During the campaign, Barack Obama fended off attacks by his opponents and made a number of promises that apparently appealed to a majority of voters. He said that we could judge him by those he would chose as his advisors and rattled off a litany of names to cover each policy area critical to the Presidency. Now that the election is over and the Obama administration in its tenth month, it is needless to say, the people he mentioned have not been tapped for their expertise. Instead, the President’s closest advisors are a veritable legion of people with worrisome ideologies, troubling pasts and curious connections to members of the radical left. Actually, the President has more connections to the radical left than the Czars do.
The President promised bipartisanship and that a government under his leadership would finally work together for the good of the nation. Well, the Republicans have been prevented from offering amendments to the healthcare bill, the stimulus bill and the climate bill. They have even been kept out of one of the meeting rooms when the Democratic chairman of that committee recently had the locks changed. Committee Chairman Towns (D-NY) ordered the locks changes when Republicans filmed every Democrat of the House Oversight committee racing out of the back door of the committee room to avoid a vote to subpoena documents relating to the Countywide Financial investigation; a scandal involving at least four Democratic government officials, including two Senators.
Democrats were rightfully incensed when Republican Joe Wilson shouted out “You Lie” during the President’s speech to congress; an action for which Wilson apologized directly to the President after being admonished by the minority leadership. The same Democrats watched glowingly as Freshman Congressman Allan Grayson made claim after claim that the Republican idea of healthcare was “Don’t get sick, and if you do, die quickly”. He equated the so-called healthcare crisis to the holocaust and called Republicans “knuckle-draggers”. There has been no apology from Mr. Grayson and there has been no admonishment from the Democratic leadership even though the basic principals of decorum had been grossly violated. Maybe this is how they talk in the Florida legislature but it has never been acceptable in the United States Congress.
Representative Issa, a Republican member of Congress, questioned the legality of the White House’s “flag@whitehouse.Gov” ; a site that was created to provide e-mail access for people to report anyone that sent negative information out about the healthcare bill. In response to Mr. Issa’s questions, the White House online director, Macon Phillips, indicated “there was little chance for cooperation with a member of a minority political party without significant power.” Somehow, none of this spells out any intent of bipartisanship to me. If the Congress just can’t help themselves, then where is the President’s outrage over the appearance that his promises will not be kept? Apparently that outrage has been reserved for Fox News and others that dare to question the motives of the President’s agenda.
Mr. Obama promised his administration would display unparalleled transparency in government. Democrats have voted down several Republican proposals that would have required the completed healthcare bill be posted on-line for the American public a minimum of 72 hours before a vote would take place. This action was taken even though the President promised Americans that we would get five days to review all major legislative pieces on-line before a vote. Despite this obvious abridgment of one of candidate Obama’s promises, President Obama remained silent. Now that the Baucus Bill is out of the finance committee it too has been taken behind closed doors to begin the process of merging it with the health committee bill. No cameras, no coverage and once again, no Republicans.
Nancy Pelosi complained that the opponents of healthcare reform were scaring people so much that now they were demanding to see the bill before congress could vote on it. What troubles me is that she doesn’t appear to understand that it is not the healthcare opponents that scare America, it is the Congress; the mad rush to pass legislation representing one sixth of the United States economy, the admission of Congressmen that they don’t have the time to read the bill, the revelation that sources and special interests outside of the government were involved in writing key portions of the bill, the inconsistencies of the statements of what is actually in the bill. All of this is what shook what little confidence we ever had in the intent of the bill.
When the CBO initially scored the healthcare bill it showed that it would add substantially to a Federal budget deficit that was already seriously out of control. However, shortly after another “closed door” meeting between President Obama and CBO chief Douglas Elmendorf, Mr. Elmendorf and the CBO apparently changed their criteria and the bill miraculously became “budget neutral”. In a stroke of fiscal genius but political subterfuge, the Senate Finance Committee constructed their bill so that the tax increases and spending cuts took place immediately after passage but the benefits didn’t take effect until year five.
The CBO scored the Baucus bill saying it represented an eighty-one billion dollar savings over ten years but let’s dissect that. The CBO saw no red flag in claiming the savings even though the revenue generating mechanisms begin immediately, while the benefit spending does not take full effect for five years. Funny thing…the CBO says that scoring bills beyond 10 years is unreliable so they just can’t give us an apples to apples view of how “budget neutral” this bill will be with ten years of revenues paying for a full ten years of benefits.
