Hypocrite Obama Ran Against Bush, But Now Governs Like Him

He ran as the anti-Bush.

Silver-tongued, not tongue-tied. A team player on the world stage, not a lone cowboy. A man who’d put a stop to reckless Bush policies at home and abroad. In short, Barack Obama represented Change.

Well, that was then. Now, on one major policy after another, President Barack Obama seems to be morphing into George W. Bush.

On the nation’s finances, the man who once ripped Bush as a failed leader for seeking to raise the nation’s debt ceiling now wants to do it himself.

On terrorism, he criticized Bush for sending suspected terrorists to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and denying them access to U.S. civilian courts. Now he says he’ll do the same.

On taxes, he called the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy wrong, and lately began calling again to end them. But in December he signed a deal with Republicans to extend them for two years, and recently he called the entire tax cut package good for the country.

DEBT

In 2006, Bush had cut taxes, gone to war, and expanded Medicare, and increased the national debt from $5.6 trillion to $8.2 trillion. He needed approval from Congress to raise the ceiling for debt to $9 trillion.

The Senate approved the increase by a narrow vote of 52-48.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., voted no.

“Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally,” Obama said in 2006. “Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”

Now Obama’s on the other side. He’s increased the national debt to $14 trillion, and needs Congress to approve more debt. Moreover, Obama’s aides now say that congressional meddling to use that needed vote to wrangle budget concessions from the White House would be inappropriate and risk financial Armageddon.

What about Obama’s own vote against the president in a similar situation? A mistake, the White House said.

TERRORISTS

As a presidential candidate, Obama vowed a broad reversal of Bush’s policies toward suspected terrorists.

Most pointedly, he said he’d close the prison in Cuba and try suspected terrorists in civilian courts, not in military tribunals.

“I have faith in America’s courts,” he said in a 2007 speech. “As president, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Our Constitution and our Uniform Code of Military Justice provide a framework for dealing with the terrorists.”

He ran into a torrent of opposition, however. Members of Congress balked at transferring suspected terrorists to U.S. prisons. New Yorkers balked when his administration said it would try accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court in lower Manhattan.

Last month, he changed course, saying he’d keep Guantanamo Bay open, and would try Mohammed before a military court.

The reversal, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, “is yet another vindication of President Bush’s detention policies by the Obama administration.”

Echoing Bush, Obama’s also asserted that he has the power to hold suspected terrorists without charges or trial, and that he has the power to kill U.S. citizens abroad if his government considers them a terrorist threat.

WAR POWERS

During his campaign, Obama signaled that he’d be far more circumspect than Bush was in using military power. He did say he’d send more troops to Afghanistan, which he’s done, and that he’d attack al Qaida terrorists in Pakistan, which he’s also done.

But he opposed the Iraq war from the start, and said he didn’t think the president should wage war for humanitarian purposes or act without congressional approval, absent an imminent threat to the U.S.

“The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation,” he told The Boston Globe in 2007.

“In instances of self-defense, the president would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent. History has shown us time and again, however, that military action is most successful when it is authorized and supported by the legislative branch. It is always preferable to have the informed consent of Congress prior to any military action.”

On March 19, the U.S. attacked Libya on humanitarian grounds, absent any threat to the U.S. and without approval from Congress.

From:  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/04/18/112346/obama-ran-against-bush-but-now.html

The Obama-messiah Giveth, and the Obama-messiah Taketh Away…

WASHINGTON (AP) — About 13.4 million taxpayers may be getting unexpected tax bills because they were awarded too much money under President Barack Obama’s Making Work Pay tax credit, a government audit said Thursday.

 

The tax credit, which expires Jan. 1, was designed to increase take-home pay by about $8 a week through new tax withholding tables. The credit was capped at $400 for individuals and $800 for married couples filing jointly.

 

However, the credit put millions of taxpayers at risk for not having enough taxes withheld from their paychecks, resulting in a tax bill when they file their returns, said the audit by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

 

Those at risk included people with multiple jobs, married couples who both work, Social Security recipients who also work, and young workers who are also claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns.

 

“The Making Work Pay credit is a key tax credit designed to increase spending and stimulate the economy,” George said. “However, many taxpayers who are accustomed to receiving refunds when they file their tax returns may have owed taxes and incurred penalties in 2009, and may yet again in 2010, because they were advanced more of the credit than they were entitled to claim.”

