Obama's Dastardly Deficit

The master politicians have done it again.  I have watched the news channels and commentators.  They have completely ignored the fact that during Obama’s first year, there has been an act of terrorism on American soil.  I would say Obama and his Attorney General knew exactly when to break this story of the trials for the five terrorists coming from the hands of military decisions in Gitmo.  The questions raised about Obama’s decision on the request of the military commander in Afghanistan have also been erased from the minds of Americans.  If this isn’t a political master stroke, I don’t know what is.

The news media, even Fox, are being led around by the nose like a calf to slaughter.  The new White House council, Anita Dunn’s husband, is another way of getting some underhanded things done.  As politicians, the Obama administration has no equal.  There have been programs put in place, like this health care bill, waiting in the wings to destroy our economy.  The refusal to allow drilling on our shores and the interior, but going to solar and wind farms has been a joke – put in place for the benefit of General Electric.  Their CEO is in the pocket of Obama and GE’s NBC and affiliates are a voice used for the benefit of the Obama administration.  I know the Obama administration is going to have Chris Matthews’ leg bronzed.

The deficit is growing at a fantastic rate.  Our balance of payments is at a disastrous rate, and our Treasury department is printing money at a phenomenal rate to help Obama along, but all it is doing is lowering the value of our dollar lower and lower.  The importation of oil, which is completely unnecessary, is a large part of this.  Also, the taking of a large part of that is the fact that the government took over a large portion of our auto industry and efforts made to help the labor unions survive and grow.  Don’t forget, the Obama administration still has Card Check up its sleeve to have the labor unions take over the country.  Who has been the person given an inordinate amount of visits to the White House – Andy Stern, the labor leader of the SEIU and helper to ACORN.

See the following:

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — The trade deficit in the U.S. widened in September by the most in a decade, reflecting rising demand for imported oil and automobiles as the economy rebounded from the worst recession since the 1930s.

The gap grew a larger-than-anticipated 18 percent to $36.5 billion, the highest level since January, from a revised $30.8 billion in August, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Imports surged by the most in 16 years, swamping a gain in exports.

Demand for foreign products may remain elevated in coming months as consumer and business spending improve and companies aim to prevent inventories from collapsing even more. Exports may also rise as expanding economies in Asia and Europe and a weak dollar drive demand for American goods, giving manufacturers such as Dow Chemical Co. a lift.

“Sometimes what looks bad on the surface is actually quite good and I think that’s the case this time around,” said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. “Exports are growing strongly and imports are turning up because domestic spending has turned the corner.”

The dollar dropped after the report. One euro cost $1.4875 at 8:50 a.m. in New York, up 0.2 percent from late yesterday. The yen climbed to 89.68, up 0.8 percent. Stock-index futures pointed to a gain at the open.

Exceeds Forecasts

The trade gap was projected to widen to $31.8 billion, from an initially reported $30.7 billion in August, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 77 economists. Deficit projections ranged from $28.6 billion to $34.1 billion.

A collapse in world trade earlier this year brought the gap down to $26.4 billion in May, its lowest level since November 1999, as imports plunged even faster than exports. As commerce begins to pick back up, global leaders agree more needs to be done to strengthen the expansion.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other finance ministers at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore this week reiterated a pledge to maintain stimulus efforts “until a durable recovery in private demand is secured.”

Asia is “leading the world” back to recovery, Geithner told reporters at a joint press briefing with his APEC counterparts. President Barack Obama began a swing through Asia today as world leaders work toward a rebalancing that will make global growth more reliant on spending by Asian consumers and businesses and less dependent on their American counterparts.

Imports Jump

Imports climbed 5.8 percent, the most since March 1993, to $168.4 billion. The figures reflected a $4.1 billion increase in imported oil as the cost of a barrel of crude climbed to the highest level since October 2008 and volumes also rose.

Purchases of foreign-made autos and parts surged by $1.7 billion to $16.4 billion, due mainly to a $1.3 billion increase in imports from Canada and Mexico as North American vehicle production picked up. Imports from South Korea also climbed.

The federal “cash for clunkers” auto trade-in program, which expired in late August, generated momentum in car sales and boosted demand for parts and supplies. Automotive inventory restocking is also boosting demand for foreign-made autos and parts.

U.S. sales for South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Co. increased in September for the third month in a row, while Toyota Motor Corp. is boosting production of models such as Corollas and Camry sedans to rebuild its U.S. inventory.

Replenishing Stockpiles

“Our inventories are continuing to recover with a very good pipeline as we move into the fourth quarter,” Robert Carter, Toyota’s North America sales chief, said on a conference call last month.

Exports rose 2.9 percent to $132 billion, the most this year, propelled by sales of civilian aircraft, industrial machines and petroleum products. The dollar this month was down 12 percent from a five-year high reached in March against a trade-weighted basket of currencies from it’s biggest trading partners.

China’s economy grew 8.9 percent in the third quarter from the same period in 2008, the best performance in a year. Exports to the Asian nation were the highest since October, even as imports from China also climbed.

“The economic outlook for the rest of 2009 appears to be stabilizing, with strong growth in Asia Pacific, especially China, and other emerging geographies,” Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical’s chief executive officer, said in an Oct. 22 statement.

