Posts Tagged 'deals'
Sarah Palin Demolishes Obama's Pretentions State of the Deception Speech
From Sarah Palin's Facebook page:
Today at 2:17pm
While I don't wish to speak too harshly about President Obama's state of the union address, we live in challenging times that call for candor. I call them as I see them, and I hope my frank assessment will be taken as an honest effort to move this conversation forward.
Last night, the president spoke of the "credibility gap" between the public's expectations of their leaders and what those leaders actually deliver. "Credibility gap" is a good way to describe the chasm between rhetoric and reality in the president's address. The contradictions seemed endless.
He called for Democrats and Republicans to "work through our differences," but last year he dismissed any notion of bipartisanship when he smugly told Republicans, "I won."
He talked like a Washington "outsider," but he runs Washington! He's had everything any president could ask for – an overwhelming majority in Congress and a fawning press corps that feels tingles every time he speaks. There was nothing preventing him from pursuing "common sense" solutions all along. He didn't pursue them because they weren't his priorities, and he spent his speech blaming Republicans for the problems caused by his own policies.
He dared us to "let him know" if we have a better health care plan, but he refused to allow Republicans in on the negotiations or consider any ideas for real free market and patient-centered reforms. We've been "letting him know" our ideas for months from the town halls to the tea parties, but he isn't interested in listening. Instead he keeps making the nonsensical claim that his massive trillion-dollar health care bill won't increase the deficit.
Americans are suffering from job losses and lower wages, yet the president practically demanded applause when he mentioned tax cuts, as if allowing people to keep more of their own hard-earned money is an act of noblesse oblige. He claims that he cut taxes, but I must have missed that. I see his policies as paving the way for massive tax increases and inflation, which is the "hidden tax" that most hurts the poor and the elderly living on fixed incomes.
He condemned lobbyists, but his White House is filled with former lobbyists, and this has been a banner year for K Street with his stimulus bill, aka the Lobbyist's Full Employment Act. He talked about a "deficit of trust" and the need to "do our work in the open," but he chased away the C-SPAN cameras and cut deals with insurance industry lobbyists behind closed doors.
He spoke of doing what's best for the next generation and not leaving our children with a "mountain of debt," but under his watch this year, government spending is up by 22%, and his budget will triple our national debt.
He spoke of a spending freeze, but doesn't he realize that each new program he's proposing comes with a new price tag? A spending freeze is a nice idea, but it doesn't address the root cause of the problem. We need a comprehensive examination of the role of government spending. The president's deficit commission is little more than a bipartisan tax hike committee, lending political cover to raise taxes without seriously addressing the problem of spending.
He condemned bailouts, but he voted for them and then expanded and extended them. He praised the House's financial reform bill, but where was Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in that bill? He still hasn't told us when we'll be getting out of the auto and the mortgage industries. He praised small businesses, but he's spent the past year as a friend to big corporations and their lobbyists, who always find a way to make government regulations work in their favor at the expense of their mom & pop competitors.
He praised the effectiveness of his stimulus bill, but then he called for another one – this time cleverly renamed a "jobs bill." The first stimulus was sold to us as a jobs bill that would keep unemployment under 8%. We now have double digit unemployment with no end in sight. Why should we trust this new "jobs bill"?
He talked about "making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development," but apparently it's still too tough for his Interior Secretary to move ahead with Virginia's offshore oil and gas leases. If they're dragging their feet on leases, how long will it take them to build "safe, clean nuclear power plants"? Meanwhile, he continued to emphasize "green jobs," which require massive government subsidies for inefficient technologies that can't survive on their own in the real world of the free market.
He spoke of supporting young girls in Afghanistan who want to go to school and young women in Iran who courageously protest in the streets, but where were his words of encouragement to the young girls of Afghanistan in his West Point speech? And where was his support for the young women of Iran when they were being gunned down in the streets of Tehran?
Despite speaking for over an hour, the president only spent 10% of his speech on foreign policy, and he left us with many unanswered questions. Does he still think trying the 9/11 terrorists in New York is a good idea? Does he still think closing Gitmo is a good idea? Does he still believe in Mirandizing terrorists after the Christmas bomber fiasco? Does he believe we're in a war against terrorists, or does he think this is just a global crime spree? Does he understand that the first priority of our government is to keep our country safe?
