One thing on which I disagree with the RNC: It's only a record of failure if you assume that this man is an American president:
As Obama Prepares To Paint A Rosy Picture Of His Presidency, A Look At The Numbers He Won't Mention:
$18.1 Trillion: Total Debt Under Obama As Of January 14, 2014. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15)
$10.6 Trillion: Total Debt When Obama Became President On January 20, 2009. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/9/15)
$7.5 Trillion: Amount Added To The National Debt Despite Obama's 2010 State Of The Union Declaration That He Would Not Leave "A Mountain Of Debt." (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15; President Barack Obama, Remarks On The State Of The Union, Washington, D.C., 1/27/10)
$4 Trillion: Amount Of Debt That Obama Once Called "Irresponsible" And "Unpatriotic." (Senator Barack Obama, Remarks At A Campaign Event, Fargo, ND, 7/3/08)
$1.8 Trillion: Cost Of ObamaCare's Coverage Provisions Through 2024. (CBO, 4/14/14)
$1.3 Trillion: Total Student Debt Held By Americans. (Federal Reserve Board Of Governors, Accessed 1/14/15)
$869.3 Billion: Total Taxes In ObamaCare. (JCT, 6/15/12; CBO, 4/14/14)
$95 Billion: Cost Of New Regulations Added Since Obama Became President. (American Action Forum, 1/6/15)
$60 Billion: Cost Of Obama's Community College Tuition Plan Over Ten Years. ( The Associated Press , 1/9/15)
$3.4 Billion: Average Amount Of Debt Added Daily Since Obama Became President. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15)
$3.4 Billion: How Much The Construction Of The Keystone Pipeline Would Contribute To GDP According To A State Department Review. (United States Department Of State, 1/14)
46.5 Million: Average Number Of Americans Receiving Food Stamps In FY 2014. (Department Of Agriculture, Accessed 1/14/15)
13 Million: Average Number Of Americans Who Have Joined The Food Stamp Program Since FY 2009. (Department Of Agriculture, Accessed 1/14/15)
7 Million: Number Of Americans Who Will No Longer Have Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Due To ObamaCare. (Congressional Budget Office, 4/14/14)
5.5 Million: Americans Who Have Fallen Into Poverty Since Obama Became President. (U.S. Census Bureau, Accessed 1/14/15)
2.3 Million: Americans Who Are Only Marginally Attached To The Labor Force. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)
401,000: Construction Jobs Lost Since Obama Became President. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)
321,000: Manufacturing Jobs Lost Since Obama Became President. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)
273,000: Number Of People Who Left The Labor Force Between November And December Of 2014. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)
$56,492: Current Debt Per Capita Under Obama. (U.S. Census Bureau, Accessed 1/14/15; U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15)
42,100: Number Of Jobs The Construction Of The Keystone Pipeline Would Support Over Two Years According To A State Department Review. (United States Department Of State, 1/14)
$21,724: Increase In Debt Per Capita For Americans Since Obama Took Office. (U.S. Census Bureau, Accessed 1/14/15; U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15)
$4,154: Increase In Family Health Care Premiums Under Obama. (The Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/10/14)
$2,484: Decline In Median Household Income Since Obama Became President. (U.S. Census Bureau, Accessed 1/14/15)
1978: The Last Time The Labor Force Participation Rate Was At Its Current level. (BLS, 1/24/14)
677: Individuals Who Have Been Through Obama's Revolving Door. (Center For Responsive Politics, Accessed 1/12/15)
215: Rounds Of Golf Obama Has Played Since He Has Taken Office. (Mark Knoller, Twitter Feed, 12/31/14; Mark Knoller, Twitter Feed, 1/4/15)
174: Number Of Days Obama Has Spent All Or Part On Vacation. (CBS News, 12/22/14; Mark Knoller, Twitter Feed, 1/4/15)
100%: Total Debt As A Percentage Of GDP Under Obama. (OMB, Accessed 1/14/15)
65.7%: Labor Force Participation Rate When Obama Became President. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)
62.7%: Labor Force Participation Rate In December. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)
65: Number Of Fundraisers Obama Attended In 2014. (Mark Knoller, Twitter Feed, 12/2/14)
32.8: Average Number Of Weeks Someone Will Be Unemployed. (BLS, 1/14/15)
14.5%: Poverty Rate In 2013. (U.S. Census, Accessed 1/23/14)
13.2%: Poverty Rate Before Obama Became President. (U.S. Census, Accessed 1/23/14)
6: Veto Threats Issued By Obama In The New Year. (The White House Website, Accessed 1/19/15; ABC News, 1/16/15)
0: Attempts To Actually Work With Congress
Why should he work with Congress? He's got all their power. What's that old saying? "The pen and the phone are mightier than the GOP". Or something like that.
I've long maintained that Barack Obama is not "incompetent," that he isn't "in over his head," that he's not a "stumbling clusterbleep of a miserable failure," but that he in fact has always known precisely what he was doing and has been an unparalleled success. He just wasn't doing what nearly everybody thought he was doing - trying to improve and build up and advance the interests, foreign and domestic, of the American people that twice elected him. Rather, he has been carrying out what he once publicly declared would be his chief legacy:
He's really never made much of a secret about it. Any actual vetting of the man in 2008 would have revealed it. He's been doing it for six years and counting. Last night's SOTU rant implicitly reiterated it. It's just that too few Americans were ever willing to pay attention and do their homework as the vigilant popular sovereigns the Founding Fathers intended them to be. And too few Americans were willing to brave the despicable smear of being denounced as "racists," as though the one-time sin of slavery and Jim Crow which America fully overthrew and outgrew over half a century ago couldn't be forgiven without We, The People inflicting upon ourselves the capital punishment of an Islamocommunist radical who would enslave us in turn. And what have some of us learned from this? That that one-time sin will never be forgiven, that it is America that has been overthrown, and that Barack Hussein Obama will never set us free.
Which begs the question of why he bothered making bleep up for which to take credit last night - the only strawman army he doesn't decimate. Why not cite the numbers above and take credit for being "the president he's always wanted to be"? Why not laugh in the faces of the American people and sneer, "Suckers!!!!" Why not announce his anti-Constitution coup de tat right there in the House chamber on national TV? It's not like anybody was watching, anyway.
The only explanation that makes any practical sense is that he is leaving in two years after all and he's trying to preemptively shape the 2016 battlefield for Elizabeth Warren before congressional Republicans can do so. Which I suppose is a ray of hope.
Then one remembers the principle reason why Barack Obama got elected in the first place: Because he was (half-)black. And the table-setting of eight years of Bush Derangement Syndrome and the Democrat Financial Logic Bomb. Fauxcahontas won't have the latter two factors going for her, and will face a powerful headwind of Obama fatigue. But she would be the "historic first woman president," and if 2012 proved anything, it is that there is no limit to the ignorance and gullibility of the 51%.
No comments:
Post a Comment