be dodging
a campaign pledge he made on transparency. During the campaign, Obama pledged to post legislation online for five days
before signing it. But administration officials have said they don't have to do that for the stimulus because the
pledge applied only to non-emergency legislation.
The
Fierce Urgency of Pork. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier
declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a [stimulus] bill.
And so much for the promise to banish the money changers and influence peddlers from the temple. An
ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen
current or former lobbyists to high position.
Dems' Big Risk. Congressional liberals must
think Americans have very short memories. For years the Left trashed the Bush administration for not capturing
and killing Osama bin Laden. Democrats claimed they could get the job done. Campaigning for president,
Barack Obama made "We will kill bin Laden" a regular part of his foreign policy stump speech. But as the political
winds have shifted, so has the nature of the Left's indictments.
House fails to zero out carbon.
It was a bold promise: the House would "lead by example" to fight global warming, becoming the first
legislative body in the world to zero out its carbon impact on the planet. Too bold, perhaps. The
House quietly shelved the idea late last month, the word
delivered in an e-mail to a couple of reporters.
It turned out that the House's goal to become carbon neutral — by removing as much carbon dioxide
from the air as it releases — could not be guaranteed.
Italics added.
Same
old fudges and loopholes in Obama's new era of ethics. On the campaign trail, candidate Barack
Obama vowed to fix Washington's "broken politics", which had become "gummed up by money and influence".
In the age of Obama, he promised, government would no longer be "a tool to enrich friends and high-priced
lobbyists". The stakes were too high to play the "same old Washington games with the same old Washington
players". The slogan was: "Change you can believe in." Now that he is in office, however,
the new dawn is looking like a false one. His administration is crammed to the gills with alumni of Bill
Clinton's White House; Hillary Clinton, whom Obama mocked as the epitome of what was wrong with politics,
is now secretary of state.
Despite Obama's
promises, rival views are scrubbed from White House. Only weeks ago, the political world was
buzzing about a "team of rivals." America was told that finally, after years of yes-men running the
government, we were getting a president who would follow President Abraham Lincoln's lead, fill his
administration with varying viewpoints, and glean empirically sound policy from the clash of ideas.
Little did we know that "team of rivals" was what George Orwell calls "newspeak": an empty slogan
"claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts."
Broken Earmark Promises. Wednesday —
behind closed doors — President Barack Obama signed his 2009 Omnibus spending package, calling it an "imperfect"
bill. With 8,570 disclosed earmarks worth $7.7 billion "imperfect" is an understatement. It's bad enough
that our president was in an irresponsible rush to spend hundreds of billions with his "stimulus" package ($787 billion),
and soon $350 million in the second half of the TARP funds, $32 billion — at least — for his
new SCHIP program, and now $410 billion in his "imperfect" omnibus bill, but on top of that, he's been dishonest.
Obama Breaks Tax Pledge, Signs SCHIP. Barely two weeks
after assuming the presidency, Barack Obama signed into law a bill expanding a health insurance subsidy and
breaking one of the central promises of his candidacy. Obama's February 4 signing of the State
Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) expansion bill more than doubled the federal cigarette tax, even
though he had pledged he would not raise taxes on Americans earning less than $250,000 a year. Taxes
on various classes of cigars also increased.
Obama's First Tax Hike.
President Obama approved his first tax hike today [2/4/2009]. The bill he signed to expand the State
Children's Health Insurance Program contains a provision to increase taxes on tobacco by a whopping
155 percent. That means the federal taxes on cigarettes have gone up an additional 61 cents
a pack. This brings federal taxes on a pack of cigarettes to $1 per pack total.
Promises, Promises: Obama
tax pledge up in smoke. One of President Barack Obama's campaign pledges on taxes went up in
puffs of smoke Wednesday [4/1/2009]. The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama's
promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.
This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.
Promises, Promises: Is Obama dog
a rescue or not? Barack Obama and his wife Michelle said during the presidential campaign that they had
promised their two girls a dog after the election. The Obamas repeatedly said they wanted it to be a rescued dog
such as one from a shelter. Their search was complicated by daughter Malia's allergies, which would rule out
many of the "mutts" the president has said he would prefer.
Obama's
dog Bo: Cute but what about promise to adopt? Now that the dust has settled, we know that Bo is
a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog, a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.
Forgoing shelter dog may put Obama in
doghouse. President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise to his daughters with their new
puppy, but the decision to forgo a shelter dog is sure to leave some animal activists growling.
Bad Barack gets the best of Good
Barack — again!. Anybody who watched the President's economic speech yesterday saw the
battle of the two Obamas. Good Barack and Bad Barack were struggling for control, with the former
demonstrating his charismatic appeal and the latter revealing a bad habit of distorting the views of critics.
The chip on his shoulder about wealth is still there, too, a timely reminder that April 15 could mean an unhappy
return for millions of Americans in coming years.
Los Angeles or
Waterboarding? My guess is that President Obama realizes it was a big mistake for his administration
to release four memos written by Bush administration lawyers sanctioning enhanced interrogation techniques.
Already, rage on the left has prompted Obama to go squishy on his once-insistent opposition to prosecuting any Bush
administration officials. Now he says he might let his attorney general prosecute Bush lawyers. That
would be criminalizing the politics of 2002.
Obama and a
lesson from Thucydides. During his campaign, Obama made more than 500 promises. By one
account, he has to date kept 28 of those promises, taken no action on more than 400, and broken 6 promises,
including the key promise not to sign any "non-emergency" bill "without giving the American public an
opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days." Obama called this "sunlight
before signing." What we've had, though, is signing before moonshine.
Transparency in union finances
a thing of the past. Ignoring their own rhetoric about the value of transparency and openness, the Obama
administration is "rolling back rules requiring labor unions and their leaders to report information about their finances
and compensation," according to [a] Washington Times report written by Jim McElhatton.
Obama team
reverses union transparency. The Obama administration, which has boasted about its efforts to
make government more transparent, is rolling back rules requiring labor unions and their leaders to report
information about their finances and compensation. The Labor Department noted in a recent disclosure
that "it would not be a good use of resources" to bring enforcement actions against union officials who do not
comply with conflict of interest reporting rules passed in 2007. Instead, union officials will now be
allowed to file older, less detailed conflict reports.
The Gathering Storm Over Guns.
Barely 100 days into the new Obama-Biden administration, ominous storm clouds are already gathering over your
most fundamental right as a free citizen: Your right to own a gun to protect yourself, your family and
your freedom. Betraying all their campaign promises to protect your right to keep and bear arms or your
freedom to hunt, the Obama administration has put its chess pieces in place and set in motion its strategy to
do just the opposite.
Obama
gives the far Left 99 dreamy days. Obama was elected as a different kind of candidate who could
be trusted to deliver genuine change. But virtually every one of his 99 days in the nation's highest
office have revealed him to be just another Washington pol who talks a good case but acts no differently when
it comes to keeping promises.
Again...
Obama to break '5 days' pledge.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to sign the credit card reform bill on Friday. ... But this high-profile,
high-priority event clashes with what once was deemed another top presidential priority: Obama's
campaign promise that he would "not sign any nonemergency bill without giving the American public an
opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days."
Obama
ducks promise to delay bill signings'. It seemed among the easiest of his transparency pledges and is
entirely under his control, but President Obama is finagling his promise to post bills on the White House Web site for
comment for five days before he signs them. Mr. Obama last week signed four bills, each just a day or two after
Congress passed and sent it over to him.
Joe Wilson
Raps Pelosi Over Making Bills Available Online. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) marshaled his newfound celebrity
Friday [9/25/2009] by sending a fundraising letter to Republicans that accuses House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of
failing to post all bills online at least 72 hours prior to votes. Wilson, who rose to notoriety for interrupting
President Obama's health-care address to Congress by yelling "You Lie!," charged Friday that Democratic congressional
leaders "continue to spin and mislead the public" in the contentious debate over health-care reform.
It's Undemocratic To Read Before You Vote?
House Resolution 554 would require that all major legislation be posted on the web for public review for a minimum of
72 hours before it could be brought to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives. No more dropping
thousand-page bills and hundreds of pages of amendments at the last minute barring not only the public but members of
Congress from reading the bills — forcing votes on legislation members haven't been allowed or given
the time to read.
Barack
Obama is blind to his blunders over Islam. For the past week or so, the Middle East has been
abuzz with speculation about Barack Obama's "historic address to the Muslim world" to be delivered in Cairo
on Thursday [6/4/2009]. During his presidential campaign, Obama had promised to make such a move within
his first 100 days at the White House. In the event, the first 100 days came and went without
Obama delivering on his promise.
Lies Obama Told Me.
Remember way back in 2008 when George Bush was still the President and everyone on the left was screeching about
lies? If you can't remember that far back just flip over to MSNBC and wait a few minutes they'll be happy
to remind you. I thought I would write a short piece about the lies we have already heard from President
Obama. I did little research and there are plenty of websites that focus on a lot of picayune stuff and things
from long ago. I decided to stick to direct quotes from the President within the last 18 months.
Black's Law Dictionary, 1991, page 1001.
No Energy from this
Executive. "As I've often said, in the short term, as we transition to renewable energy," President
Obama stated in April, "we can and should increase our domestic production of oil and natural gas. ... We still
need more oil, we still need more gas. If we've got some here in the United States that we can use, we
should find it and do so in an environmentally sustainable way." Does anyone believe Obama was serious
about this? Given his practice of misdirection — saying one thing, doing another — no one
should have. Now, nearly five months into the Obama presidency, it's clear he didn't mean a
word of it. His administration is impeding, not promoting, increased production of oil and gas,
as it is of coal and nuclear power.
Obama's trail of broken promises.