Factory Pickup

Dow’s factories around the world ran at 78 percent of capacity in the third quarter, an increase of 3 percentage points, because of increased demand in developing markets, including China and Brazil, as well as relatively low North American ingredient costs that led to increased exports. The largest U.S. chemical maker yesterday said cost cuts and rising sales will boost earnings more than analysts estimate.

After eliminating the influence of prices, which are the numbers used to calculate gross domestic product, the trade deficit grew to $41.7 billion, the highest since January. The figures suggest the government may revise down their estimate for third-quarter economic growth.

The U.S. is growing again after posting its worst contraction in seven decades. The world’s largest economy expanded at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the best performance in two years. Economists surveyed last month forecast a 3 percent rate of growth this quarter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Willis in Washington at bwillis@bloomberg.net

Obama says he is going to reduce the deficit.  Then why is he wanting to increase the national debt limits?  He could use the tarp funds and the unused portion of the stimulus to keep from having to raise the debt limit.  The adding of  $1.3 trillion boondoggle of a health care bill to take affect in four years, right after the next election, is very droll.

See this article:

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration is confident Congress will raise the country’s debt limit by year end to avert a showdown similar to the one that shuttered parts of the government in 1995, administration officials said.

The White House wants an increase of at least $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, according to a person familiar with the deliberations between lawmakers and the administration. Record budget deficits are pushing the national debt closer to the $12.1 trillion statutory limit.

The administration’s request, higher than a proposed increase already passed in the House of Representatives, would get the government through the November 2010 midterm congressional elections without needing another increase. Earlier this month, Treasury officials acknowledged they’ll need more borrowing room by year-end to avoid market disruptions.

“Market participants still remain on edge, especially since many have concerns over the rising debt loads that were kicked off this year,” said George Goncalves, chief fixed- income rates strategist in New York at primary dealer Cantor Fitzgerald LP.

The administration officials said the White House is open to any legislative vehicle that will raise the debt limit, by any amount. Although the Obama administration has pledged to bring deficits down to “sustainable” levels in the longer term, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has focused recently on the need to keep up spending on economic assistance programs until the unemployment rate, which reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October, comes down.

TARP Savings

To rein in the 2010 deficit, the administration will save as much as it can from unused portions of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, another administration official said. Treasury data show that the administration has more than $200 billion in uncommitted TARP funds.

One Treasury official said the memory of the 1995 budget standoff should be motivation to avoid another showdown. In that confrontation, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich battled with the White House over federal budget bills, forcing President Bill Clinton to shut the government down temporarily.

With the economy still in the early recovery stage, Congress understands the stakes and doesn’t want to fuel investor concern, the official said.

Republicans in Congress are seeking to link the debt limit to the debate over health-care spending, while Democrats prefer to keep the two issues separate. The Senate Budget Committee has proposed a commission to look into the nation’s fiscal health, which backers say should be a condition of any debt limit increase.

‘Not Right’

“We’re seeing deficits projected for the next 10 years of over a trillion dollars a year,” said Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, in congressional comments last week. “It’s not sustainable. It’s not fair, and it’s not right.”

Treasury debt-management director Karthik Ramanathan told bond market participants in Washington last week to expect another year of government debt sales of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in fiscal year 2010, which began Oct. 1, according to minutes of the meeting.

For fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, the U.S. racked up a $1.4 trillion deficit, and the Congressional Budget Office in August predicted a deficit this year of about the same size.

Treasury officials also have said they have less maneuvering room than in the past. Tactics such as tapping federal retirement funds would free up roughly $150 billion – about the same amount as the interest payments that come due on Dec. 31.

Temporary Measures

“Depending on the date that we hit the debt limit, they could last days or at most weeks,” compared with five or six months in previous debt-limit impasses, said Matthew Rutherford, deputy assistant Treasury secretary for federal finance, in a press conference last week.

Forecasting a precise date for a debt-ceiling collision is difficult because the government’s cash flows are “volatile,” the Treasury said last week, adding that it would keep markets and lawmakers notified of developments. The department said it could need extra immediate cash because there’s so much uncertainty surrounding incoming taxes and outgoing spending on fiscal stimulus and financial market stabilization programs.

“Debt ceiling showdowns used to be long, drawn-out affairs,” said Louis Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP in Jersey City, New Jersey. “Things come to a head much faster when your cash burn rate averages more than $100 billion a month.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Rebecca Christie in Washington at rchristie4@bloomberg.net

I think every wife, mother, father and relative of any of our soldiers killed in Afghanistan during the time Obama has stalled and wavered about sending additional troops to help those troops already there who are feeling neglected and demoralized should turn to their representative and Senator (regardless of party), as well as the news media and DEMAND an apology from Obama!

Only liberals would want their children in these hands!

Obama and his administration are very slow in sending additional troops to Afghanistan, as his appointed Military Commander asked for.  He knew right away what he wanted to do on health care, but doesn’t have the time to decide on helping the young troops over ‘there’ and keep more of ‘them’ alive – choices too hard to make.  He has no problem with wrecking the country with his health care reform by adding a massive deficit to be paid for by our children, grand children and their children.   He is not the only one shorting the troops.  Both the Democrats and Republicans shorted the troops when they took $2.1 billion out of the defense budget for their own little earmarks, to get themselves re-elected.

