Tag Archives: Barack Obama

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Obama using executive power more frequently to bypass Congress

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From the ultra-liberal NewYork Times, of all places.

Excerpt:

One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism.

“We had been attempting to highlight the inability of Congress to do anything,” recalled William M. Daley, who was the White House chief of staff at the time. “The president expressed frustration, saying we have got to scour everything and push the envelope in finding things we can do on our own.”

For Mr. Obama, that meeting was a turning point. As a senator and presidential candidate, he had criticized George W. Bush for flouting the role of Congress. And during his first two years in the White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, Mr. Obama largely worked through the legislative process to achieve his domestic policy goals

But increasingly in recent months, the administration has been seeking ways to act without Congress.

[…]Each time, Mr. Obama has emphasized the fact that he is bypassing lawmakers. When he announced a cut in refinancing fees for federally insured mortgages last month, for example, he said: “If Congress refuses to act, I’ve said that I’ll continue to do everything in my power to act without them.”

Aides say many more such moves are coming. Not just a short-term shift in governing style and a re-election strategy, Mr. Obama’s increasingly assertive use of executive action could foreshadow pitched battles over the separation of powers in his second term, should he win and Republicans consolidate their power in Congress.

Recall that this is the same man who chastised George W. Bush for spending too much – then added more money to the national debt than all of the previous Presidents combined.

Remember this?

But then, as CBS News reports, this happened:

The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama’s three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency.

The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office.

The latest posting from the Bureau of Public Debt at the Treasury Department shows the National Debt now stands at $15.566 trillion. It was $10.626 trillion on President Bush’s last day in office, which coincided with President Obama’s first day.

The National Debt also now exceeds 100% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, the total value of goods and services.

[…]The federal budget sent to Congress last month by Mr. Obama, projects the National Debt will continue to rise as far as the eye can see. The budget shows the Debt hitting $16.3 trillion in 2012, $17.5 trillion in 2013 and $25.9 trillion in 2022.

Wouldn’t it be terrible for our children if we got fooled again by words, instead of looking at actions? What would happen in a second term in which Obama would not have to care about being re-elected?

News

Obama tries to take credit for Ohio’s resurgence under John Kasich

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Central United States
Central United States

Doug Ross writes about it at Director Blue.

Excerpt:

In celebrating Ohio’s comeback, Obama is unintentionally repudiating his own policies. It turns out that, in spite of Obama, Ohio is 4th in the nation in job creation and tops in the Midwest. In the previous four years before Republican Gov. Kasich came into office, Ohio was 48th.

Even the states that are ahead of Ohio in job creation are far larger. Check out the other members of the top five job-creating states: Texas, New York, California and Florida. All are far more populous than Ohio. Florida, for instance, has 6.5 million more people, yet Ohio edged it out in job creation.

In fact, February’s BLS data showed that Ohio created more jobs than any other state. When was the last time that happened? Can’t tell, because the BLS doesn’t offer data prior to the Clinton era, so it’s been at least that long.

In short, Ohio proves that conservative fiscal policies work in spite of Barack Obama. While Obama’s “leadership” destroyed America’s pristine AAA credit rating, S&P was simultaneously upgrading Ohio’s rating.

[…]Kasich has a damn good record when it comes to fiscal policies. Bill Clinton won’t ever admit it in public, but the real architect of the much-ballyhooed ‘Clinton Surplus’ was none other than John Kasich, the Paul Ryan of Newt Gingrich’s House of Representatives.

John Kasich is one of three governors that I am watching closely. The other two really good ones are Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana. I personally think that Kasich is the best governor in the United States of America. And Ohio has a great Senate candidate too, named Josh Mandel.

News

Obama’s neutrality on the Falklands dispute puts special relationship at risk

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From the UK Telegraph, an outraged statement from across the pond.

Excerpt:

Barack Obama may have rolled out the red carpet for David Cameron at the White House last month, flown the Prime Minister on Air Force One to Ohio, and lavished him with a state dinner, but he still won’t back America’s closest ally over the Falklands, sticking to a policy of “neutrality”.

[…]The President and his Secretary of State refuse to back the right of self-determination of the Falkland Islanders, and have not said a word condemning the increasingly belligerent stance and actions of Buenos Aires, including its threats to blockade the Islands and isolate it economically. The State Department has given no indication whatsoever that it has moved away from its support for direct negotiations between Argentina and Great Britain over the sovereignty of the Falklands. In fact, far from being neutral, the Obama administration has been siding with Argentina’s position for the last three years.

For all its PR spin during the Cameron visit, when the prime minister was blatantly used as an election prop and a fundraising foil for Obama’s re-election campaign, the Obama administration could not care less for the Special Relationship. If Mr Obama really believed in the alliance with Britain he would be actively siding with the British people over the Falklands, instead of continuing to appease Buenos Aires and its South American cohorts, including Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.

Britain is standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States on the battlefields of Afghanistan and in the wider war against Islamist terrorism, and on countless fronts is an indispensable ally to Washington. Yet the current US president can’t even bring himself to support the right of 3,000 overwhelmingly British Falkland Islanders to continue to live under the protection of the Union Jack, 30 years after their liberation from Argentine occupation. A stance of “neutrality” is an act of cowardice by Barack Obama in the face of Latin American pressure, and another slap in the face for Britain.

You can read more about the special relationship between the USA and the UK here, in case you are not familiar with the term.

This administration has done everything possible to support our enemies (like Iran) while simultaneously stabbing our allies (like Israel and Georgia) in the back.