In his address last night, the president once again revealed that there's a fundamental disconnect between what the American people expect from their government, and what he wants to deliver. He's still proposing failed top-down big government solutions to our problems. Instead of smaller, smarter government, he's taken a government that was already too big and supersized it.
Real private sector jobs are created when taxes are low, investment is high, and people are free to go about their business without the heavy hand of government. The president thinks innovation comes from government subsidies. Common sense conservatives know innovation comes from unleashing the creative energy of American entrepreneurs.
Everything seems to be "unexpected" to this administration: unexpected job losses; unexpected housing numbers; unexpected political losses in Massachusetts, Virginia, and New Jersey. True leaders lead best when confronted with the unexpected. But instead of leading us, the president lectured us. He lectured Wall Street; he lectured Main Street; he lectured Congress; he even lectured our Supreme Court Justices.
He criticized politicians who "wage a perpetual campaign," but he gave a campaign speech instead of a state of the union address. The campaign is over, and President Obama now has something that candidate Obama never had: an actual track record in office. We now can see the failed policies behind the flowery words. If Americans feel as cynical as the president suggests, perhaps it's because the audacity of his recycled rhetoric no longer inspires hope.
Real leadership requires results. Real hope lies in the ingenuity, generosity, and boundless courage of the American people whose voices are still not being heard in Washington.
– Sarah Palin
She nailed it.
Tags:bailouts, banks, big government, bipartisan, C-SPAN, commission, common sense, credibility gap, deals, deficit, energy, Fannie Mae, foreign policy, Freddie Mac, freeze, Gitmo, green jobs, jobs bill, let me know, listen, lobbyists, mountain of debt, New York, partisan, Sarah Palin, small businesses, speech, spending, State of the Union, stimulus, taxes, trial, unemployment, wage a perpetual campaign
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Media, Politics, socialism, taxes | 4 Comments »
As Democrats Lament Voting For Obama, I Have To Ask: Who Are The 'Wingnuts' Now?
Democrats don't seem to be finding any "hope and change" in their messiah. You know who is? Republicans. After all, it is really an incredibly amazing – frankly a miraculous – "change" that a Democrat president could actually turn Camelot Republican. That's FAR more than we ever could have "hoped" for.
How's THIS for a title from a Democrat regarding Barack Obama?
He's Done Everything Wrong
Obama punted on the economy and reversed the fortunes of the Democrats in 365 days.
He's misjudged the character of the country in his whole approach. There's the saying, "It's the economy, stupid." He didn't get it. He was determined somehow or other to adopt a whole new agenda. He didn't address the main issue.
This health-care plan is going to be a fiscal disaster for the country. Most of the country wanted to deal with costs, not expansion of coverage. This is going to raise costs dramatically.
In the campaign, he said he would change politics as usual. He did change them. It's now worse than it was. I've now seen the kind of buying off of politicians that I've never seen before. It's politically corrupt and it's starting at the top. It's revolting.
Five states got deals on health care—one of them was Harry Reid's. It is disgusting, just disgusting. I've never seen anything like it. The unions just got them to drop the tax on Cadillac plans in the health-care bill. It was pure union politics. They just went along with it. It's a bizarre form of political corruption. It's bribery. I suppose they could say, that's the system. He was supposed to change it or try to change it.
Even that is not the worst part. He could have said, "I know. I promised these things, but let me try to do them one at a time." You want to deal with health care? Fine. Issue No. 1 with health care was the cost. You know I think it was 37 percent or 33 who were worried about coverage. Fine, I wrote an editorial to this effect. Focus on cost-containment first. But he's trying to boil the ocean, trying to do too much. This is not leadership.
Obama's ability to connect with voters is what launched him. But what has surprised me is how he has failed to connect with the voters since he's been in office. He's had so much overexposure. You have to be selective. He was doing five Sunday shows. How many press conferences? And now people stop listening to him. The fact is he had 49.5 million listeners to first speech on the economy. On Medicare, he had 24 million. He's lost his audience. He has not rallied public opinion. He has plunged in the polls more than any other political figure since we've been using polls. He's done everything wrong. Well, not everything, but the major things.
I don't consider it a triumph. I consider it a disaster.
One business leader said to me, "In the Clinton administration, the policy people were at the center, and the political people were on the sideline. In the Obama administration, the political people are at the center, and the policy people are on the sidelines."
I'm very disappointed. We endorsed him. I voted for him. I supported him publicly and privately.