It's true that politicians have always broken promises, but rarely so proudly and with such impunity. We
once respected democracy by at least demanding explanations — however weak — for
unfulfilled promises. Then we became a country whose scorched-earth campaigns against flip-flopping
desensitized us to reversals.
Driving Taxes Upward:
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama endeared himself to many voters with a promise that 95 percent
of Americans would get a tax cut. Those making under $250,000 "would not see a single dime of tax
increase — not on anything." Yet since Obama's victory, spending has skyrocketed. It
was only a matter of time before his pledge fell by the wayside.
Flashback: Obama
Said Terrorists Shouldn't Get Miranda Rights. In September 2008, when McCain-Palin pulled ahead of
Obama-Biden, Candidate Obama publicly mocked Sarah Palin's suggestion that Obama favored giving captured terrorists
Miranda warnings. It happened in Farmington Hills, Michigan. ... And two months after his Inauguration,
President Obama reiterated, "Now, do these folks deserve miranda rights? Do they deserve to be treated like a
shoplifter down the block? Of course not."
After Candidate Obama opposed it...
Obama
Justice Department Defends Defense Of Marriage Act. President Obama's Justice Department filed legal papers
late Thursday [6/11/2009] to dismiss the first same sex marriage case filed in federal court. The Justice Department
defended the Defense Of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which as a candidate then-Sen. Obama opposed, saying that the plaintiffs
Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer are seeking a ruling on "whether by virtue of their marital status they are
constitutionally entitled to acknowledgment of their union by states that do not recognize same-sex marriage, and
whether they are similarly entitled to certain federal benefits. Under the law binding on this Court, the
answer to these questions must be no."
Raising
taxes by the mile. During the 2008 presidential campaign, President Obama endeared himself to many voters
with a promise that 95 percent of Americans would get a tax cut and those making under $250,000 "would not see a
single dime of tax increase — not on anything." Since Obama won and he's already spent so much, it
was only a matter of time before his pledge went by the wayside.
Four Integrity Tests for President Obama.
Accepting a huge spending bill loaded with pork earmarks it starkly contradictory to what Obama promised during
the campaign. During the campaign this is what candidate Obama said: "We need earmark reform.
And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure we're not spending money unwisely." He has
talked repeatedly about fiscal responsibility and real change in politics. Talk is cheap. This
spending bill is not. Not with over 9,000 earmarks totaling some $12 billion.
EPA
Suppresses Internal Global Warming Study, CEI Says. Scientific findings at odds with the Obama
Administration's views on carbon dioxide and climate change are being suppressed as a result of political
pressure, officials at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) charge. "This suppression of valid
science for political reasons is beyond belief," said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman. "EPA's conduct is
even more outlandish because it flies in the face of the president's widely-touted claim that 'the days of
science taking a back seat to ideology are over.'"
Unions
To Get Dues from ObamaCare. Thousands of union members rallied for Obamacare on Capitol Hill
today [6/26/2009] in a massive display of union outreach that threatened to deliver more votes for a
controversial "public plan" option. The rally came on the heels of Obama raising the possibility that
unions would be exempt from taxing health care benefits. Obama said he was open to imposing new taxes
on Americans who are not union members, which is a principle he adamantly opposed during his presidential
campaign.
The Partisan President.
If you're a Democrat and voted against the bill, you're a smart politician and to be forgiven. If you're a Republican
and voted against the bill, you're a Neanderthal and to be ridiculed.
Barack Obama is
a Big Fat Liar. Flip-flops are nothing new in politics ... [but] it takes a certain moral
venality to casually adopt, as president, a position that was a dominant theme of your argument for why
your opponent should
not be president. ... [D]uring Wednesday's p.r. push for his health-care
plan, Obama refused to rule out the proposal that he once said made John McCain unfit for office.
'Barack
Obama is a Big Fat Liar,' Illustrated [with video clips]. I went back and found a number of the
ads Obama ran against McCain on this front. The impending expiration of this particular campaign promise
is especially galling when one actually views the ads themselves — bearing in mind that the risky,
out-of-touch, unaffordable, deal-breaking healthcare policies these ads ruthlessly targeted are now
on the brink of being embraced by their one-time chief critic.
Smoke gets in your ice.
Many Americans find the debate in Washington over adopting a "cap-and-trade" program to reduce carbon dioxide
a bit confusing. That's understandable. Put simply, it's a tax on energy consumption. In fact,
it would be a huge tax. If enacted, cap-and-trade would be one of the government's largest revenue sources
within the next decade. It also would break one of President Obama's promises. In his speech before
Congress in February, he said, "If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes
increased a single dime." Unless you use energy, apparently.
Brace
yourself for higher taxes. President Obama had said in September, 2008: "I can make a firm
pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.
Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes." This
pledge has already been broken, at least with respect to federal tobacco taxes. But the White House has,
until very recently, maintained the fiction that the promise is still in effect with respect to the taxes
everyone pays. Then, in a television appearance on Sunday [6/28/2009], White House advisor
David Axelrod refused to re-commit to Obama's pledge.
Obama's
Newspeak. Remember signing statements? Those were the dastardly little postscripts George Bush
attached to legislation that he didn't completely approve of. ... On the campaign trail, candidate Obama was asked, "Do
you promise not to use presidential [signing statements] to get your way?" "Yes," he answered. "I taught the
Constitution for 10 years, I believe in the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution of the United States.
We are not going to use signing statements as a way of doing an end run around Congress." That was easy! Less
easy is explaining away his six signing statements so far, an impressive one-a-month clip.
Promises, Promises: Obama tax pledge
unrealistic. President Barack Obama promised to fix health care and trim the federal budget deficit, all
without raising taxes on anyone but the wealthiest Americans. It's a promise he's already broken and will likely
have to break again.
Five
Criticisms of George Bush That Could Be Better Applied to Barack Obama. Barack Obama has
already broken more campaign promises in less than six months than Bush did in two terms. Obama promised
no tax increases for people under $250,000 and he's working on multiple bills, including health care and cap
and trade, that would raise taxes even on the poor. He promised transparency, to hold all bills for
5 days before they are signed so the public could comment. It hasn't happened once yet. Barack
even promised to "negotiate health care reform in public sessions televised on C-SPAN." How's that
pie-in-the-sky promise working out?
The Era of Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
The saying "You break it, you own it" applies to politicians in Washington, D.C. With the addition of Senator
Al Franken (D-MN), liberals completely control federal legislative and executive power. President Barack
Obama has governed as a liberal, not the moderate senator he portrayed himself as during the campaign.
O's Broken
Promises. President Obama promises that "if you like your health plan, you can keep it," even after he
reforms our health-care system. That's untrue. The bills now before Congress would force you to switch to a
managed-care plan with limits on your access to specialists and tests. Two main bills are being rushed through
Congress with the goal of combining them into a finished product by August. Under either, a new government
bureaucracy will select health plans that it considers in your best interest, and you will have to enroll in one of
these "qualified plans."
Obama White House
breaks another promise to reject Bush secrecy. Well, at least it's bipartisan. The still
sort-of-new Barack Obama Democratic administration has again adopted another policy straight out of the
administration of his much-criticized Republican predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama administration
officials have rejected a watchdog group's request for a list of healthcare industry executives who've been
meeting secretly in the White House with Obama staffers to discuss healthcare changes being drafted there and
in Congress.
Obama
administration defends Bush wiretapping. While campaigning against President George W. Bush,
Barack Obama had pledged that there would be "no more wiretapping of American citizens," but President Obama's
administration has continued to use many of his predecessor's arguments when it comes to warrantless wiretapping.
Synopsis
from RISKS forum.
Obama on Afghanistan: victory is a four-letter
word. [Scroll down slowly] I suspect Obama is ignorant in the worst way: he's ignorant of the
extent of his ignorance. Or perhaps he's not ignorant at all, but purposely twisting the truth. Or maybe each,
at different times. This tendency of Obama's has been in evidence in many of his speeches: his summary of the
Cold War, which he got entirely wrong. His Cairo address to the Muslim world on their history and that of the West,
in which "almost every one of his references was either misleading or incomplete." On the campaign trail, when he
showed astounding historical ignorance (or prevarication; take your choice) in his mischaracterization of the Berlin
airlift. Obama's errors are not random; they fit a certain pattern...
Obama's
Insidious War on the Middle Class: Like a PacMan gobbling up everything in sight, going after folks
making more than $250,000 a year is not enough to satisfy Obama's insatiable appetite for money and power. He
wants more. Although it means breaking a campaign promise to only tax the "rich," Obama's mad rush for
revenue to fund his social engineering has transformed his agenda into a war against the middle class.
An old dog keeps
his teeth. The Democrats are trying to stuff a health care scheme down the throats of Americans who clearly
don't like it, don't want it and can't pay for it ... President Obama, who insisted for months that he had to have
his health care "reform" by Aug. 7 or Saturn would collide with Pluto, suddenly insists that there was
never anything magic about a date in August.
Unread Lips. Could Obama have
been elected president without promising not to raise taxes on the middle class? Would Americans have trusted him
with the highest office in the land if he had proposed replacing all private health insurance with a Euro-style,
socialistic, single-payer system?
Obama gives
powerful drug lobby a seat at healthcare table. As a candidate for president, Barack Obama lambasted drug
companies and the influence they wielded in Washington. He even ran a television ad targeting the industry's chief lobbyist,
former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin, and the role Tauzin played in preventing Medicare from negotiating for lower drug
prices. Since the election, Tauzin has morphed into the president's partner.
Tax trial balloon pops.
The Obama administration on Monday quickly shot down a trial balloon it floated over the weekend that opened the possibility
of new taxes on the middle class after the idea came under heavy fire from labor unions, liberal leaders and Republicans.