Originally published 04:45 a.m., October 15, 2009, updated 09:02 a.m., October 15, 2009

U.S. troop funds diverted to pet projects

Shaun Waterman THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis.

Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.

While earmarks are hardly new in Washington, “in 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year,” said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate staffer who worked on defense funding and oversight for both Republicans and Democrats. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information, an independent research organization.

Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, called the transfer of funds from Pentagon operations and maintenance “a disgrace.”

“The Senate is putting favorable headlines back home above our men and women fighting on the front lines,” he said in a statement.

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Mr. Wheeler, who conducted the study, compared the Obama administration’s requests for funds with the $636 billion spending bill that the Senate passed. He discovered that senators added $2.6 billion in pet projects while spending $4 billion less than the administration requested for fiscal 2010, which began Oct. 1.

Mr. Wheeler said that senators took most of the cash for the projects from the “operations and maintenance” or O&M accounts.

“These are the accounts that pay for troop training, repairs, spares and supplies for vehicles, weapons, ships and planes, food and fuel,” Mr. Wheeler said.

Raiding those accounts to fund big-ticket projects the military does not want, but that benefit senators’ home states or campaign contributors, amounts to “rancid gluttony,” he said.

The administration’s budget requested $156 billion for the regular O&M account and $81 billion for O&M for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill passed by the Senate cut $2.4 billion from the regular account and $655 million from the war O&M fund.

Senate appropriators insisted that the O&M accounts, despite the cuts, do not shortchange the troops.

“The operation and maintenance title is fully funded,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye, Hawaii Democrat, said during the debate on the bill. “There is no shortage. … The committee is deeply concerned that the critical operational needs of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are met with the finest equipment available.”

Money for the Kennedy Institute was inserted by Mr. Inouye and Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, Louisiana Democrat, and Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana Republican, sought the funding for the World War II museum.

Whitney Smith, a spokesman for Mr. Kerry, said the earmark was “a worthy investment.”

“Sen. Kennedy served on the Armed Services Committee for 27 years, where he fought to deliver top-of-the-line body armor and armored Humvees to protect our troops and save lives. Educating Americans about these battles is a core mission for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, which showcases one senator’s ability to make a difference,” Mr. Smith wrote in an e-mail. “This funding will help the Edward M. Kennedy Institute become one the nation’s pre-eminent civic educational institutions, and Sen. Kerry is proud to have worked with Chairman Inouye to make it possible.”

Mrs. Landrieu said she was “proud to fight” for money for the World War II museum, which is not just a “monument to the brave men and women who served during World War II,” but also “a constant reminder to future generations about the tremendous sacrifice of millions of Americans.” She added that the earmarked funds “will help to increase tourism to New Orleans.”

Beyond those two earmarks, the largest in the Senate bill are:

- $20 million for Humvee maintenance at an Army National Guard installation in Maine, sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, Maine Republicans. The senators said cuts in the maintenance program proposed by the administration would result in the “layoff of 175 employees in a region already suffering” from the recession.

- $20 million for the Maui Space Surveillance System in Hawaii, requested by Mr. Inouye.

- $25 million inserted by Mr. Inouye for the Hawaii Federal Health Care Network. Mr. Inouye’s Web site says the health care program “supports applied research, development and deployment of technology to improve access and the quality of care to service members, military families and impacted communities.”

Laura Peterson, of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan spending watchdog, told The Washington Times, “Earmarks like these take money away from other defense programs that the Defense Department actually wants. While military health care is certainly a worthwhile venture, it’s hard to see how a program located in Hawaii that openly favors Hawaii-based industries guarantees [the Department of Defense] the best value for such an exorbitant price tag.”

Mr. Inouye had a total of 35 earmarks worth more than $206 million in the final bill, and the ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, sponsored 48 worth $216 million.

Mr. Cochran defended earmarking as part of Congress’ responsibility to direct government spending.

“I am not ready to cede the power of the purse to any administration,” he told The Times in an e-mail. “It is vested by the Constitution in the Congress.” He added that appropriators had “reviewed the budget request very carefully, conducted public hearings and reported the appropriation bills that the committee thinks will serve the public interest.”

In addition to the $2.6 billion in earmarks, the bill includes $2.5 billion for 10 Boeing C-17 cargo planes that the military says it does not need, and $1.7 billion for an extra DDG-51 destroyer not requested in the Pentagon’s budget proposal.

Mr. Coburn mounted a rear-guard action on the Senate floor to try to restore some of the money to its original purpose. One proposed amendment restored $100 million to the accounts by correcting the economic projections used in the bill to estimate future costs. That passed, but other amendments to prevent the use of O&M money to fund earmarks were soundly defeated.

Mr. Wheeler said senators had raided O&M accounts to pay for narrowly targeted projects in every budget since 2002, with dire results for troops on the front lines.

“Air Force and Navy combat pilots training to deploy are getting about half of the flying hours they got at the end of the Vietnam War,” he wrote in his analysis. “Army tank crews get less in tank training today than they did during the low-readiness Clinton years.”

Mr. Wheeler told The Times that the figures were drawn from the Pentagon’s budget justification.