I hope there are changes. I think he's already laid in huge problems for the country. The fiscal program was a disaster. You have to get the money as quickly as possible into the economy. They didn't do that. By end of the first year, only one-third of the money was spent. Why is that?
He should have jammed a stimulus plan into Congress and said, "This is it. No changes. Don't give me that bullshit. We have a national emergency." Instead they turned it over to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi who can run circles around him.
It's very sad. It's really sad.
He's improved America's image in the world. He absolutely did. But you have to translate that into something. Let me tell you what a major leader said to me recently. "We are convinced," he said, "that he is not strong enough to confront his enemy. We are concerned," he said "that he is not strong to support his friends."
The political leadership of the world is very, very dismayed. He better turn it around. The Democrats are going to get killed in this election. Jesus, looks what's happening in Massachusetts.
It's really interesting because he had brilliant, brilliant political instincts during the campaign. I don't know what has happened to them. His appointments present somebody who has a lot to learn about how government works. He better get some very talented businesspeople who know how to implement things. It's unbelievable. Everybody says so. You can't believe how dismayed people are. That's why he's plunging in the polls.
I can't predict things two years from now, but if he continues on the downward spiral he is on, he won't be reelected. In the meantime, the Democrats have recreated the Republican Party. And when I say Democrats, I mean the Obama administration. In the generic vote, the Democrats were ahead something like 52 to 30. They are now behind the Republicans 48 to 44 in the last poll. Nobody has ever seen anything that dramatic.
Mortimer B. Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report and publisher of the New York Daily News. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Boston Properties Inc. He is a trustee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
It's nice to finally see such wisdom from the Daily Beast.
Back when Obama was adored as He-Upon-Whom-The-Sun-Rises-And-Sets, the Daily Beast took me to task for urging conservatives to take this clown down:
Ironically, some wingnuts on the right are blaming Democrats' techniques on their newfound commitment to tear down the next President of the United States. Take one particularly unhinged culture warrior, Michael Eden of TheAmericanSentinel.com, who writes: "Barack Hussein Obama and his Democratic lackeys get to wear the bullseyes on their foreheads for the duration of the next election cycle…don't let a bunch of appallingly blatant hypocrites tell you that you owe Obama one more iota of respect than they gave Bush… It's time to start burning down their houses and salting their fields."
I didn't like being referred to as a "wingnut," but I couldn't help but think that "one particularly unhinged culture warrior" had a rather nice ring to it.
The article I wrote was entitled, "Do Unto Obama As Liberals Did Unto Bush." I was livid that this man – whom I knew would be a miserable failure and a danger and disgrace to my country – was actually being elected to the highest office in the land through demagoguery while Republicans cowered in fear.
And, of course, the Daily Beast was infuriated that a conservative actually suggest that Republicans stop accepting the constant double-standard of the past 25 years and actually do unto Obama as liberals did unto Bush.
My very first entry into blogging revolved around the outrage that was Barack Obama's reverend, mentor, and spiritual guide, Jeremiah Wright. Barack Obama had spent 23 years in a Marxist, anti-American, racist church; a den of vipers otherwise known as Obama's fellow congregants leaped to their feet by the thousands and cheered wildly while Rev. Wright spewed one vile line after another. And nobody at the top ever bothered to talk about it – either out of partisan ideology or out of fear of violating some insane and morally idiotic norm of political correctness.
Now finally someone at the Daily Beast is beginning to understand something that I understood exactly 22 months ago last night.
I was that "wingnut" and "particularly unhinged culture warrior" who saw with crystal clarity that Barack Hussein Obama was a genuinely evil man with a radical agenda who would bring this country to ruin if his agenda got off the ground.
I'm sure not the one who's lamenting his vote.
And the only thing that leaves me "very disappointed" is that so many of my own countrymen proved to be so utterly blind as to the unmitigated disaster an Obama presidency would be.
And now, to cite Barack Obama's demonic preacher for 23 years, "The Democrats' chickens are coming home to roost."
Who are the "wingnuts" now?
Tags:appointments, Cadillac plans, change politics, corrupt, corruption, costs, deals, disaster, dismayed, Economy, expansion of coverage, fiscal disaster, Harry Reid, He's Done Everything Wrong, health care, huge problems, lost his audience, misjudged, not strong enough, Obama, overexposure, public opinion, raise costs, union politics, unions
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Democrats, Economy, health care, Politics, Republicans, socialism, taxes | 8 Comments »