Soaking
the middle class. Having doubled the federal budget deficit in just six months in office, the
Obama administration now says that the expanding deficit threatens the nation's fragile economic recovery and
will require sacrifice to contain. Sacrifice in the form of middle-class tax hikes, according to Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner and Chief Economic Adviser Larry Summers. Voters who swallowed candidate
Barack Obama's oft-repeated pledge not to increase taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year may
be surprised to hear this warning. But they shouldn't be.
What
Obama and My Wife Have in Common. [Scroll down] Mr. President, you promised the American
people that you are "committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government." In fact,
in your July 23 prime-time news conference, you said that your administration has been more transparent
than previous administrations: "I think that we have provided much greater transparency than existed
prior to our administration coming in." So again, I ask: Why not live out that transparency promise
by posting your original birth certificate and end the division and debate?
Did
someone mention President Obama's birth certificate again?
You
can bet on it: Obama will raise your taxes. Economists left and right have long argued that
there is no way Obama can pay for a national health care makeover and a host of other expensive initiatives without
breaking his campaign pledge not to raise taxes for anyone making less than $250,000. The wealthy are already
paying a grossly disproportionate percentage of federal income taxes, and increasing taxes on them won't raise enough
money to meet Obama's needs.
7 Lies of The Obama
Administration. [For example] During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama said several times that he
intended to negotiate health care reform publicly. In fact, he said, he'd televise the negotiations on C-SPAN,
with all the parties sitting at a big table. That way, Americans would be more engaged in the process and insist
on real change. ... However, the two biggest deals so far — industry agreements to cut drug and
hospital costs — were reached in secret.
Obama's
whopper on a middle-class tax hike. When former President George H.W. Bush reneged on his 1988 no-tax
pledge two years later, it cost him a second term. Now, President Obama seems headed down the same dead end.
Video
proof: Obama wants a single-payer system. One video is worth a thousand words (or, as in this column,
about 730). The video in question, put together by a group called Verum Serum, shows public statements by three
advocates of single-payer (government monopoly) health insurance explaining that a health care bill with a "government
option" would move America toward a single-payer government health care system.
Impossible Promises. Obama says his health care
plan will cut costs and increase patient choice. It won't.
The Hope of Obama vs. the Wisdom of
Madison. During the campaign, Barack Obama portrayed himself as a unifying figure for America, the
balm for our wounds, the man uniquely able to overcome our differences. ... He spoke about finding "the strength and
grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort." Yet like many of his other commitments, this eloquent
promise of unity and comity is going unfulfilled. We know from a Pew Poll earlier this year that Obama ranks
as the most polarizing president of the modern era.
Alinskyite in Chief Is a Master
Polarizer. At their very core, all Marxist theories rest upon polarization, which is the direct result of
envy and greed for power. "They have what we want," is the rallying cry of all socialist/communist/fascist systems.
All Marxist creeds are as naturally polarizing as a mob of looters. Fancy, high-flying words don't change a thing.
When Barack Obama made his way to Chicago, he was already a natural polarizer, seeing the world through us-vs.-them lenses.
His associations with ACORN (Project Vote) and Jeremiah Wright fit perfectly with the worldview his parents, grandfather and
mentor purposefully taught him.
ObamaCare's
Contradictions. Over the past week, President Obama has held three town-halls to make the
case for his health-care plan. While he didn't say much that he hasn't said a thousand times before,
his remarks did offer another explanation for the public's skepticism of ObamaCare. Namely, the
President contradicts himself every other breath.
Obama's
Renewable Two-Minute Hate Fest: In his inaugural address in January, Barack Obama promised to put "an end to the petty grievances and
false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics."
I hope you've noticed how free from petty grievances, false promises, recriminations, and worn out
dogmas public discourse has been since that glorious new dawn, 20 January 2009.
White House Character: Obama
promised to lower taxes for 95% of Americans. He said this with a straight face, even though less
than 60% of Americans pay taxes. Not only was the math against him, but he has already stated that taxes
may have to rise for middle income taxpayers to supply revenue for his various programs. Obama promised to
raise ethical standards and bring transparency to the White House. He has since appointed tax cheats to his
cabinet, placed a racist on the Supreme Court, and bullied private industry to accede to his takeovers of banks,
auto companies and other private concerns. ... Obama's administration has been one broken promise after
another.
Notes from the
post-racial presidency: I am sure you are as happy as I was when it was announced that the election
of Barack Obama was ushering in a "post-racial" presidency. Thanks goodness! We could at last say farewell
to racial shake-down artists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. At last, Black scholars like Henry Louis
Gates would be treated just the way his white and Asian colleagues were: no special treatment because of his
complexion.
Another
Promise Broken — in Record Time. Remember those days of yore, namely the presidential campaign
of 2008, when Democrats regularly accused the Bush administration of politicizing the Justice Department? You
could scarcely make your way down the aisle of the U.S. Senate without encountering a Democrat who was outraged,
indignant and generally all het up over how the administration of justice had been corrupted.
Did
someone mention the Black Panthers?
Government overspending is national suicide.
Remember when the deficit was so bad that Democrats said we (or more accurately the Republicans) were placing a
terrible burden on our grandchildren? That was several trillion dollars ago. Democrats now appear
perfectly fine with extending the growing deficit and national debt to their great-grandchildren.
Obama's Kryptonite:
The kryptonite that has caused Obama's approval numbers to drop 20 points since his inauguration is not a group
of people or powerful interests. Truth has been Obama's kryptonite — truth and reality.
The reality of President Obama's actions has not lived up to the "hope" candidate Super Obama sold to voters.
Candidate Super Obama made many promises pertaining to transparency. On his transition website he
promised "a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America's citizens." The
reality of his presidency has fallen far short of those promises.
Obama's
labor secretary lets union officials off transparency hook. Never mind about those revised union
financial disclosure requirements President Obama inherited from his predecessor. Secretary of Labor
Hilda Solis now says she won't make union officials comply.
Democrats' despicable duplicity: Democrats
went berserk over what they called President Bush's "power grab," but are silent in the face of President Obama's massive
consolidation of power. The duplicity here is despicable. No president has ever abused the power of the
presidency as has Barack Obama.
Obama the Weak.
On the cap-and-trade environmental legislation, House Democrats threw out Obama's cherished plan to raise revenue by
auctioning off emission rights. They decided to give most of the rights away, mainly to political allies.
And after Obama reached a deal with pharmaceutical companies — they pledged $80 billion in cut-rate
drugs for seniors in exchange for favored treatment in health care legislation — congressional leaders
dismissed the deal as not binding on them. This prompted Obama to declare it nonbinding on him, too.
A catalog of Obama flip-flops:
Once Upon a
Time... Once upon a time the people deluded themselves into thinking a suave extremist was
to be their nuts-and-bolts centrist. Now they don't know whether to be mad at him or
themselves — or both.
Obama's top five tax fibs in Wednesday evening speech. [Fib #1]
Middle class tax hikes: "The middle class will realize greater [health] security, not higher taxes." FACT:
This would be a big departure from the House bill and the Baucus draft. The House bill has four tax increases on
families making less than $250,000. President Obama himself endorsed another when he called for an individual
mandate with a tax penalty. Earlier this week, he floated the idea of a "soda tax." The Baucus draft, like
the House bill, contains a new tax on over-the-counter medicines purchased with an FSA or HSA.
Dr. Barack and Mr. Obama.
[Scroll down slowly] Now nearly half the country is not merely distrustful of him, but increasingly viscerally angry
at him as well. Actually, "him" is a construct: At times there seems to be no "him." Instead, the people
don't know whether the kindly Dr. Barack is their president, or his unpredictable double, Mr. Obama. ... The real anger
from independents arises over disappointment, false merchandising, and hypocrisy. It is real and deep — as
is true of any animosity that arises from a sense of betrayal of former trust.
Obama and the Trust Factor.
When a man campaigns for the presidency as an anti-ideological moderate, a lover of bi-partisan reconciliation, and vows to
regain America's foothold on the world's respect, and then after becoming president, shoots down real bi-partisan input with
a petulant, "I won," governs high-handedly from the farthest-left corner of American politics, all the while playing
cozy-up with America's self-proclaimed enemies and arrogantly dissing our heretofore friends, then the citizens quite
naturally feel they've been sucker-punched in the gut.
Revenge of the Golden
Goose. As taxes increase, and inflation brings bracket creep, expect tax avoidance and
outright tax cheating to soar in America. President Obama's "soak-the-rich" economic populism grows
increasingly obvious and the initial promise of no tax increases for those earning less than $250,000 is
clearly history.
The Buck Passes
Here. There is a growing credibility problem with this young administration. When Barack Obama
promises a public option in health-care reform, or the passage of such legislation before the August break, or a
renewed commitment to the necessary war in Afghanistan, or an end to lobbyists in government, or a new transparency,
no one believes any of it anymore. Even worse, we know that the broken promises and policy mishaps will
always be someone else's fault.
America's Obama
Obsession. [Scroll down slowly] At one time or another, Obama and his supporters have, rather
scurrilously, insulted doctors, insurers, the police, tea-partiers and town-hallers, opponents of his health-care
plan, non-compliant members of the media, and a host of other groups as either greedy, dishonest, treasonous,
unpatriotic, moblike, racist, or in general worthy of disrespect. Fewer and fewer Americans now
believe that Obama — after just nine months of governance — is a uniter.
Obamanoia. Full recovery is uncertain,
given (1) oil prices have been low and are now climbing, boosting the import tab higher and higher (what happened
to candidate Obama's promises of more drilling?); (2) interest rates are historically low, meaning the price of
servicing the mega-deficits hasn't hit yet; but they too will climb, further taxing the hocus-pocus borrowing; (3) so
far higher taxes are just talk; but soon the income rates will climb at a time when many of the states have already
increased their sales and income rates.