Mr. Coburn said in May that the Navy had been forced to curtail at-sea training and flying because of a shortfall in 2009 O&M funds.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has called on lawmakers to reverse the cuts.

“These reductions would hurt force readiness and increase stress on military people and equipment,” the agency said.

The House approved its version of the bill in July. Ms. Peterson said that lawmakers still could restore the funding in the conference that reconciles the two versions of the bill.

The conference “presents a final opportunity for Congress to take their hands out of the cookie jar and put some dough where it’s really needed – protecting our fighting men and women,” she said.

This Congress is really the pits.  They gave themselves a raise and raised their budgets to help with their partying and flitting around to desirable locales.  They really put themselves out, seeing to it that the seniors didn’t get the cost of living adjustment.  I don’t know where they get this cost of living figure.  They must not go into grocery or drug stores.  But why would they when they can pay someone else to do it for them?

When Obama appoints Kevin Jennings to be in charge of safe schools, what does that say about Obama?  Remember when Obama had the charter schools stopped in D.C. so his daughters wouldn’t have to possibly brush up against the non-elites?  What a dad!  At least there is a group in Congress asking for the removal of Kevin Jennings.  If you don’t know his history, look it up:

Fifty-three House Republicans have written President Barack Obama asking him to remove “safe schools czar” Kevin Jennings from that position.

The lawmakers accused Jennings of “pushing a pro-homosexual agenda” and said that Jennings’s past writings exhibit a record that makes him unfit for the position.

“We respectfully request that you remove Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, from your Administration,” the Republicans wrote. “It is clear that Mr. Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in this capacity.”

Jennings has come under scrutiny from conservative personalities like talk show host Sean Hannity for his handling of an alleged incident involving underage sex, as well as Jennings’s own reported personal history with drugs and alcohol — charges the GOP members echoed.

The letter was primarily assembled by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), and was joined by 52 Republican colleagues, including two members of leadership: House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) and House Republican Conference Vice Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.).

Jennings, who founded the Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teacher Network (GLISTeN), was appointed by Obama to head the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, a position Jennings assumed in July.

“Kevin Jennings cannot gain the approval of parents who want their children safe and their schools drug free,” the Republican congressmen said. “You should replace him with someone who has a record of educating children in a safe and moral environment.”

The Jennings controversy follows the Sept. 6 resignation of Green Jobs Czar Van Jones and the long-blocked nomination of Cass Sunstein as regulatory czar.

Find the entire letter, with signatories, below:

October 15, 2009

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

We respectfully request that you remove Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, from your Administration. It is clear that Mr. Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in this capacity.

As the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Mr. Jennings has played an integral role in promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America’s schools—an agenda that runs counter to the values that many parents desire to instill in their children. As evidence of this, Mr. Jennings wrote the foreword for a book titled Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue About Sexualities and Schooling. Throughout his career, Mr. Jennings has made it his mission to establish special protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students to the exclusion of all other students. The totality of Mr. Jennings’ career has been to advocate for public affirmation of homosexuality. There is more to safe and drug free schools than can be accomplished from the narrow view of Mr. Jennings who has, for more than 20 years, almost exclusively focused on promoting the homosexual agenda.

Equally troubling is Mr. Jennings’ self-described history of ignoring the sexual abuse of a child. In his book, One Teacher in Ten, Mr. Jennings recounts a 15-year old student confiding in him that he had a sexual relationship with a much older man. Mr. Jennings’ only response was to ask if the underage boy used a condom. As a mandatory reporter, Mr. Jennings was required by law to report child abuse, including sex crimes. Mr. Jennings cannot serve as the “safe schools” czar when his record demonstrates a willingness to overlook the sexual abuse of a child.

As the “safe schools” czar, Mr. Jennings is also charged with ensuring our schools and students are drug free. It is clear that Mr. Jennings is unfit to serve in this capacity, as well. His own history of unrepentant drug and alcohol abuse indicates that he is of the opinion that getting drunk and high as a young person is acceptable. In his memoir, Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son, Mr. Jennings describes his use of illegal drugs, without expressing regret or acknowledging the devastating effects illegal drug use can have on a person’s life.

Everyone that deals with the education of the most vulnerable must be a positive role model.  Our children are not blessed with the wisdom to discern and reject. Children presume the adults who educate them are approved by the larger society and their parents.  Kevin Jennings cannot gain the approval of parents who want their children safe and their schools drug free. You should replace him with someone who has a record of educating children in a safe and moral environment.

Given these very serious issues with Mr. Jennings’ record, we urge you to remove him immediately.

Sincerely,

KING
Alexander
Aderholt
Akin
Austria
Bachmann
Bachus
Bartlett
Barton
Boozman
Broun
Brown, H.
Carter
Chaffetz
Coffman
Cole
Conaway
Davis, Geoff
Fallin
Fleming
Foxx
Franks
Garrett
Gingrey
Gohmert
Hunter
Issa
Jordan
Lamborn
Latta
LuetkemeyerMarchant
McClintock
McHenry
McKeon
McMorris
Mica
Miller, J.
Myrick
Neugebauer
Olson, P.
Pence
Pitts
Posey
Rogers (AL)
Rooney
Ryan, Paul
Shuster
Smith, C
Smith, L.
Wamp
Westmoreland
Jones, Walter

When you see the czars Obama appoints, don’t it make you wonder?

