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ΑρχικήEnglishObama’s Top 10 Broken Promises (So Far)

Obama’s Top 10 Broken Promises (So Far)

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obama-100_daysBy Greg Victor, NewsRealBlog

There’s some bad news… and then there’s some good news.

First the bad news: President Barack Obama made so many campaign promises it was hard to choose just ten. Not that we wanted most of these promises to be kept, of course.

 

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Now for the good news: No matter what he promised, Obama has been confronted with the reality that he can’t just wave a magic wand and “change” whatever he wants. It is also satisfying to see how pitiful of a job Obama has done with the “Yes We Can” agenda in his first 20 months in office.

Here are the Top 10 Obama Broken Promises… so far.


Number 10: Target Every Source Of Fear In The Americas

 

“That is why there will never be true security unless we focus our efforts on targeting every source of fear in the Americas. That’s what I’ll do as president of the United States.”

(from Obama’s “Renewing U.S. Leadership in the Americas”)

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Talk about believing your own publicity! What could he possibly have been thinking to make such an impossible promise. But then again, when you’re gathering a voter base that hasn’t a clue about defense issues… At least he also didn’t make good on his promise to “double the Peace Corps to 16,000 by its 50th anniversary in 2011 and push Congress to fully fund this expansion…”


Number 9: Give an annual “State of the World” address

“I’ll give an annual ‘State of the World’ address to the American people in which I lay out our national security policy”

(from Obama’s “A New Beginning” speech)

Although President Obama has made many foreign policy speeches, none of these were ever labeled by the White House as a “State of the World” address. Thank God.


Number 8: Reduce earmarks to 1994 levels

“Barack Obama is committed to returning earmarks to less than $7.8 billion a year, the level they were at before 1994.”

(from Obama’s “The Change We Need in Washington”)

An earmark is a requirement that money approved by Congress be spent in a specific way requested by a lawmaker. Once the numbers came in, President Barack Obama was unable to keep his promise to hold earmarks to less than the level they were at before 1994 ($7.8 billion a year). 
Big surprise.


Number 7: Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials

“No political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration.”

(from Obama’s Ethics Plan)

So much for Obama’s pledge to restrict former lobbyists from serving in his administration. His administration granted waivers to several former lobbyists, allowing them to serve. The American people deserve to be reminded that the Obama administration is not adhering to its promise to be open, transparent, and accountable.

Obama’s campaign proposals spelled out that former lobbyists would not be allowed to “work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years.” Obama even signed an executive order to that effect.
 The only problem is that the order had a loophole — a “waiver” clause allowing former lobbyists to serve. That clause has been used several times, and in other cases, the administration has allowed former lobbyists to serve even without a waiver.


Number 6: No family making less than $250,000 will see “any form of tax increase”

More specifically, Obama promised,

“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.”

Obama signed a law on March 23, 2010, raises taxes on some things regardless of income including: a tax on indoor tanning services, and a fine, levied through income tax, if they don’t have health insurance. The operative words here are “not any of your taxes,” of course. Unless of course, that taxpayer is a smoker, uses a tanning bed, or is uninsured. If that is the case, then watch out – you just got a form of tax increase.


Number 5: Pay for the national service plan without increasing the deficit

“Will maintain fiscal responsibility and prevent any increase in the deficit by offsetting cuts and revenue sources in other parts of the government (to pay for a national service plan that will cost about $3.5 billion per year when it is fully implemented). This plan will be paid for in part by cancelling tax provisions that would otherwise help multinational corporations pay less in U.S. taxes starting in 2008 by reallocating tax deductions for interest expenses between income earned in the U.S. and income earned abroad. The rest of the plan will be funded using a small portion of the savings associated with ending the war in Iraq.”

(from Obama’s “Helping All Americans Serve Their Country”)

Trying to appear a defender of fiscal responsibility, Barack Obama promised during his campaign that he would offset the costs of his national service plan (estimated at $3.5 billion per year) with savings from changes in tax law and ending the war in Iraq. That would require extreme bookkeeping talents that simply do not exist. Current budget rules don’t allow for programs (like the national service plan) to be offset by tax increases or by decreasing spending in Iraq (itself a form of emergency spending).
We’ve seen no statements by President Obama to indicate how he plans to pay for the plan.


Number 4: Allow five days of public comment before signing bills

To reduce bills rushed through Congress and presented to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them, Obama promised he would,

“not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.” During the campaign, Obama pledged this “sunlight before signing.”

(from Obama’s Ethics Plan)

Ignoring his “Five Day Plan,” Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 on May 22, only two days after the bill was finalized in Congress. 

Next, Obama signed an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program on Feb. 4, 2009, just hours after it was finalized in Congress.


Number 3: End income tax for seniors making less than $50,000

“Will eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This will eliminate taxes for 7 million seniors — saving them an average of $1,400 a year– and will also mean that 27 million seniors will not need to file an income tax return at all.”

(from Obama’s “Comprehensive Tax Plan”)

This one has just seemed to disappear as fast as a file folder in Vince Foster’s office. It wasn’t in the economic “stimulus” bill (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), and it wasn’t ever part of any proposed legislation. Yes, the outrageous promise to end taxes for seniors if they make less than $50,000 has been totally forgotten… and to think – Helen Thomas is no longer there to even ask about it.

Number 2: Introduce a comprehensive immigration bill in the first year. (For those of you here illegally: “Introducir un proyecto de ley integral de inmigración en el primer año.”)

Specifically, Obama promised,

“I cannot guarantee that it is going to be in the first 100 days. But what I can guarantee is that we will have in the first year an immigration bill that I strongly support and that I’m promoting. And I want to move that forward as quickly as possible.”

(from a Jorge Ramos interview with candidate Barack Obama, May 28, 2008.)

Obama was going to fix everything, remember? He promised to secure the border, and to put pressure on employers who hire illegals (or, as he calls them “undocumented workers”). Obama promised to pursue immigration reform aggressively. By the way – no comprehensive immigration reform measure supported by Obama has ever been introduced in Congress.


Number 1: Negotiate health care reform in public sessions televised on C-SPAN

That’s right – why not end this select list with a good laugh? I think we all remember Obama saying,

“I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We’ll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies – they’ll get a seat at the table, they just won’t be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process.”

(from a town hall meeting on Aug. 21, 2008, in Chester, Va.)

At a debate in Los Angeles he expanded on the idea, saying,

“That’s what I will do in bringing all parties together, not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are, because part of what we have to do is enlist the American people in this process.”

As often as he could Barack Obama said that he intended to negotiate health care reform publicly. Loving the amount of coverage he got on the nightly news from this sound bite, he also promised to televise the negotiations on C-SPAN, with all the parties sitting at a big table.

Ah, yes, I remember it well: “My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government.” Just reading this makes it all seem so long ago, doesn’t it? Don’t worry my friends, we are far closer to 2012 that we are to 2008.

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