Hating Whitey
Makes Unexpected Comeback. From anyone's pre-election calculations, an Obama presidency
held the promise of relieving America's white citizens of their centuries-long guilt over slavery and
civil-rights injustices. Such, however, has not been at all the case and hating whitey is
making an unexpected comeback.
Obama's Enemies
List. One of the attractions of Obama during the election ... was his tone and countenance,
his apparent interest in a serious engagement with issues, and his professed allergy to politics practiced
by those who are bitter and brittle. We should, he said, "resist the temptation to fall back on the
same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long." He went
on to say, "I will listen to you, especially when we disagree." All impressive and high-minded
sentiments. And all, apparently, a ruse.
Obama
vs. The President He Said He'd Be. In his inaugural address Obama told us that "the time has come to set
aside childish things." He promised to bring "an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations
and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics." Not only has President Obama failed
to live up to those promises so far, it appears that on more than a number of occasions he's made a conscious
decision to break them.
White
House: Policy 'czars' won't testify. The White House has told Congress it will reject
calls for many of President Obama's policy czars to testify before Congress — a
decision senators said goes against the president's promises of transparency and openness and
treads on Congress' constitutional mandate to investigate the administration's actions.
40
GOP Senators Sign Letter to Reid Demanding Internet Posting of Healthcare Bill. Candidate
Barack Obama made a big deal about government transparency and giving citizens ample opportunity to read
pieces of legislation before they're voted on. With this in mind, all 40 Republican Senators signed a
letter sent to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Thursday [10/29/2009] demanding the new healthcare reform
proposal be published on the Internet so that ALL Americans can "learn how the federal government is spending
their money."
Obama's Healthcare Failures.
Republican senators and members of the media highlight President Obama's failure to live up to his pledge to
conduct health care negotiations in full view of the public. Senators and media members also highlight
the White Houses alarming tendency to seek to punish those who dont share its views.
Bait and switch
O's (Latest)
Insult. Do you recall President Bush insulting Democrats, as Obama has insulted us, explicitly?
Sometimes our post-partisan president can be a rather nasty piece of work.
Obama
at odds with his own vision for the world. Last year, Obama told Berliners that
we and they are "heirs to a struggle for freedom." This year his administration has been
busy trying to appease dictatorial and authoritarian regimes. So maybe he was wise to
skip a return appearance in Berlin. Let Hillary Clinton gloss over the embarrassing
contrast between his rhetoric then and his policies now.
Obama's Health Care Bait
and Switch. During the first nine months of his Presidency, Barack Obama has accomplished the
seemingly impossible: he has proven that a politician can be even less trustworthy than Bill
Clinton. ... Obama's policy pirouettes, however, have taken us to an entirely new level of presidential
perfidy. The man has reversed himself on virtually every position he espoused during last year's campaign.
And nowhere have these reversals been more brazen than in the case of health care. On a host of reform
issues, including insurance mandates, taxing health benefits and patient choice, Obama has demonstrated that
his campaign rhetoric was utterly disingenuous.
Why
Obama Wants America to Fail: "We the People" were promised swift and effective action towards
getting the markets repaired by President Obama, but they have dropped about 1400 points each week since
he's taken power. "We the People" were promised greater fiscal responsibility by candidate Obama, yet
his own proposals throw us down a black hole of debt, the likes of which we've never seen in a single year of
an administration, much less in the first sixty days of one.
Back then we thought
it was cool. [Obama] must have violated some FTC rule against predatory pricing by advertising
his product with the promise of "tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans". Then, once he had driven
his only remaining competitor out of the market, he jacked up the price by trillions. If not predatory
pricing, it must be false advertising.
The Brawl's in Obama's Court. As a
candidate, Barack Obama prided himself on his ability to work with conservatives. His first 100 days,
however, have been a case study in unilateralism.
Washington
Can't Meet the Cheerios Standard. I think it's time we applied the same advertising standards to
Washington's legislative products that the feds apply to breakfast foods. The Food and Drug Administration
rapped General Mills this week for making misleading claims about the benefits of Cheerios. ... Well, how about
the bogus marketing of the fiscal "stimulus"? ... Obama promised that Americans would be able to track "every
dime" of the "stimulus" at one handy clearinghouse website. They won't. The Recovery.gov site data
won't be fully available until next spring — halfway through the program.
For the sake of convenience, Barack Obama
delivers the opposite of what he promised during his campaign.
Flip-Flops and Governance.
Barack Obama inherited a set of national-security policies that he rejected during the campaign but now
embraces as president. This is a stunning and welcome about-face. For example, President Obama
kept George W. Bush's military tribunals for terror detainees after calling them an "enormous failure"
and a "legal black hole."
Democrats irked by Obama signing
statement. President Barack Obama has irked close allies in Congress by declaring he has the right to
ignore legislation on constitutional grounds after having criticized George W. Bush for doing the same.
Four senior House Democrats on Tuesday said they were "surprised" and "chagrined" by Obama's declaration in June
that he doesn't have to comply with provisions in a war spending bill that puts conditions on aid provided to the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Let's
Face It: Obama Is No Post-Partisan. Only last summer we were told that Barack Obama's
political appeal rested on his vision for a "post-partisan future." The post-partisan future was one
of the press corps' favorite phrases. It served as shorthand for the candidate's repeated references
to "unity of purpose," looking beyond a red or blue America, and so on. Six months into the president's
term, you don't read much about this post-partisan future anymore.
At the NAACP, Obama
Removes His Mask of the Great Unifier. It is truly a sad day in America when the president of
the United States fans the flames of racial hatred. The man elected to be president of all the people,
in his speech at the NAACP basically said, though America is racist, sexist and homophobic, you can make it in
spite of those white [people]'s attempts to stop you. Wonderful. How inspiring. The NAACP
audience erupted in applause. Obama's condemnation was "red meat" to the liberal, protective of their
victim status, organization.
Obama
Irks Some Democrats By Declaring He Can Ignore Legislation. President Obama has irked close
allies in Congress by declaring he has the right to ignore legislation on constitutional grounds after having
criticized George W. Bush for doing the same. Four senior House Democrats on Tuesday [7/21/2009] said
they were "surprised" and "chagrined" by Obama's declaration in June that he doesn't have to comply with provisions
in a war spending bill that puts conditions on aid provided to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Race Baiter in Chief.
If the country wanted to elect Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton as president we already had that chance. Many
thought Obama was an educated, reasonable, objective man. Instead, I think we have just had confirmed what
some feared and suspected: we have elected the Race Baiter in Chief.
President of Some of the People.
Barack Obama sold himself to the Democratic base who were in a sort of political wasteland after a hard-fought election in
2000. He seemed like a true uniter, someone who could win the hearts and minds of Democrats, independents, and
moderate Republicans. Since coming into office, however, he has proven that this image of Barack Obama the uniter
and the post-partisan was an abject fraud.
A failed, single term?
President Obama is on the way to joining an exclusive club. It is the club of failed one-term presidents. During
the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama sold himself as a pragmatic moderate. In fact, he is the very opposite.
What Went Wrong:
[Voters in 2008] wanted federal support for wind and solar, but not at the expense of neglecting new sources of gas, oil,
coal, and nuclear power. They were worried about high-cost health care, the uninsured, redundant procedures, and
tort reform, but not ready for socialized medicine. They wanted better government, not bigger, DMV-style government.
There is a growing realization that Obama enticed voters last summer with the flashy lure of discontent.
Obama
and the Democrats' great bait-and-switch: President Barack Obama won the presidency under the persona of
healer. He promised to unify a divided nation and said how he would do this by putting ideology aside to solve
problems and bringing open, bipartisan governance to Washington, devoid of special interests. Now, six months
into this presidency we have exactly the opposite.
You're A Racist!
The Ultimate Emotional Intimidation. Many sincere white Americans thought by electing a black
president America could never again be characterized as a "racist country." Shamefully, this characterless
administration betrayed Obama voters by exploiting race, using it as a tool to implement their far left agenda.
If you don't agree with
everything Obama wants, you must be a racist. Rather than the election of
America's first black president bringing the races together, Obama's administration is tearing us apart.
They will continue to play the tired, old and tattered geriatric "race card" as long as it is effective.
What happened to post-racial America?
Whatever happened to that "post-racial" America we were supposed to be living in? Whatever happened to those warm
and fuzzy feelings we got when we elected America's first black president? Whatever happened to being so proud of
ourselves for having bridged the racial divide? Didn't last very long.
Obama's Karmic Freight
Train. Little did any of us know ... that hidden behind all the talk of hope and change and
transparency was a calculated strategy to punish the very country that represented one of the few historical
examples of legitimate hope and change.
What Happened to Candidate Obama?
Obama's candidacy was defined (to the exasperation of conservatives) by idealism, appeals to bipartisanship,
and competency. He is now short on all three — which explains why his support among voters
and especially independents (who were susceptible to pledges to end old-style politics) has plummeted.
As for the idealism, no president has sunk so far so fast.
Obama's
Yucca budget bungle. For someone who vowed to restore science to its rightful place, President
Obama seems awfully interested in playing politics when it comes to nuclear waste. The result is a
grotesque misuse of taxpayer dollars that puts the nation's nascent nuclear renaissance at risk.
More about
the Yucca Mountain storage facility.
The Obama
Revolution Is Over. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Obama was going to change the face
of American politics. Instead he has made it less attractive to a growing share of the public.
Whether it's trillion-dollar deficits or government-run health care, Americans are at last coming to terms
with what they voted for.