This administration talks about the fact that the leader of Afghanistan was elected by fraudulent voting… HEY, WHAT’S NEW?  Did ACORN fraudulently vote in Obama?  Could be.  With ACORN’s fraud and those voters who voted in Obama because of their desire to break the color bar, which was good intent, look what it brought us.  Who’s sorry now?  Anyone who thinks that Obama has ever stopped campaigning and planting questions in the audience, check today in New Orleans.  Has he gone to any state that he didn’t win since the election?  Does it make you wonder why he wants the leader that was removed in Honduras, President Manuel Zelaya, to be returned to power even though he tried to overturn their constitution to retain power?  Their supreme court threw him out.  Does Obama have a similar desire for power and would he go against OUR Constitution?

We know there is no transparency, as he promised.  He has lied and denied since being in Office.  He went on the Letterman show – could they be of the same stripe?  Look at the czars he appointed.  Is Code Pink keeping Obama from sending troops to Afghanistan?  Wonder why Obama never stopped by Mississippi to see THEIR Katrina damage.  Could it be he didn’t carry Mississippi in the election?

My previous article made an inference that Obama was like a Punch and Judy character when you watched him speak with the tv sound muted.  This brings to mind the fact that Punch and Judy require someone behind the curtain doing the thinking and talking.  We don’t know who writes the words on his teleprompter.  Could it be David Axelrod – surely not Biden with his history of plagiarism.  In any event, he seems to be unable to speak without the use of his teleprompter.  You never see the teleprompters in the pictures supplied by the media.  Reminds me of how they never showed FDR in a wheelchair or on crutches.  I guess Obama’s use of teleprompters is the same as crutches.  What I would dearly love to see is some sort of glitch that shuts down his teleprompter in the middle of a speech.  It would be like a Punch and Judy show in progress would be if its handler all at once shut up.  Who is really behind the curtain?

Obama’s lyrical promises don’t ring true.

The stock market this week had a slight correction and many liberals were in newspapers, radio, and tv touting how Obama was turning around the economy.  How droll.  I hope this week is a trend and the stock market and people’s 401k continue to improve, however… I have doubts.  During the election and during the first two months Obama played down the economy and now he is saying how everything is going to be fine.  But who can count on anything he says?  His promises were not made to keep.

Obama racks up list of broken promises
Just 2 months into term, president abandons numerous commitments

---

Posted: March 12, 2009
11:30 pm Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

After only two months in office, President Obama may have fallen short on a number of his campaign promises.

As a candidate, he promised to allow public comment before signing bills, eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses, provide tax credits to businesses for hiring new employees, allow Americans to withdraw funds from 401(k) and retirement accounts without penalties, ban lobbyists from serving in his administration, reform earmarks, bring all combat troops home from Iraq in 16 months, sign the “Freedom of Choice Act,” give Americans $4,000 in credits for college and run a “transparent” administration.

However, after giving his word to the American people on so many issues, Obama has yet to fulfill many commitments.

WND has compiled the following extensive list of those abandoned promises:

Broken promise No. 1: ‘Sunlight Before Signing’

When Obama campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in Manchester, N.H., on June 22, 2007, he announced his “Sunlight Before Signing” promise.

“When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as the president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it,” he said.

He repeated that promise on his campaign website:

“Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.”

However, Obama signed his first bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, on Jan. 20 – only two days after its passage.

He signed a second bill expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program just three hours after Congress passed it.

Again, on Feb. 17, Obama signed his 1,000-page $787 billion stimulus aimed at jolting the declining U.S. economy. He did so only one business day after it passed through Congress – without allowing for five days of public comment.

Broken promise No. 2: Capital gains tax elimination

According to his comprehensive tax plan released during his campaign, Obama promised to “eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses.”

Just weeks prior to the election, Obama advisers Austan Goolsbee and Jason Furman told the Wall Street Journal that Obama planned tax cuts that included “the elimination of capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups.”

People who invest in small businesses have only been allowed to exclude 50 percent of that gain from capital gains taxes. While Obama’s $787 billion economic-stimulus package reduces that tax liability – raising the exclusion to 75 percent – it does not eliminate it.

Broken promise No. 3: New American jobs tax credit

During his transition, Obama’s promised to provide a $3,000 refundable tax credit to existing businesses for every additional full-time U.S. employee hired in 2009 and 2010.

“If a company that currently has 10 U.S. employees increases its domestic full time employment to 20 employees, this company would get a $30,000 tax credit – enough to offset the entire added payroll tax costs to the company for the first $50,000 of income for the new employees,” the transition website stated. “The tax credit will benefit all companies creating net new jobs, even those struggling to make a profit.”

Obama’s promise was never included in the stimulus package.

Broken promise No. 4: Hiatus on 401(k) penalties

Many unemployed and financially strapped Americans have considered early withdrawals on 401(k) and retirement accounts to survive the current recession. However, the IRS imposes strict penalties of up to 10 percent plus federal, state and local income taxes on such advances.