 

From:  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j8W-0UCvLxjV7_KakiT8cxJMCNlQ?docId=81831a5c6bc947f6bc1b07e648bc9809

Voter Disenchantment with Obama: 5,000 Empty Seats During Final Mid-Term Election Rally in Cleveland

Barack Obama sought to rekindle the spirit of the 2008 election today at the final campaign rally of the midterm elections but thousands of empty seats testified that the love affair with the electorate is long over.

 

Speaking in Cleveland at the end of a four-state whirlwind weekend tour to try to prevent a Democratic political meltdown in tomorrow’sTuesday’s elections, Obama acknowledged the pain recession has created but said life under the Republicans would be a lot worse.

 

The Republicans would cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires and leave the working class to fend for themselves, was his message.

 

“You don’t have a job? Tough luck, you’re on your own. You don’t have health care? Too bad, you’re on your own. You’re a young person who can’t afford to go to college? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, you’re on your own,” Obama said.

 

But his famous rhetorical skills are no longer enough, and the Democrats are facing defeat in elections to Congress and for governorships on a scale political analysts say has not been seen in over 60 years.

 

Screens at the Wolfstein Centre, Cleveland, showed the Obama logo from the 2008 White House race, the old campaign songs were played and the crowd noisily chanted his slogan ‘Yes, we can’. However, in contrast with the 2008 election, when across the US an Obama rally was a hot ticket and people had to be turned away, he attracted only 8,000 to the 13,000 capacity stadium. When he appeared at a rally in the same city in 2008 two days before the White House election, 80,000 turned out.

 

 

From:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/31/barack-obama-midterm-campaign-rally

Blah, blah, blah: Obama blames Republicans for continued economic morass, falls back on his failed “hope and change” campaign rhetoric…

President Barack Obama, in a combative, campaign-like speech in Parma, Ohio, conceded that his policies have “fed the perception that Washington is still ignoring the middle class,” even as he castigated Republican opponents for “riding…fear and anger all the way to Election Day.”

The speech, at Cuyahoga Community College, was billed as a major economic address to unveil a new round of proposals to kick-start a flagging economic recovery. The president did introduce three new policy proposals the White House has been rolling out for nearly a week: $50 billion in additional infrastructure spending, a permanent and expanded research and experimentation tax credit and a measure allowing businesses to write 100% of their investment costs off their taxes through 2011.

In a combative speech, Obama conceded his policies have “fed the perception that Washington is still ignoring the middle class,” even as he castigated Republicans for “riding…fear and anger all the way to Election Day.”

But Mr. Obama’s speech was far more about politics than economics.

“If we’re willing again to choose hope over fear, to choose the future over the past, to come together once more around the great project of national renewal, then we will restore our economy, rebuild our middle class and reclaim the American dream for the next generation,” he said, striking the same cadences that buoyed his presidential bid.

He fell back on campaign themes that propelled his 2008 surge: his grandfather’s World War II fight, his father-in-law’s struggle to work with multiple sclerosis and his work “in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant on the South Side of Chicago.”

USA Today Opinion Column: Beware of the Obama Tax Increases…

Listening to the Democrats this summer, you’re unlikely to hear about an impending tax increase.

In an effort to sanitize their historically irresponsible decision to raise tax rates in the midst of a struggling economy, President Obama and the congressional majority say they are merely “allowing the Bush tax cuts” to expire.

Skillful messaging perhaps, but cold comfort to the millions of Americans and small businesses who aren’t concerned with what their effective tax rate was in 2001. For them, on Jan. 1, one of two things will happen: Taxes will go up, or taxes will stay the same. Coming to grips with this reality will be crucial to jumpstarting the economic recovery. Decisions on whether to buy an appliance, invest in a company, or expand a business are made by taking into account after-tax returns in the future — not in the past.

Democrats want Americans to believe that by letting tax rates rise they have discovered religion as deficit cutters. But after a two-year assault on the federal trough in which Congress passed the notoriously wasteful stimulus and added a new health care entitlement, few Americans are even bothering to listen.

In reality, the harm this tax increase will inflict on jobs and gross domestic product will strongly outweigh any presumed boost in tax revenues.

Here’s a look at what’s coming:

•Taxes will jump next year on everything from ordinary income, capital gains, dividends and estates. And with our national debt soaring, the prospect of even more tax increases in the future seems more likely.