'Messiah'
prez not what we were promised. So this is the postpartisan politics President Obama promised us.
You have a Democratic president who — although far from the messiah we were promised —
still remains likable. Yet his policies — from his government-run health-insurance scheme to
his No Big Company Left Behind platform — are highly unpopular.
Will
Obama Ever Become President? Obama the candidate had a unifying vision that was ultimately
pro-American. He won the support of many conservatives because he insisted on the importance of the
free market and the strength of rugged American individualism. ... Obama the president doesn't seem to care
about capitalism or small businesses at all. His vision of a renewed American marketplace seems to
have a lot to do with the government running and regulating everything.
That sounds like
a marxist dictatorship to me.
See
also This is "Change"?
"Spontaneous" events and "randomly selected" people
Obama's use of audience plants is nothing
new. [
1]
[
2]
[
3]
Housing For The Needy Not The Greedy.
In view of latest developments in the Homeless Henrietta Hughes matter, Canada Free Press (CFP) is suggesting
"Housing For The Needy Not The Greedy" as a more realistic slogan than "Hope & Change" for President
Barack Obama. Obama's Homeless Woman of Ft. Myers, Florida Stimulus Package Promotion fame is in
reality a Real Estate Investor.
White
House Says Girl With Campaign Ties Chosen at 'Random' to Speak at Obama Town Hall. Facing a
barrage of questions Wednesday [8/12/2009] over the friendliness of the audience at President Obama's New Hampshire
town hall meeting, the White House insisted that all questions were selected at random — including one
from an 11-year-old girl whose mother worked as an Obama organizer.
The little girl who talked about mean
signs at the Obama town hall. Like many others I watched the "town hall" meeting in Portsmouth
NH with the supposedly randomly selected audience. The second person "randomly" selected to ask a
question was a young girl called Julia Hall from Malden MA (asks question at 29 mins 25 secs
into the video).
Obamacare Pep
Rally Fact Check. Any doubts that President Barack Obama's "townhall" in Portsmouth,
New Hampshire yesterday [8/11/2009] was a complete farce were dispelled early on when the hand picked crowd
broke out in a chant of: "Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!" at the close of his opening remarks.
Potemkin town halls.
President Obama should be charged with false advertising for calling yesterday's Portsmouth, N.H., event a
"town-hall meeting." It was a staged, partisan campaign rally. The Portsmouth rally was the first
of three such events planned for this week. If nothing else, it was well-choreographed, if not completely
scripted. The questions posed to the president were all softballs; his answers were mostly platitudes.
The Obama team has been known to
use doctors as props on the White House lawn.
Outright hypocrisy
The Hypocrite Who Hijacked Air Force 1. Like
all dishonest politicians, Barack Obama consistently talks out of both sides of his mouth as he attempts to pander to both
the left and the right. What he says at any given time is totally meaningless and worthless. Regardless of which
side of the political spectrum he wants to pander to, he will always try to reinforce his credibility and false consistency
by saying "as I've said before" or "as I said in my campaign." This man's words have absolutely no credibility at all.
President Barack
Obama: A Fraud You Can Believe In. Even as Barack Obama demonstrates he is a fraud, phony and
hypocrite par excellence — who also happens to be in way over his head — the American people
still believe in him. Yes, love is grand and his approval rating is still miraculously high. If
the truth were known, that approval rating would be sinking lower than the stock market, home prices or the
economy. I doubted he was the Messiah, but now I'm not sure. When a president can be the greatest
wealth destroyer in history and still maintain high approval ratings, maybe he does have supernatural powers.
Mr. Obama has one standard for himself, another standard for the rest of us.
Try
to Meet the Carter Standard. Add President Obama's name to the ever-growing list of
global-warming hypocrites. ... Obviously, a president gets a necessary pass on driving in a big (i.e., safe)
car. But it turns out that Obama keeps the Oval Office at near-tropical heat levels. The
New York Times reports that he doesn't wear a suit jacket at his desk because he has "cranked up the
thermostat." Explained adviser David Axelrod: "He's from Hawaii, OK? He likes it
warm. You could grow orchids in there."
Obama
Getting Heat for Turning Up the Oval Office Thermostat. During a campaign event in Oregon in
May, Obama said we have to "lead by example." "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and
keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times," he said. "That's not leadership. That's not going
to happen." But for the first few weeks of his presidency, that's precisely what has happened in the
White House.
On a nearby page, there is information about Obama's
gas-guzzling limo.
Tom
Daschle: symbol of Barack Obama's hypocrisy. It looks like Tom Daschle will become the next
Health and Human Services Secretary even though he failed to pay a massive chunk of his taxes. Many
Americans might have been in danger of ending up in jail if they made similar "unintentional" errors to the
tune of $128,000 but the White House clearly considers the appointment a done deal.
Two Days After Instituting Ethics
Rules, President Obama Waives Them. Two days after introducing what he heralded as the most sweeping
ethics rules in American history — ones that would "close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come
into government freely" — President Barack Obama today waived those rules for his nominee for Deputy
Secretary of Defense, William Lynn. Until last fall, Lynn was a registered lobbyist for the defense contractor
Raytheon.
Where
was Mention of Obamas' Personal Chef During Campaign? During last year's presidential campaign,
the media worked overtime to portray John and Cindy McCain as wealthy private jet junkies with more homes than
they can remember, while showcasing Barack and Michelle Obama as just another middle class family with two
working parents, one car and freshly paid off student loans. ... Mrs. Obama was defined as an average mom who
juggled work and home with extraordinary skill. According to the media, she arranged sleepovers, scoured
Target for the perfect wardrobe and served healthy organic dinners. Just like us common folk, right?
Well, almost. Those healthy organic dinners were cooked by the Obamas' personal chef, Sam Kass.
Obama gets PETA pass on Wagyu Steak.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), strident in its criticism of meat-eating Al Gore, are
silent on Obama's spending binge on wagyu steak. And the Obama silence is equally deafening from the
Live Earth Concert crowd, who acknowledge that not eating meat is "
the single most effective thing"
(italics theirs) you can do to reduce your climate change impact, and whose official handbook Gore helped
organize.
Two Americas,
After All. What is it with the Obama administration and tax cheats? First Obama puts a tax
delinquent in charge of the IRS, and then he nominates another revenue renegade to be his secretary of health
and human services. Sure, he's against tax cuts for the rich, but rich Democrats who ignore their taxes
are welcome in his cabinet.
I Repeat: Time To Go, Mr. Geithner. Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner stood alongside President Obama in a White House press briefing yesterday. ... Only
a day earlier, Pres. Obama said there should be no double standard when it comes to paying taxes.
However, Mr. Geithner is guilty of a double standard.
'Patriot'
Games: So, it's come to this: The man who was maligned as unpatriotic for not wearing a flag pin is
playing the patriotism card. The New York Times reported Saturday [2/14/2009] that President Obama called three
Republican senators who were supporting his stimulus plan "to thank them for their patriotism in helping to advance
the bill at a critical time."
Democrat fat cats.
The Democratic House Caucus retreat was held this weekend at a Williamsburg luxury spa, to the cost of half a
million dollars for the American taxpayer, and Mr. Obama flew the 155 miles on Air Force One (after
getting to Andrews AFB by Marine One) for a brief appearance. This is not just blatant hypocrisy by the
president, it is downright political folly. ... Mr. Obama, who was all fire and brimstone for two years on
the campaign trail, expressing solidarity with the poor and underprivileged in America, should be a bit more
circumspect in events such as this.
The Editor says...
How many of you would take an airplane on a 155-mile trip? It would be twice as fast to drive to
your destination, because of all the delays
and
hassles at the airport. Mr. Obama
is above all that. This incident also shows Obama's poor judgment: For a lot less money,
he could just as easily have taken the Marine Corps helicopter all the way to his destination. But
you see,
your money doesn't matter to him.
Barry Honey, can we
talk about hypocrisy? [Scroll down] You promised —
quite
explicitly — that you would post online every single bill passed by the Congress for
five whole days before you signed it into law. Now, any way one adds it up, this 1,400 page,
biggest-lump-sum spending bill in the history of these United States was only passed 3 days before it
got your Denver-hoopla signature.
Where's the transparency?
Obama's Broken
Promises Were Entirely Predictable. What could anyone have possibly expected from a young,
overtly leftist Chicago upstart who had accomplished precisely nothing of significance throughout his short
career — and yet still promised the world, and more, to his loyal adherents? Consider his
campaign pledges: It wasn't too long ago that Obama promised to "tell the corporate lobbyists that
their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over." ... That was then; this is now. President
Obama has allowed seventeen exceptions to the no-lobbyist rule.
For
Obama, it's more about showmanship than sunlight. Back during the presidential campaign, Barack
Obama promised something he called "Sunlight Before Signing." Obama complained that "too often bills are
rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them." So
he pledged that, as president, he would "not sign any nonemergency bill without giving the American public an
opportunity to review and comment on the White House Web site for five days." "Sunlight Before Signing"
faded into darkness with the first bill that came across Obama's desk.
Obama takes credit for...
The Bush Pullout. President
Obama traveled to Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Friday to announce that the U.S. would stay in Iraq at least until 2012 and
keep 50,000 troops there even after combat ends. Sound familiar? ... In short, though President Obama will get
credit, it was Bush's plan — not Obama's.
White
House claims credit for factory opening. Just weeks after the economic stimulus package
spent billions on what the administration hoped would be massive job gains, Vice President Joe Biden
Sunday hailed the re-opening of a Chicago factory as early evidence the stimulus plan is working.
Presidential Bait-and-Switch.