Workers who have taken $10,000 in early withdrawals from retirement plans have lost as much as 40 percent to taxes and penalties, depending upon tax brackets.

In October 2008, Obama released his “Rescue Plan for the Middle-Class” in which he promised to allow financially distressed Americans to withdraw up to $10,000 from their 401(k) accounts and retirement savings without having to pay penalties. They would only pay income taxes on the amount.

“Since so many Americans will be struggling to pay the bills over the next year, I propose that we allow every family to withdraw up to 15% from their IRA or 401(k) – up to a maximum of $10,000 – without any fine or penalty throughout 2009,” Obama said. “This will help families get through this crisis without being forced to make painful choices like selling their homes or not sending their kids to college.”

However, Obama’s promise was never included in his recent stimulus package.

Broken promise No. 5: ‘No jobs for lobbyists’

William J. Lynn III

Obama promised America he would loosen the grip of lobbyists on Washington.

In his Nov. 10, 2007, speech in Des Moines, Iowa, Obama declared:

I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.

During his campaign, Obama also said, “I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race. I don’t take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House.”

However, USA Today reported Obama’s campaign fundraising team included 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million in 2007 to lobby the federal government.

William Corr

“Those lawyers, including 10 former federal lobbyists, have pledged to raise at least $3.5 million” for Obama’s campaign, the report states. “Employees of their firms have given Obama’s campaign $2.26 million.”

It wasn’t long before he allowed at least two dozen exceptions and broke his promise.

Obama’s own ethic rules barred officials of his administration from lobbying their former colleagues “for as long as I am president.” He also said former lobbyists would be prohibited from working for agencies they had lobbied within the past two years. President Obama later waived his rules for at least two of his nominees – William J. Lynn III, undersecretary at the Department of Defense and recent lobbyist for Raytheon, and William Corr, deputy secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services and anti-tobacco lobbyist for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Broken promise No. 6: Earmark reform

As WND reports, at the first presidential debate in Oxford, Miss., Obama declared, “[W]e need earmark reform. And when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.”

However, in February, Obama passed his $787 billion stimulus aimed at jolting the declining U.S. economy. Before a joint session of Congress, Obama declared: “Now, I’m proud that we passed a recovery plan free of earmarks.”

Some chuckled in amusement when he claimed the bill contained no pork.

“There was just a roar of laughter – because there were earmarks,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., told CNN.

U.S. News & World Report found at least eight earmarks in his stimulus bill.

Obama also signed a $410 billion omnibus bill for 2009. More than 9,000 earmarks in the spending bill total an estimated $7.7 billion.

Even though the Democrat-controlled Congress crafted the bill after Obama’s election, the administration claims the added pork is just “unfinished business” from last year.

The White House website states, “Obama and Biden will slash earmarks to no greater than 1994 levels and ensure all spending decisions are open to the public.” However, watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense reports that the omnibus pork alone already totals $7.7 billion – just less than the total of $7.8 billion in earmarks in 1994 – and the figure does not include $6.6 billion in earmarks contained in three previous spending bills Congress passed amid the bailout crisis last year.

During his three years in the Senate, Obama requested more than $860 million in earmarks, according to the group. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has 16 earmarks – worth approximately $8.5 million – in the bill.

Broken promise No. 7: Bring troops home in 16 months

On his campaign website, Obama promised he would “remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.”

His commitment to bring combat troops home by May 20, 2010, and end the war gave him an edge among Democrats over candidate Hillary Clinton.

However, on Feb. 27, Obama declared, “Let me say this as plainly as I can: By Aug. 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.”

If Obama adheres to his plan, combat troops will return home months later than originally promised. The New York Times reports, Obama will withdraw only two of the 14 brigades before December.

As part of a “new era of American leadership,” he also said he would leave behind a residual force of 35,000 to 50,000 troops and remove all U.S. soldiers from Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011 – the same deadline the Bush administration negotiated with the Iraqi government last year in its Status of Forces Agreement.

Additionally, some combat units would remain in Iraq beyond Obama’s declared August 2010 withdrawal. Rather than returning home, they would simply face reassignment as “advisory training brigades.”

Even as combat troops are brought home, Pentagon officials have said fresh units will continue deploying to Iraq.

Broken promise No. 8: Sign ‘Freedom of Choice Act’

On July 17, 2007, Obama told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, “The first thing I’d do as president is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing that I’d do.”

Obama expressed his support for the sweeping plan that would repeal all national and state regulations of abortion passed over the last 35 years.

His agenda regarding “reproductive choice” is posted on the White House website. It states, Obama “has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women’s rights under Roe v. Wade a priority in his Administration.”

Obama chose radical pro-abortion Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to serve as the Health secretary, moved to void job protections for health workers who oppose abortion and repealed a ban on U.S. taxpayer funding of foreign abortions. While many pro-life advocates consider it a blessing that Obama has no fulfilled his promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, he has made no mention of the legislation since he took office.

Broken promise No. 9: $4,000 college credit

Obama pledged to make college “affordable for all Americans” when he announced his American Opportunity Tax Credit.

His campaign promise read: “This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university

and make community college tuition completely free for most students. Recipients of the credit will be required to conduct 100 hours of community service.”