I’m sure you’ve seen those ads on TV where you can buy a house full of furniture with no payments for eighteen months. Sooner or later you have to start making the payments and if you couldn’t afford the payments when you signed the order, chances are you still won’t be able to afford the payments eighteen months later. If the Congress is resorting to shifting the curve to hide the full effects of this bill, then chances are we can’t afford this either. This isn’t the first piece of legislation that was scored based on promised cuts in spending to pay for at least a portion of the cost. Historically, Congress has never been able to actually make those promised spending cuts so the CBO scoring proved meaningless.
This may be at least part of the reason the CBO has underscored every major spending bill with the exception of Medicare D, by roughly, a factor of ten. Even if valid estimates showed the bill was budget neutral, the history of CBO accuracy tells us that the nine-hundred billion dollar price tag is probably going to end up being closer to nine-trillion after ten years. The only difference is that with healthcare, there is no furniture to repossess. The collateral for this “purchase” is our viability as a nation.
The President also promised us that he would not sign a healthcare reform bill that was not budget neutral. It is apparent that he has already found a formula the CBO could use to find that neutrality and the Congress is also willing to play along with their neat little trick of presenting a bill for scoring that has ten years worth of revenue and only five years of expenditures. At the end of the day, I would have to call this one an empty promise as well.
Our military forces in Afghanistan are in jeopardy and the President still hasn’t committed to providing the reinforcements that General McChrystal (the General Mr. Obama placed in command of the theater) requested over a month ago. After it became public that Obama had only spoken with General McChrystal once since he was deployed in Afghanistan, the President graciously gave McChrystal twenty-nine minutes of his precious time while he was in Copenhagen lobbying to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago. Curiously, in one more “closed door” meeting this week, the President found he could spare an hour and a half to spend with CNN, MSNBC and other networks that have the White House seal of approval. Maybe he’s planning to send them to Afghanistan to bolster General McChrystal’s force? I’m sure there are enough of them.
So far, I can’t think of one promise that Mr. Obama made that he has even pretended to keep. Oh well, other Presidents have broken campaign promises too but Mr. Obama isn’t “other” Presidents. In fact, he made it very clear that he was different. He was the man of change; the One. Well, the only change I have seen is a blatant disregard for the Constitution, the rule of law and in the outward hostility he displays towards anyone or anything that disagrees with him.
Paul
The President promised bipartisanship and that a government under his leadership would finally work together for the good of the nation. Well, the Republicans have been prevented from offering amendments to the healthcare bill, the stimulus bill and the climate bill. They have even been kept out of one of the meeting rooms when the Democratic chairman of that committee recently had the locks changed. Committee Chairman Towns (D-NY) ordered the locks changes when Republicans filmed every Democrat of the House Oversight committee racing out of the back door of the committee room to avoid a vote to subpoena documents relating to the Countywide Financial investigation; a scandal involving at least four Democratic government officials, including two Senators.
Democrats were rightfully incensed when Republican Joe Wilson shouted out “You Lie” during the President’s speech to congress; an action for which Wilson apologized directly to the President after being admonished by the minority leadership. The same Democrats watched glowingly as Freshman Congressman Allan Grayson made claim after claim that the Republican idea of healthcare was “Don’t get sick, and if you do, die quickly”. He equated the so-called healthcare crisis to the holocaust and called Republicans “knuckle-draggers”. There has been no apology from Mr. Grayson and there has been no admonishment from the Democratic leadership even though the basic principals of decorum had been grossly violated. Maybe this is how they talk in the Florida legislature but it has never been acceptable in the United States Congress.
Representative Issa, a Republican member of Congress, questioned the legality of the White House’s “flag@whitehouse.Gov” ; a site that was created to provide e-mail access for people to report anyone that sent negative information out about the healthcare bill. In response to Mr. Issa’s questions, the White House online director, Macon Phillips, indicated “there was little chance for cooperation with a member of a minority political party without significant power.” Somehow, none of this spells out any intent of bipartisanship to me. If the Congress just can’t help themselves, then where is the President’s outrage over the appearance that his promises will not be kept? Apparently that outrage has been reserved for Fox News and others that dare to question the motives of the President’s agenda.