Barack Obama won the presidency in large measure because he presented himself as a demarcation point. The
old politics, he said, was based on "spin," misleading arguments, and an absence of candor. He'd "turn
the page" on that style of politics. Last week's presentation of his budget shows that hope was a
mirage. For example, Mr. Obama didn't run promising larger deficits — but now is offering
record-setting ones.
Earmarks, schmearmarks. Obama's earmark
hypocrisy is disappointing in the extreme. The president's lost his groove from a campaign that promised
something new. He embarrasses himself when his spokesmen blithely say he'll sign off on 9,000 new
earmarks because it is "last year's business." I don't care what side of the political boat you row,
that's just intellectually dishonest.
Obama Claims He's Responsible,
Then Blames Other People. President Obama has mastered the art of employing rhetoric that makes
it sound as if he's doing something uniquely virtuous and heroic when in reality he's doing stuff that
political leaders often do. We've seen this with the way he touts bipartisanship while being unwilling
to offer real compromises or the way he proclaims he isn't hiring lobbyists when he actually is.
Obama's Charity Problem: In
her new book and column of March 12, Ann Coulter compares the charitable donations of Presidents Obama and Bush and
VPs Biden and Cheney. As a tipoff on how the comparison goes, remember that Obama's youngest half-brother lives in
wretched poverty in a 65-sqare-foot shack in Nairobi. Like many liberals, the president cares deeply for the poor;
so long as the poor are helped with taxpayer money.
Dem hypocrisy will come back to haunt.
[Congressman Frank] Kratovil wasn't the only candidate who attacked fiscal irresponsibility in Washington to get votes
but then embraced even more radical spending policies once he got to Congress. Candidate Barack Obama promised to
reform the earmark process and cut wasteful spending "line by line." But in less than two months, President Obama
has signed spending plans that include 8,500 earmarks and triple the deficit while doubling the national debt to an
amazing $20 trillion — dwarfing anything contemplated by Bush's wildest spending proposals.
Our Partisan
President. [Scroll down] So much for promoting good faith. Instead, the White House has
fallen into the kinds of partisan habits the President once decried: overwrought rhetoric, misrepresentation
of the other side, and
ad hominem attack. I am not the first to point this out. Most recently, the
Washington Post ran a front page story on the tension between Obama's governance and his inaugural address...
Commanding
the Heights of Hypocrisy. President Obama vowed to "pursue every legal avenue to block these
bonuses," when the proper "legal" avenue was to write a responsible law — a process his own
administration apparently undermined. "I'll take responsibility," says the president —
before, in the next few breaths, explaining, "We didn't grant these contracts." And, "We've got a lot
on our plate." And, "It's my job to make sure that we fix these messes, even if I don't make them."
So Obama seems to be saying: I'll take credit for taking the blame for something that is entirely the
fault of others. Positively Clintonian.
Obama White House bars press from
press award ceremony. Barack Obama was elected commander in chief promising to run the most transparent
presidential administration in American history. This achievement and the overall promise of his historic
administration caused the National Newspaper Publishers Assn. to name him "Newsmaker of the Year." The president
is to receive the award from the federation of black community newspapers in a White House ceremony this
afternoon [3/20/2009]. The Obama White House has closed the press award ceremony to the press.
Look
Beyond the Bogus Bonus Smokescreen. I ask you now to turn away from the bogus bonus smokescreen over
$165 million in taxpayer-backed compensation packages for AIG employees. It is a pittance compared to the
gargantuan spending spree happening right under our noses. ... Taxpayers might be less skeptical of the born-again
guardians of fiscal responsibility if these evangelists were actually practicing what they preached. While the
Obama administration now issues impassioned calls to stop rewarding failure, they moved Thursday [3/19/2009] to
dump another $5 billion into the failing auto industry.
Obama
Received a $101,332 Bonus from AIG. Senator Barack Obama received a $101,332 bonus from American
International Group in the form of political contributions according to Opensecrets.org. The two biggest
Congressional recipients of bonuses from the A.I.G. are — Senators Chris Dodd and Senator Barack Obama.
Econ board has yet to meet publicly. Six
weeks after President Barack Obama appointed a blue-ribbon panel to help him dig America out of its economic crisis, the
board has yet to hold an official public meeting. The White House initially said that the 16-member Presidential
Economic Recovery Advisory Board, headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, would meet "every few weeks."
What
Non-political Looks Like: Democrats complained endlessly about the supposed "politicization" of
the Bush Justice Department. ... Eric Holder piously pledged that his Justice Department would "serve justice"
and "not the fleeting interests of any political party." ... What pillar of the legal profession will be
lecturing Justice employees to help them "serve justice" in a "less political" way? Why, none other
than Donna Brazile, whose own website biography describes her as ... a Vice Chairman at the Democratic
National Committee."
Few
in White House appear to drive American cars. Oops, it seems that many on President Obama's
team, including those seeking to save the American automobile industry, do not actually drive vehicles from
the American automobile industry. According to a study by the Detroit News and a White House parking lot
survey by Politico.com, neither do Obama's White House staffers. ... The Politico survey of cars parked next
to the White House found only five U.S. brand cars out of 23 -- a Dodge, two Fords, a Jeep and a Cadillac.
Obama Uses 'Politics of
Fear' He Once Criticized. President Obama frequently railed against the Bush-era "politics of fear"
on the campaign trail. In his inaugural address, he said, "We got here because we have chosen hope over
fear." ... But he has had no trouble issuing fear-inducing warnings himself. President Obama has simply
exchanged his predecessor's fear-inducing rhetoric on national security for fear-inducing rhetoric on the economy.
U.S.
attorney general is politicizing Justice. Before the November election, Eric Holder was among the
prominent Democrats who denounced the Bush administration's "politicization" of the Justice Department. Now
that he is attorney general, the same Holder is blatantly politicizing the place. ... Taxpayers footed the bill
for Justice Department employees to stop working and listen to a speech by somebody self-described as a "veteran
Democratic political strategist." How can that not be "politicization"?
Obama's Double-Talk. On his first day of work,
[President Obama] signed an executive order prohibiting lobbyists from holding high ranking administration jobs,
thereby fulfilling a campaign promise to "close the revolving door" between K Street and government via "the
most sweeping ethics reform in history." Two days later, the president granted a "waiver" from the new rules
to install Raytheon lobbyist William Lynn as the No. 2 man in the Pentagon.
Rationing
health care. It doesn't matter what your doctor says; the Obama administration plans to decide if you will
have cancer treatment or heart surgery. ... The hypocrisy is enough to make a heart stop. A White House that doesn't
think government should intervene between a doctor and a woman deciding whether to have an abortion has no problem telling
doctors whether they can perform tonsillectomies or hysterectomies.
School choice for us, not for them.
When President Obama, hero of the teacher unions and ardent foe of vouchers, moved to Washington, he and his
wife chose an elite private school for their kids. Not surprisingly, it was the same tony prep school to
which the Clintons — also beloved by teacher unions and opponents of school choice —
sent their kid. (Obama is nothing if not a big admirer of the Clintons — his cabinet proves
that!)
Obama's
Tax Dodgers: Here's a tip for President Obama: Next time you excoriate tax cheats, try to
keep Rep. Charles Rangel's name out of the discussion. Somehow, it doesn't further your case. Yet
that's precisely what Obama did Monday, singling out the powerful Harlem congressman for praise as he
announced legislation meant to close what he calls tax "loopholes" for corporations that expand their
operations abroad.
Welcome to the
Banana Republic Club. It is obvious that Obama has learned well from his adopted home town;
the "Chicago way" is evident througout. Congratulations to the President and the Congress for their
accomplishment. It takes dedication and a special type of hypocrisy to be both a law maker and a
law teacher with such a healthy disregard for law.
GE a corporate sponsor.
For all of the carping liberals did for eight years about corporate cronyism in George W. Bush's White
House, they seem to turn a blind eye to the same behavior in President Obama's. With plans in place for
a major overhaul in the health-care industry, General Electric is positioning itself to become a major
beneficiary of these health care reforms.
Earmark Nation. When
earlier this week President Obama signed a $410 billion spending bill to keep the government running
through the fall, every account of the event noted the 800-pound contradiction in the room. Mr. Obama
had campaigned against earmarks, even saying he would cut them back to levels before 1994, the start of the
Gingrich-GOP interregnum. Now here was Obama as president signing a bill soaked in earmarks.
Barack Obama, Deconstructionist.
The president continually made reference to the importance of "transparency" in his speech -- yet he will
not release enhanced interrogation techniques memoranda showing what information we extracted by using these
techniques. Compounding this hypocrisy is Obama feeling no reluctance to release previously classified
memos that dealt with the methods of interrogation.
Liberals: The
Enemy Within. When Bush ran up the national debt, he got clobbered by Republicans and Democrats,
alike. But when, in just three short months, Obama tripled the deficit, nary a discouraging word did we
hear from a single liberal. Massive inflation looms over all of us, but Democrats just keep smiling and
giving each other high-fives while Obama cranks out funny money like a counterfeiter on speed.
Obama Voted to Filibuster a Supreme Court Nominee, but Now Hopes for
Clean Process. President Obama's expressed hope today in his weekly address "that we can avoid
the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this (Supreme Court nomination)
process, and Congress, in the past" runs against another historical first for the 44th president: his
unique role in history as the first US President to have ever voted to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee.
Civil Rights: Who are the "Cowards"? On
taking office as Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder stated that America is a nation of "cowards"
when it comes to race and that he would commit the Department of Justice to making civil rights cases a top
priority. President Obama himself promised to "reinvigorate federal civil rights enforcement," especially by
prosecuting cases of voting discrimination against blacks. On May 15 Obama's Department of Justice
quashed a civil rights case involving voter intimidation by blacks in Philadelphia on election day, 2008.
Our Public Servants At Work.
