POLITICS OF DECEPTION (8-16-08)

Barack Obama and the issues. Ignorance or dishonesty




On Aug. 9th, 2008, immediately following the presidents weekly radio address praising our Olympic athletes and making further comments on Chinese progress and shortcomings. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama gave the weekly democratic response. Not only did he not mention the Olympics or China, His remarks were off topic and nothing more than a campaign speech.
It didn't really bother me that, what is claimed as a democratic response, wasn't a response at all. He's not the first to avoid debate and go off on his own agenda when addressing the American people. What bothered me was the speech he did give.
Barack neatly tied together several criticisms into one seemingly related issue. After hearing this speech, I had to get a transcript and read it. Sure enough, my ears were not lying to me, he was!
Barack first mentions the record budget deficit projected next year to be around 500 billion dollars. He claimed the cause could be directly traced to the Bush administrations failed policies of tax cuts and war. Oh, wait, it was the dangerously failed policies. Truth is, the president only has the power to submit a proposal regarding the budget. And then, he gets to sign into law whatever the house and senate finally come up with that usually has little or nothing from his proposal in it. And they consistently come up with far too much. It is the congress and not the white house that controls the purse strings in Washington. You would think he knows this. I'm sure he does. But he's betting that you don"t.
Second, Barack decides to make comments regarding the budget surplus in Iraq. An estimated 79 billion dollars. While we've spent, in total, about 1 trillion dollars since the invasion 5 years ago. He then goes on to state how the American people are continuing to spend 10 billion dollars a month in Iraq to defend and rebuild Iraq.
While those comments are mostly true, and nobody disputes them. He kind of insinuates that Iraq is the cause of our budget deficit. Truth is, none of the money spent in Iraq, or in Afghanistan came from from our budget. All money spent in those two wars was appropriated through emergency legislation and kept off the books. In other words, it went straight to the national debt.
The budget mess he claims to be innocent of, has nothing to do with war spending or the tax cuts that provided economic growth. It's congressional pork spending and socialist entitlement programs run amok that's at issue. I've got to believe he's smart enough to know this. But, I'm thinking he believes your not.
Barack states this trillion dollars would be better spent on Schools, Roads and Bridges. Alternative energy development etc.
This is unbelievably hypocritical. Record deficit and national debt bad. Unless he causes it? He would actually run this countries national debt higher on non emergency spending. Most all politicians are pretty firm that increased deficits and debt should only be done in times of war or for economic stimulus needs.
Obama is not shy to tout his wealth redistribution tax policies and socialist health care plan. But now Obama is advocating more government and more taxes along with the continued mortgaging of our children's future.
He then states the current administration is refusing to pressure Iraqis to take responsibility for their own country. And that we should be asking the Iraqis to invest in their own country. Wow! Kind of bold. A bit overplayed, But bold.
Truth is, while were still spending a lot of money every month in Iraq. Nearly all money is being spent supporting our men and women in uniform. The U.S. has not begun any new rebuilding projects in that country since 2004 and any ongoing, unfinished work is funded by money appropriated by congress over four years ago. Of the nearly one trillion dollars Obama correctly states we have spent in iraq, only 5% of this money went towards rebuilding. Iraqis have spent as much, or more, than the U.S. in rebuilding their country. And all future rebuilding costs have already been determined to be of Iraqi responsibility. Kind of late to complain about an issue already resolved. But, I think he knew it was resolved. And, I think he knew you didn't. I guess when you don't have an issue, you make one up or recycle an old one. Truth is, Iraq is a dead issue for Obama. Things are going well and he hates that he was wrong. Iraqis are stepping up and beginning to take the lead. Both militarily and on the reconstruction front. Our troops are beginning to draw down and with that, so will the costs involved.
Last but not least, Obama attempts to use class warfare to divide the country. He states tax breaks for the rich and corporations have helped to put us in our current condition. To that, and only that, I agree. Truly, we would be in a much worse position today if corporations and small business's owners did not have the financial incentive to expand and hire. If not for the bush tax cuts, the popped tech bubble Clinton left, 911, and Katrina could have had a much longer drag on the economy and left us much worse off than we presently are. The fact that we had to send out more stimulus checks this year is argument for continued tax cuts, not increases. The government taxing more money out of our economy is just tightening the noose. Taxing the people who provide the jobs in this country is the best way to send it straight to hell. You would think he knows this. I'm betting he don't. But now you do.
Long story short. I've been studying this guy for a while now. He's truly the coolest candidate since Kennedy. But cool ain't cool when the countries future is at stake. I find myself agreeing with his stance on alternative energy. But, then again, everyone is for that. He wont drill and wont build nuclear plants. Two of the most obvious, no brain-er, issues of our time as far as future energy Independence is concerned. Barack wants a windfall profit tax on American oil companies even though that's been tried before and failed miserably. I guess it's true that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. He attempts to buy your vote by promising $1000 to help you with the increased energy costs. This money, collected from the oil companies, will just force them to produce less and leave more of the world market share to foreign competitors. Check your history books. Seems to me he'd be better off working with American companies than working against them. Yeah Barack is cool, but Barack is wrong. Maybe with some more years under his belt he may shift his positions a bit more mainstream. Unfortunately, he sees himself as too much of a robin hood to be a good president. Today robin hood would be serving time in a jail cell. What works well in story books does not always play in the real world. In just one speech, he's proved himself either ignorant on the current issues of our time, or unbelievably dishonest.