While the American Opportunity Tax Credit was included in the recent stimulus bill, it offers a credit of only $2,500 for up to two years and requires no commitment to community service.

Broken promise No. 10: Transparency

On the White House website, the Obama administration claims it will be “the most open and transparent in history.

The administration released a memo on Jan. 21, stating:

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.Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. …

However, Congress and the administration hurried the $787 billion, 1,027-page American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to a vote after allowing lawmakers just a few hours to read the bill. It was also available online in a form that could not be keyword searched.

While former administrations immediately posted transcripts of presidential speeches – including some remarks before delivery – the White House website often waits until days or even weeks after an event to release transcripts.

Also, some say recent reports of tax evasion by Obama nominees is evidence that the administration is not as transparent as promised.

Timothy Geithner

Just before Obama named Timothy Geithner to be his treasury secretary, the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank quietly paid $26,000 in back taxes and interest due since 2001 and 2002.

Obama characterized the eight-year tax evasion as “an innocent mistake.”

But as many as five of his picks defaulted on taxes, including former nominee for health and human services secretary, Tom Daschle; former nominee for chief performance officer, Nancy Killefer; U.S. trade representative nominee Ron Kirk and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.

Furthermore, while the president posted his own weekly “fireside chats” on YouTube during the campaign, many journalists report that he has a history of being less than welcoming to the Fourth Estate.

Columbia Journalism Review noted Obama’s treatment of the press: “During the campaign, reporters’ access to Obama was severely limited. On-the-record conversations with the candidate were even more so. Indeed, Obama’s overall treatment of the press – not just in his general rejection of the day-to-day news cycle, but also in his tendency to shun his national traveling press corps … created the impression that its members were, to him, a buzzing nuisance. Instead of the voice of the people.”

WND’s correspondent at the White House, Les Kinsolving, raised the issue in February that most of the reporters recognized for questions in the briefing room were among the same handful over and over again. Some of them had been given four or even five opportunities for questions while other reporters were not recognized at all.

Kinsolving, a senior journalist in the White House press corps, was not allowed to voice his questions on issues on which millions of WND readers have expressed an interest. There were also complaints about the time of the November election that not only did Obama rely on a few key reporters for questions, those reporters were chosen ahead of time.

And, finally, WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama’s status as a “natural born citizen.” The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

Obama’s alleged Certification of Live Birth is not his original 1961 birth certificate

However, Obama has refused repeated calls to publicly release his Hawaiian birth certificate, which would include the actual hospital that performed the delivery. His campaign posted an alleged “Certification of Live Birth” online, but it is not the same as a Hawaii birth certificate. COLBs have been issued by Hawaii to parents whose children are not born in the state.

Instead of providing the documentation to end the lawsuits, a series of law firms have been hired on Obama’s behalf around the nation to prevent any public access to his birth certificate, passport records, college records and other documents. – even after more than 320,000 people signed a petition demanding that he live up to his promise of transparency by releasing the certificate to the public.

Nonetheless, during his campaign and after he took office, Obama maintained that his administration would have an unyielding commitment to transparency.

“The American people want to trust in our government again – we just need a government that will trust in us,” he said in a campaign speech. “And making government accountable to the people isn’t just a cause of this campaign – it’s been a cause of my life for two decades.”

The White House declined to respond to WND’s request for comment on Obama’s promises.

Obama does have his cheerleaders and proponents of anything he does or says.  They are the “Promote Obama” PR firm of Chris Matthews, Jon Stewart, Steve Colbert, Jay Leno, Keith Olbermann, and David Letterman – assisted by ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, NPR, CNN, and PBS.  Detractors have the whole firm giving them hell and taking them to task similar to anyone, even scientists saying global warming caused by humans doesn’t exist.  They are soundly and quickly trounced.  Even Bush and McCain were taken in with this propaganda war.

As far as I am concerned, the greatest threats to this country are Al Gore, Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid.  I dread their actions against this country more than I do al-Qaeda.  The carbon tax pushed by Al Gore and being one of Obama’s aims will lead to more outsourcing than this country has ever known.  There will no longer be any steel production in this country, electricity will be limited, at times, as in Iraq.  The cost of gas for average Americans that have to commute will destroy them, and the country will be more of a class divided country and poorer than it ever was in its history – by poor I mean in spirit, outlook, and drive towards the future.  I really don’t want this to happen to my country.

• Isn’t it nice that Obama’s children will not have to go to school with those poor children?  Obama saw to that.
• Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, although they deny this, are the Hatfields and McCoys of Congress.
• Knowing who would follow Obama in the Presidency if he were to be unable to perform that duty scares the hell out of me!
• Summers and Volcker have sold their principals and character to ride the Obama express to financial ruin for the country, but at least they paid their taxes.
• Obama may hate Churchill but FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and JFK thought he was a man of heroic stature.

Make Wednesday, party day for Obama, become your “Check on your 401K day“!

Old folks, your day has come - oh well...

For many years this trifecta of evil – Obama, Ole Harry, and Nancy Pelosi will be remembered as the evil trio that set our country back for 50 years.  It will take time, honest politicians, and an aware public, which we do not presently have, to recover.  We don’t need bi-partisanship.  What we need is partisanship towards the needs of this country, its people, and its future.  There is no concern for the country presently… only plans to increase the power of the Democratic party.  If they succeed in their efforts, they will be actually reversing and undoing what the founding fathers started.