In a boon to deadbeats, President Obama on Friday signed new credit card legislation and warned the American
people to be fiscally responsible, saying "Some get in over their heads by not using their heads," he said.
"I want to be clear: We do not excuse or condone folks who've acted irresponsibly." This stern
warning came a full four days after it was reported that the US had set yet another record, entering into
deficit spending in April, for the first time in 26 years. Oh, and the deficit will quadruple next
year, and it now appears that America's triple-A credit rating is at risk.
He's Telling You To Be Thrifty? On Tuesday [6/9/2009]
the President tried to reinstitute the concept of "Paygo" or pay as you go — if you spend a dollar then the Congress
has to save a dollar. However, he exempted about 2.5 trillion dollars of his priorities, including a health care reform
jumpstart. It's just too much. When I saw that, I broke out laughing. Here's the president who has spent
about $12 trillion in his first few months in office, sqandering it on everything imaginable. Now
he's
telling
us to be thrifty?
Obama Closes Doors on Openness. As a senator,
Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the
White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a
Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had
visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies. One reason: the disclosure of such
records might impinge on privileged "presidential communications." The refusal, approved by White House
counsel Greg Craig's office, is the latest in a series of cases in which Obama officials have opted against
public disclosure.
Saying One
Thing, Doing Another. In the real world, if your predecessor runs up too much debt, you have to
reduce that debt to survive. Instead, President Obama insists that, while "the reckless fiscal policies
of the past have left us in a very deep hole," he still plans to borrow trillions more. Odd. The
disconnect between the president's words and his actions is even starker when it comes to health care.
Obama: A Profile in Cowardice.
Obama and his people have been working around the clock to restore [Mel] Zelaya to power, even while stating that
they want the whole thing to be "free from external influence and interference" (the hypocrisy on that line
alone is almost enough to choke even Chavez himself).
The EPA Silences a Climate Skeptic.
[Scroll down] One of President Barack Obama's first acts was a memo to agencies demanding new transparency in
government, and science. The nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lisa Jackson, joined in,
exclaiming, "As administrator, I will ensure EPA's efforts to address the environmental crises of today are rooted
in three fundamental values: science-based policies and program, adherence to the rule of law, and overwhelming
transparency." In case anyone missed the point, Mr. Obama took another shot at his predecessors in April, vowing
that "the days of science taking a backseat to ideology are over." Except, that is, when it comes to Mr. [Alan]
Carlin, a senior analyst in the EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics and a 35-year veteran of the agency.
Donors Find a Home in Obama's Ambassador
Corps. The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo has seen its share of luminaries in the ambassador's suite. Former
Vice President Walter Mondale, former Senate Majority Leaders Mike Mansfield and Howard Baker and former House Speaker
Tom Foley are among those who have brokered relations with a complex and critical ally in a region bristling with military
and trade tensions. President Barack Obama's pick for the post is from a different mold: John Roos, a San
Francisco Bay area lawyer, was the president's chief Silicon Valley fundraiser and contributions "bundler." He has
no diplomatic experience. ... [And yet, Obama made the] claim during last year's campaign that President George W.
Bush engaged in an "extraordinary politicization of foreign policy."
National Suicide.
Remember when the deficit was so bad that Democrats said we (or more accurately the Republicans) were placing
a terrible burden on our grandchildren? That was several trillion dollars ago. Democrats now
appear perfectly fine with extending the growing deficit and national debt to their great-grandchildren.
The war against those who want to get rich.
[Scroll down] Then we have the "spread the wealth", "redistributive" class warfare rhetoric, demonizing everything
from Vegas to those earners who might make over $150,000 (I love the way the President keeps saying that people "like me"
should pay more. Actually, few have had access to Tony Rezko's spread-the-wealth tips, or have wives that get
$100,000-plus raises when their husbands become Senators, or have had a lifetime government tenure of some sort). In
just nine months, the President has created a near class war — with one provision: the technocracy like Dodd,
Geithner, Murtha, Rangel, etc. are exempt from the high taxes and government monitoring that they feel is critical to
inflict on others.
When protest is
uncool, &c. [Scroll down] They say that "hate" is rearing its head, and that President
Obama and the Democrats are the victims of it. Let me make a couple of predictions: I predict that
the chairman of the Republican National Committee will never say, "I hate the Democrats and everything they stand
for. This [politics, basically] is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good." Howard
Dean said that about the GOP: "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for... ." I
predict that an editor of a conservative magazine will never write a piece called "The Case
for Obama Hatred," beginning, "I hate President Barack Obama." A
New Republic editor did this,
about Bush.
White
House Discloses 10 More Ethics Waivers for Administration Officials. Calling President Obama's Executive Order
on Ethics for Executive Branch personnel "the strongest ethics standards in U.S. government history," White House counsel
Norm Eisen on Friday [9/4/2009] announced 10 more waivers for Obama administration officials.
"In our age, there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political
issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia."
— George Orwell
What's the rush?
Any time a political leader insists that we must act quickly ("We've got to do something
right now!), there should be great reluctance to go along. The federal government
was designed (in the 18th century) to work slowly, in order to impede people like President
Obama who are determined to spend the United States into bankruptcy, or worse. That is
why the word
emergency is not in the Constitution, and that's why the House and Senate
have to agree on a bill before it becomes law. Cities and states have emergencies
now and then, but authentic national emergencies (Pearl Harbor, Cuban Missile Crisis, 9/11) are
quite rare. Even so, the last time I checked, there were fourteen (14) national
emergencies in effect in the United
States.
*
This air of "We've got to do something!" in Washington is expensive and reckless.
You may recall that nobody had read
the
Patriot Act when it was
passed in 2001. Nobody in Congress read the trillion-dollar
Stimulus Bill before it was
passed earlier this year. It's like having someone throw a thousand-page contract
on the table and demanding you sign it immediately. It's foolish, if not insane.
Unfortunately, the so-called Stimulus isn't the last of it. The continuous crisis mode
is now being used to push socialized medicine into place, without regard to its cost.
Obviously the leaders of the House and Senate are hoping to get laws on the books before anyone west of
Maryland finds out what's in them. Congress is supposed to deliberate over proposed legislation,
which means giving it long and careful consideration. Am I mistaken? Is that concept
hopelessly archaic?
Why The Rush? A
pattern is emerging for this new presidency. The more radical and far-reaching the plan, the less
time the public gets to debate it.
Desperation Does Not Become Him. Politics
is a fickle game and political capital a currency in flux. The same Barack Obama who ascended to the Presidency
amid adulation befitting a rock star six months ago is now desperate to regain momentum for the passage of his
government-run healthcare plan. But with approval numbers lower than Jimmy Carter's were at this same point
in the Carter presidency, Obama finds himself at odds not only with Republicans but with members of his own party
as well.
Unseemly haste, thy name
is Obama. What's the hurry? "I need $800 billion and I need it now, today." Thus President
Obama (summa dixit) shortly after taking office last winter. Maybe it's all part of what Governor Mitch Daniels has
called the Obama administration's "shock and awe statism": startle the punters with outrageous demands. Then
tell them you want them met immediately ... "Don't bother reading the bill, just give me the money." It really was a
breathtaking performance. He almost got away with it.
A Rush to
Disaster. "Now is not the time to slow down or lose heart," the president said, also warning that
any health-care overhaul enacted by Congress "cannot add to the deficit, and I mean it." But in bombshell
testimony Thursday [7/16/2009] that rocked Capitol Hill, the director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget
Office warned that proposals now before the House and the Senate would do exactly that — and
then some.
Senate Democrats use tricks
to pull a fast one on health care reform. The Associated Press is reporting that a group of Senate Democrats
intend to slide a fast one by the American taxpayer. The Senators hope to win quick approval of a bill that will
boost Medicare payments to doctors by hundreds of billions of dollars and will try to do so by using a legislative ploy
that all but eliminates public discussion over the issue.
Coburn:
'What is it we don't want the American people to see?'. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, stopped the Senate dead in its
tracks yesterday [10/14/2009] and posed a question that made many of his colleagues squirm in their seats: "What is it
we don't want the American people to see?" The Oklahoma Republican was referring to a Senate-House conference committee's
decision to drop from the $33.5 billion energy and water appropriations bill, a Coburn-backed provision approved
unanimously by the Senate in July.
A Reckless Congress. Say this about
the 1,018-page health-care bill that House Democrats unveiled this week and that President Obama heartily endorsed:
It finally reveals at least some of the price of the reckless ambitions of our current government. With huge
majorities and a President in a rush to outrun the declining popularity of his agenda, Democrats are bidding to
impose an unrepealable European-style welfare state in a matter of weeks.
Toxic Omnibus Anti-Energy,
Anti-Civil Liberties Stew. Like its cousin, the $410 billion Omnibus spending bill that President
Obama earlier signed into law, the Omnibus lands bill contains several bills from previous sessions of Congress
wrapped into one. The final legislative package — which passed the House last week after clearing
the Senate the previous week — actually contains a whopping 170 different bills, according to
CNSNews.com. ... And as with the AIG bailout, there will be plenty of regrets for this big rush job's
lack of initial scrutiny.
Obamacare:
The fast and the furious. It took the legislative titans who cut their teeth on the New Deal six years to
make Medicare. The president wants the colossal lightweights of the current Congress to deliver Obamacare in
12 weeks. Conscientious folks on Capitol Hill are very worried as the train keeps picking up speed and
no one will touch the brake. But the president knows that the current health care legislation, like cap
and trade and his stimulus, will never pass if anyone stops to read it.
The Folly of Obamacare:
Obama understands that he cannot sell his health-care reform in the language of the left. So, it's a bait and
switch. If anything, the overriding idea behind Obama's approach seems to be to rush his "public plan" into law
and expand its generosity over time. This is tribute a center-left president must pay to a center-right country.