Mr. Obama promised his administration would display unparalleled transparency in government. Democrats have voted down several Republican proposals that would have required the completed healthcare bill be posted on-line for the American public a minimum of 72 hours before a vote would take place. This action was taken even though the President promised Americans that we would get five days to review all major legislative pieces on-line before a vote. Despite this obvious abridgment of one of candidate Obama’s promises, President Obama remained silent. Now that the Baucus Bill is out of the finance committee it too has been taken behind closed doors to begin the process of merging it with the health committee bill. No cameras, no coverage and once again, no Republicans.
Nancy Pelosi complained that the opponents of healthcare reform were scaring people so much that now they were demanding to see the bill before congress could vote on it. What troubles me is that she doesn’t appear to understand that it is not the healthcare opponents that scare America, it is the Congress; the mad rush to pass legislation representing one sixth of the United States economy, the admission of Congressmen that they don’t have the time to read the bill, the revelation that sources and special interests outside of the government were involved in writing key portions of the bill, the inconsistencies of the statements of what is actually in the bill. All of this is what shook what little confidence we ever had in the intent of the bill.
When the CBO initially scored the healthcare bill it showed that it would add substantially to a Federal budget deficit that was already seriously out of control. However, shortly after another “closed door” meeting between President Obama and CBO chief Douglas Elmendorf, Mr. Elmendorf and the CBO apparently changed their criteria and the bill miraculously became “budget neutral”. In a stroke of fiscal genius but political subterfuge, the Senate Finance Committee constructed their bill so that the tax increases and spending cuts took place immediately after passage but the benefits didn’t take effect until year five.
The CBO scored the Baucus bill saying it represented an eighty-one billion dollar savings over ten years but let’s dissect that. The CBO saw no red flag in claiming the savings even though the revenue generating mechanisms begin immediately, while the benefit spending does not take full effect for five years. Funny thing…the CBO says that scoring bills beyond 10 years is unreliable so they just can’t give us an apples to apples view of how “budget neutral” this bill will be with ten years of revenues paying for a full ten years of benefits.
I’m sure you’ve seen those ads on TV where you can buy a house full of furniture with no payments for eighteen months. Sooner or later you have to start making the payments and if you couldn’t afford the payments when you signed the order, chances are you still won’t be able to afford the payments eighteen months later. If the Congress is resorting to shifting the curve to hide the full effects of this bill, then chances are we can’t afford this either. This isn’t the first piece of legislation that was scored based on promised cuts in spending to pay for at least a portion of the cost. Historically, Congress has never been able to actually make those promised spending cuts so the CBO scoring proved meaningless.
This may be at least part of the reason the CBO has underscored every major spending bill with the exception of Medicare D, by roughly, a factor of ten. Even if valid estimates showed the bill was budget neutral, the history of CBO accuracy tells us that the nine-hundred billion dollar price tag is probably going to end up being closer to nine-trillion after ten years. The only difference is that with healthcare, there is no furniture to repossess. The collateral for this “purchase” is our viability as a nation.
The President also promised us that he would not sign a healthcare reform bill that was not budget neutral. It is apparent that he has already found a formula the CBO could use to find that neutrality and the Congress is also willing to play along with their neat little trick of presenting a bill for scoring that has ten years worth of revenue and only five years of expenditures. At the end of the day, I would have to call this one an empty promise as well.
Our military forces in Afghanistan are in jeopardy and the President still hasn’t committed to providing the reinforcements that General McChrystal (the General Mr. Obama placed in command of the theater) requested over a month ago. After it became public that Obama had only spoken with General McChrystal once since he was deployed in Afghanistan, the President graciously gave McChrystal twenty-nine minutes of his precious time while he was in Copenhagen lobbying to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago. Curiously, in one more “closed door” meeting this week, the President found he could spare an hour and a half to spend with CNN, MSNBC and other networks that have the White House seal of approval. Maybe he’s planning to send them to Afghanistan to bolster General McChrystal’s force? I’m sure there are enough of them.
So far, I can’t think of one promise that Mr. Obama made that he has even pretended to keep. Oh well, other Presidents have broken campaign promises too but Mr. Obama isn’t “other” Presidents. In fact, he made it very clear that he was different. He was the man of change; the One. Well, the only change I have seen is a blatant disregard for the Constitution, the rule of law and in the outward hostility he displays towards anyone or anything that disagrees with him.
Paul
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