You have seen the type of people Obama has chosen for his administration – tax cheats and all manner of disreputable people.  Ole Harry has more relatives with government jobs than anyone in Congress.  Nancy Pelosi managed to have set aside 30 acres for mice.  Betcha the owner of this land has ties to Nancy Pelosi.  The transparency Obama promised does not exist.  The bills presented were to be laid before the Congress and the people four days before being voted on for study – not happening – transparency HELL!

The stimulus bill that was supposed to be HIS was written by Nancy Pelosi and her crew with no conferring with Republicans.  The results are nothing but having the American people underwrite the Democratic agenda.  Even Democrats, within a year, will have buyers remorse – especially those who want abortions to be rare and Catholics that believe in their religion (if any do).

I wonder how the coal states feel now, as well as any Democrat who now knows that he is mortgaging the future of their children and grandchildren.  They should be ashamed.  Between having Clinton’s war room, a bunch of slimy individuals, and a bunch of tax cheats in his administration, this should change many peoples’ ideas about Obama.  Eric Holder, the Attorney General, didn’t pick up his five years of free rent on his tax return.  Now that he is in charge of the IRS, do you think he will ever pay it or will it ever again be mentioned, and do you think the mainstream media cares if Obama is surrounded by sleaze?

Screw the founding fathers!

I am one of the people who will be affected by Obama’s healthcare reform.  I am old and I had a heart valve replaced and arteries cleaned, but under his plan I wouldn’t have had that and in the future, if his plan goes through, many old people will be thrown in the waste pile unless he happens to be a Senator.  If Mary Jo Kopechne’s parents get old and need serious medical care, Obama and Ted Kennedy, who killed Mary Jo Kopechne, will also kill her parents.  Where is the justice?  I guess Teddy will pay his way into heaven with Catholic Cardinals.  I believe the mafia was good at paying their way also.

My biggest worry about this administration is about the free speech that will, by HIS actions, be denied to all my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and their offspring.  What follows with the denial of free speech is slowly turning the government into a dictatorship.  The first step is to go to a one party political system.  Obama has managed to fool most of the people.  This makes me doubt the intellect of the majority of Americans.  It doesn’t bode well when an administration has an enemies list.  Even though the Jewish people voted for Obama in the majority, they will come to know that Bush was the best friend they ever had after Truman.

The AFLCIO held meetings at a five-star hotel in Miami.  They had to meet to figure out what to do with all that money they will get when card check gets passed.  That will be the end of our country.  This is the very first time in my long life that I have thought a President could sabotage and destroy my country, and that includes the Jimmy Carter administration.  I am glad to see that Feingold is finally joining McCain in something worthy after what they did to free speech with the campaign finance bill.

Obama struts and frets upon the stage.  I consider him an idiot – full of sound and fury, signifying NOTHING.  Thou comest to use thy tongue, a messenger of the Democratic party with toothy smile.  Shakespeare had Obama in mind.

I saw where there are people in the government concerned with the low price of oil and it has started going up – about $10 a barrel in the last ten days.  I know that Obama is against gas and oil because of “global warming”, which, by the way, does not exist.  There is a consensus of scientists that have an opinion that cooling will be in effect for, probably, the next 20 or 30 years, and there has been NO global warming.  This is, perhaps, the most criminal scam of all time.  One of the ripoffs coming is the cap and trade fiasco which is designed to keep the American people subservient and at the mercy of the government for their lives.  If this Congress allows this, they will remain in history for a long time – not in a favorable light.

Obama is all for high prices on oil and gas which harms the American people and favors the triangle of countries all for our destruction – Iran, Russia, and Venezuela.  That doesn’t indicate his concern for us or our country.  Can someone tell me if the oil tankers are still circling out in the ocean waiting for crooks to get the price of oil up, even though it should be going down, as there is a gigantic surplus?  I notice the oil companies stock is opposite the regular stock market.  It is going up.  The cheap gas in January allowed the consumer sales to increase for the first time in several months.  February reports should show an increase also, and if this doesn’t wake up those brilliant minds in Congress, the administration and Wall Street and make them try to keep gasoline prices low so people can spend money on other things, keeping consumer sales on the rise, then I don’t know what will.  Closed minds are a tragedy.

Any Republican in the Senate who votes for this atrocious budget should be marked to be defeated in the next election.  Michael Steele, start looking for candidates to run against them.  I am ashamed of a no-guts party.  John Podesta is saying how candidate Obama said that healthcare would be as available as it has been, saying how candidate Obama said this during his campaign as if this meant anything – I think the American people realize that Obama lied during the campaign about, just almost, everything as has already been shown.  I think the Republican party should start advertising a 401k day and ask people to look at their 401k on a certain day, perhaps party day for Obama, which I understand is Wednesday, and if you weren’t invited just think what he has given you to make you want to party.

Gas prices have, in the past, taken away any means for a lot of Americans to have ANY recreation and the beat goes on.  Michael Steele, time to be looking at weak Democrats for House and Senate throughout the country and get some challengers lined up.  The way the country is going invites a PERFECT political storm, even more than 1994.