Part 2, The Obama Administration: Many Promises Made, No Promises Broken

Yesterday, we reviewed six major promises that Presdent Obama made prior coming into office. Part of that review included the fact that he has failed miserably in attaining and executing any of those promises. From not closing Gitmo to wasting over $800 billion on a failed stimulus program to failed economic polices to very little government transparency, this administration has been just one failure after another.

Today, we will look at the other four failed promises, as outlined in a fine report by the Independent Journal Review and expanded with my comments and observations. Tomorrow, we will finish up this failed promises discussion with other major screwups that the Independent Journal Report work did not cover.

 
7. Line by Line to Cut Waste

"Every dollar I’ve proposed, I’ve proposed an additional cut that it matches. To give an example, we spend $15 billion a year on subsidies to insurance companies. It doesn’t help seniors get better. It’s a giveaway. I want to go through the federal budget line by line, programs that don’t work, we cut."

And yet President Obama complained about the mere $85 billion he proposed in annual cuts, out of the $3.75 trillion in government spending (just over a measly 2% of total spending), like it's the end of the world.

And he obviously did not go through the Federal budget line by line, matching new spending with comparable spending cuts. We know that deficit spending has exploded to over a TRILLION dollars every year he has been in office and if he had gone through the Federal budget line by line, there is no way he, as a rational person, could have justified just this small sample of wasteful spending:

• A USAID development program in Morocco included pottery classes that was funded using American taxpayer wealth.
• Despite skyrocketing national debt, the Federal government is spending $947,000 via NASA to study what food astronauts could eat on Mars, by simulating a Mars outpost at a barren location in Hawaii. When and if this research might be needed is far, far off in the future if ever.
• A $325,000 government grant was used to create a robot squirrel to study how squirrels and rattlesnakes interact. What makes this expenditure doubly bad is that apparently the American taxpayer has already funded a similar program in the past, making this study doubly unnecessary and wasteful.
• The USDA gave a $300,000 grant to a caviar producer in Idaho for marketing purposes. How big of a market there is for caviar in Idaho, both from a production and consumption perspective?
• The American taxpayer paid out $3.3 million to bail out a local Arkansas tourist boat company that was going out of business.
• The Department of Transportation gave an Alaskan tribe millions to start a ferry business that competes with existing private ferry services. Apparently, these other private businesses, who never asked for or received a government handout, are now struggling to survive in the face of this government subsidized ferry service.
• The Federal government wastes almost $2 billion annually in maintenance fees for grant accounts that are either expired or empty of funds, all because the Department never got around to closing out the unneeded accounts.
• State officials used a Federal stimulus grant to purchase massive, overpowered routers that are too big and unnecessary for rural schools, libraries, and government offices, wasting $24 million in the process.
• The National Science Foundation spent $516,000 on a research program that created a computer game simulating a high school “Prom Night” and the week leading up to the prom night.

This is just an extremely small sample of the tens of thousands of ways the Federal government wastefully and frivolously spend taxpayer money. Many other examples can be found at the following links:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/wastebook-2012-wasteful-federal.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/wastebook-2012-wasteful-federal.html

You will never get spending under control when you are paying for prom night game development and robotic squirrels and after more than four years in office, there is little chance this administration will “go through the Federal budget line by line, programs that don’t work, we cut."

8. Cut the Deficit in Half

"And that's why today I'm pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office. This will not be easy. It will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we've long neglected. But I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay -- and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control."

$6 trillion in total deficits later from the Obama administration makes this statement seem pretty ludicrous. Consider the annual Federal government deficits over the past decade or so, as documented on the White House’s own budget website (double click for a larger view):

As you can see from the White House numbers, annual Federal government deficits were actually decreasing during the second half of the Bush administration. They skyrocketed once the Democrats and Obama took office. In fact, during the Obama administration some MONTHLY Federal government budget deficits were larger than some of Bush’s ANNUAL budget deficits.

Thus, this promise of cutting deficit spending in half by Obama is a travesty and his outrageous spending will likely “leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay.”

9. Pledge Not To Raise Taxes on Middle Class

"And I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase – not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital-gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” Another promise severely missed.

Obama raised payroll taxes under the fiscal cliff deal, Obama Care will become the biggest middle class tax increase in decades in many ways, this administration raised cigarette taxes which likely affected the less wealthy in this country since they are more likely to smoke, and the hidden tax of exponentially expanding overregulation in this country is making businesses pass on the cost of regulation to consumers, the most of which are in the middle class.

10. Obama Care Would Lower Healthcare Costs, Reduce Premiums, Keep Your Doctor, etc., etc. This promise is so unfilled it is tough to find a place to start:

• Obama Care is already costing more than two times original estimates that were put forth by Democrats when the legislation was approved.
• Obama Care will add trillions of dollars to our national debt, requiring higher taxes on everyone to pay for it.
• Obama Care is increasing health insurance premiums an average of 30% this year alone.
• Obama Care is causing six in ten doctors to say they will retire early rather than deal with the hassle of the legislation.
• Obama Care is not creating a wealth of new jobs as promised. If anything, Obama Care is suppressing hiring of new employees, suppressing business expansion, and suppressing the hours current employees work each week.
• Obama Care will get result in universal health care coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, that estimated upwards of ten million citizens will still not have health care coverage ten years from now.
• Obama Care will cause about seven million Americans to lose their current health care insurance coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This kills another promise of the President who boldly stated that if you like your current health care insurance, you can keep it. Seven million Americans will shortly find out the fallacy of that promise.
• Recently even Congressional supporters of the legislation have openly admitted that Obama Care will be an operational and financial  “train wreck” and that a lot more money is needed if it is ever to get off the ground, far more taxpayer wealth than originally hyped and planned for.

Missing on all cylinders, this mess called Obama Care.

Obscene deficit spending, obscene wasteful spending, obscene taxation oppression, and the disaster that is Obama Care, horrific performance by this administration. Shaping up as one of the worst Presidential administrations ever, with the remaining broken promises being covered tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w