 •Health-care costs are growing as a result of Obamacare’s mandates and inflationary impact on premiums.

 •Energy costs remain in limbo as leading Democrats, led by Sen. John Kerry, float the idea of passing cap-and-trade during the lame-duck session of Congress.

 •Credit is becoming more expensive and is increasingly out of reach for most small businesses, partly because the 2,300-plus page financial regulatory bill encourages banks to horde their capital rather than lend it.

 •Labor costs also threaten to climb higher as labor unions dig in their heels and gear up for another push to pass card check.

 During last night’s Oval Office address, President Obama vowed that America would “nurture the ideas that spring from our entrepreneurs.” But if government doesn’t stop penalizing hard work and discouraging risk taking, there won’t be any entrepreneurs left.

Next year, President Obama is going to preside over one of the largest tax increases on families and small businesses in American history. How his administration has convinced itself that this is a good idea right now is beyond comprehension.

 Mr. President, the federal budget is teeming with waste. If you want to rein in the deficit, Republicans welcome you to sit down with us and go line by line through the budget to cut needless spending. But don’t impose sweeping tax hikes that will only make a bad economic picture much worse.

 by Eric Cantor

Excerpted from:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-09-02-cantor01_ST_N.htm

Another Obama-messiah Nominee Bites the Dust Due to Failure to Pay Taxes

Earlier today, Obama-messiah’s nominee for Health and Human Services head, Tom Daschle, who had once pushed for “no mercy” prosecution of tax cheats, was forced to withdraw his nomination after it was discovered he had failed to pay some of his own taxes, to the tune of $128,000. 

This followed on the heals of last week’s debacle, which saw Obama-messiah’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, also have to admit that he had failed to pay taxes he owed.

Now, Obama-messiah nominee for federal government ”chief performance officer,” Nancy Killefer, has had to withdraw her candidacy due to failure to pay taxes.

Meanwhile, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the supreme tax-writing body in the United States, the House Ways and Means Committee, is under investigation for, among other things, dodging taxes.

Democrat hypocricy on the issue of taxes is now so thick, you would be hard-pressed to cut through it with a knife.  They want us to pay more, while they simply ignore paying their own taxes (at least, until they want to be appointed to higher office, at which point their public records are scrutinized and their true colors are discovered). 

For the last eight years Democrats made political hay over what they called “endemic Republican hypocricy.”  But those finger-pointing Dems are now on the defensive, considering the obvious hypocrisy in their own house. 

– Spencer

Another Obama-messiah Nominee Bites the Dust Due to Failure to Pay Taxes

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9646DBG0&show_article=1

WASHINGTON (AP) – Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.

Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection.

“Nancy Killefer has decided to withdraw her nomination, and we accepted her withdrawal,” Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said Tuesday.

The 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., was expected to explain her reasons for pulling out later in the day.

When her selection was announced by Obama on Jan. 7, The Associated Press disclosed that in 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help.

Since then, administration officials refused to answer questions about the tax error, which she resolved five months after the lien was filed.

Obama’s first choice for commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, took his name out of consideration when his confirmation appeared headed toward complications because of a grand jury investigation over how state contracts were issued to political donors.

More recently, Timothy Geithner was confirmed as Treasury secretary despite belatedly paying $34,000 in income taxes, and Tom Daschle is still waiting to see if his late payment of more than $128,000 in income taxes will harm his nomination to be health and human services secretary.

On paper, Killefer brought impressive credentials to the two jobs Obama selected her for: deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, which requires Senate confirmation, and a new White House post, chief performance officer for the entire federal government, which does not require confirmation.

Killefer oversees McKinsey’s management consulting for government clients. During 1997-2000 in the Clinton administration, Killefer was assistant Treasury secretary for management. As such she was the chief financial officer and chief operating officer for the Treasury and its 160,000 employees and led a modernization of its largest component, the Internal Revenue Service.

But for nearly a month, the administration had refused to answer how its choice to make government workers more efficient and more responsive had bungled her household payroll taxes.

The AP reported that on March 7, 2005, the D.C. Department of Employment Services slapped a tax lien on her home in the tony Wesley Heights neighborhood.

The local government alleged that just three years after she left the high-powered Treasury post she began to fail to pay unemployment compensation tax for a household employee.

And she failed to make the required quarterly payments for a year and half, whereupon a lien for $946.69 was placed on her home.