He's in such a hurry because he senses Americans understand a bait and switch when they see one. On Monday
[7/20/2009] he even proclaimed, "The time for talking is through."
A handful of air. Just what is the
president's health-care plan, anyway? As you might have suspected ... the details are not only hazy
but unavailable at the moment. They'll all be worked out later. Trust him on that. Everything
will fall in neat place after the president and his enforcers, like Nancy Pelosi and Co. in the House, line up
the votes for still another huge spending bill that can be passed without going through the bother of
reading it.
Conyers Sees No Point in Members Reading
1,000-Page Health Care Bill. During his speech at a National Press Club luncheon, House Judiciary Chairman
John Conyers (D-Mich.), questioned the point of lawmakers reading the health care bill. "I love these members, they
get up and say, 'Read the bill,'" said Conyers. "What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't
have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?"
Don't need leaders who just can't
be bothered to read. "I love these members," Conyers said with a sneer in his voice as he spoke to his
audience at a recent National Press Club luncheon, "they get up and say, 'Read the bill.'" Conyers then explained
himself, saying, "What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers
to find out what it means after you read the bill?"
Reading Legislation... It's Your Job!
It would appear that some of our elected officials — oh heck, let's say most of our elected
officials — believe it isn't necessary to read legislation before voting on it. A perfect
example of this is playing out right now in Congress with regard to the healthcare legislation
where several high-ranking elected officials have unabashedly stated that expecting elected
officials to read legislation, in its entirety, before voting on it, is to expect too much.
Congressman Admits: Congress
Stupid. It was an astonishing admission. Last week, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee, told an audience at the National Press Club that, not only had he not read the House health-care bill
which would reorganize 1/6th of the U.S. economy, but that even if he had he would not have understood it.
A Liberty Issue.
President Obama has no choice but to move fast, in part because the image he presented during the campaign — a
post-partisan, post-racial, post-anything-unpleasant-and-controversial, pragmatic centrist — was a total
crock. He has a vast transformative domestic agenda and — because most of its elements are not terribly
popular — he has to accomplish it at speed, or he won't get it done at all.
The Obamacare Strategy: Rush,
Muddle and Malign. Rush worked with TARP and the Porkulus bill. The sky was falling, we were told, and
we had to support those bills or we were doomed! Bush fell asleep at the wheel and trusted his money wizards, along
with the Democrat led Congress. Now we're still trying to figure out who and what TARP bailed out. It's become
a slush fund for the Executive branch administered by Timmy Geithner. Billions remain unaccounted for.
Sebelius: Don't
Sweat the Details. The more the public learns what is in the House bill, the less they like it. That's
why the administration wants to rush this through Congress. The public mostly understands the need to reform the
increasingly expensive current system. It just doesn't like the administration's plan.
Obama Administration:
Home of the Whopper. A recent Washington Post op-ed by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius suggests a new motto for the Obama Administration: "Home of the Whopper." The Sebelius piece contains
no fewer than 10 health care whoppers, [for example] Whopper Number 5: Americans shouldn't waste their time
trying to understand the details of Obama's proposal. ... FACT: An insurance agent who advised his clients to ignore
the fine print in a proposed policy could wind up in jail. Anyone who says "don't worry about the details, this is
too complex for you to understand anyway," probably has something to hide.
The Right's Ideas vs. The Left's Derision:
Over the past eight months, politicians in Washington have pushed an ambitious agenda highlighted by several trillion
dollar proposals (stimulus, health care and climate), all of which deserved substantive debate and cautious
consideration. Unfortunately, all these proposals were rushed, diminishing debate even as dissenters were
summarily dismissed.
Top 10 Reasons Obamacare Is Wrong for America:
[#10] Rushing It, Not Reading It: We've been down this road before — with the failed stimulus
package. Back then, we also heard that we were in a crisis and that we needed to pass a 1,000-plus-page
bill in a few hours — without reading it — or we would have 8% unemployment.
Deception
is the only reason to rush through a bill nobody truly understands.
[Emphasis added.]
Whose Medical
Decisions? (Part IV): The serious, and sometimes chilling, provisions of the medical care legislation that
President Obama has been trying to rush through Congress are important enough for all of us to stop and think, even though
his political strategy from the outset has been to prevent us from having time to stop and think about it.
Madison Checks Obama.
[The Founding Fathers] set up a system of government that slowed things down, that prized sobriety instead of
radical change, that put a premium on slow turns rather than on lurching shifts in policy. The Obama administration
decided to use the economic crisis to overcome these restraints. Hence the frantic quality of its legislative agenda,
demanding the stimulus package be passed even before the legislation had been read by members of Congress and that an
enormously complicated health care reform be approved even before we are able to inspect and debate its particulars.
A Recklessness Born of Arrogance.
Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei of Politico wonder whether President Obama's "big-bang" approach to his first year in office
might have been misguided. The term big-bang refers here to the administration's attempt to push through major
reforms on a variety of fronts -- energy, financial regulation and health care -- in
a condensed time period. The approach also goes by the name "doing too much too fast."
Obama's Big Bang could go bust.
Barack Obama's Big Bang is beginning to backfire, as his plans for rapid, once-in-a-generation overhauls of
energy, financial regulation and health care are running into stiff resistance, both in Washington and around
the country.
Dr. Obama and the
Hypocrite's Oath. President Obama's preferred method of implementing his leftist agenda is
to rush emergency,
must-sign-yesterday bills through Congress. Forget about reading the
legislation. Just trust Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer and Barney Frank with the details. The
problem with this method is that when the details finally come out, it's too late for the people to do
anything about it.
The Tin Ears of the
Bully-in-Chief and his Comrades in Arms. One cannot read the latest news without getting the
sense that our leaders are bullying the citizens of this country into submission. I was always under
the impression that our elected leaders' mandate was to uphold the Constitution and move the country
slowly forward on a sustainable path through policy decisions representative of the will of the
people. However, at record breaking speed, we are watching our elected leaders gut the Constitution
and implement potentially irreversible and damaging legislation that the majority of Americans do not favor.
Obama's Orders Requireth Haste.
Given enough time, the public would eventually become privy to some of the more questionable measures that are lurking in
this bill, and give Obama a vote of no confidence, despite the fact that he may already have the votes to subject an uneasy
populace to his grand scheme of so called "reform". This is probably the reason why Obama is in such a rush.
Obama's Speech: Did It Help Him?
From a policy standpoint, there was nothing new in President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress
tonight [9/9/2009]. ... [However, Obama did say,] "This exchange will take effect in four years, which will
give us time to do it right." But wait! Aren't people dying? The Democrats tried to ram
their bill through Congress before the August recess, with essentially no debate and with virtually no one
having read it. Their theory was that we are facing such a dire emergency that there is not a moment to
lose. If, in fact, we have four years to spare, could we maybe stop trying to cram the bill down
Americans' throats?
Listening to a Liar.
One plain fact should outweigh all the words of Barack Obama and all the impressive trappings of the setting in which he
says them: He tried to rush Congress into passing a massive government takeover of the nation's medical care before
the August recess — for a program that would not take effect until 2013! ... If we do not believe that the President
is stupid, then what do we believe? The only reasonable alternative seems to be that he wanted to get this massive
government takeover of medical care passed into law before the public understood what was in it.
Unsafe at Any Speed.
Yeah, sure, history repeats itself the second time as farce — but what to call the White House's latest
imposition of a health-care deadline on Congress? ... Farce is too kind for this one. Recall that as
late as July, President Obama was exhorting Democrats to hustle legislation through Congress before the August
recess with minimal debate or public scrutiny. Back then, "the goal" was to prevent voters from thinking
for too long over such minor details as the then 13-figure price tag, the farrago of new taxes, regulations and
mandates that will drive up costs, and the consequences of converting all health decisions into political
disputes.
Congressional
leaders fight against posting bills online. At town hall meetings across the country this past summer,
the main topic was health care, but there was a strong undercurrent of anger over the way Congress rushed through
passage of the stimulus, global warming and bank bailout bills without seeming to understand the consequences.
The stimulus bill, for example, was 1,100 pages long and made available to Congress and the public just
13 hours before lawmakers voted on it.
Watching the Constitution
Disappear. [The] normal course of events in this case would allow too much time for discovery and discussion,
and it might therefore result in the public learning too much about the future of their health care. Extended public
inspection might even result in the bill not passing in the form desired by the President and his allies, or perhaps not
passing at all.
Show Me the Bill! Do
you think Congress should vote on bills without reading them? How about voting on bills that don't even exist yet,
except in fragments? The Senate Finance Committee [voted] on a massive health care reform bill on Tuesday [10/13/2009]
allegedly authored by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). A glaring, outrageous, unreported fact is that the bill's actual
text has been kept secret. No one actually knows what's in it — not even the senators who [were] told
to vote for it.
What's
In and What's Out of Health Care Legislation. Barack Obama promised "transparency" and to give the public
five days to read the bill, but Sen. Jim Bunning's amendment to require the bill, along with a final Congressional
Budget Office score, to be posted online 72 hours before the vote was defeated. ... The Democrats still hope to
rush the bill through unread. The 1,100-page stimulus bill was posted online only 13 hours before the
vote, and the 1,200-page cap-and-trade bill was posted only 15 hours before the vote.
Magic Numbers in Politics: Part II. People
who would never let some high-pressure salesman rush them into signing a contract to buy a car, before they have
a chance to read the contract, may see nothing wrong with a President of the United States trying to rush Congress
into passing a thousand-page bill before anybody has a chance to read it all.
More about President Obama
More about President Obama's Culture of Corruption
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