The Libertarian Party (LP) calls on President Obama to not break yet another campaign promise by directing Congress to have an open, televised format for all future negotiations on the health care overhaul bills under consideration in Congress.
In 2008, then-Senator Obama promised at least eight times on the campaign trail to have open, transparent negotiations regarding a health care overhaul bill. That promise has been broken. Most substantive negotiations have occurred behind closed doors, not "on C-SPAN" as the President repeatedly promised.
The LP urges President Obama and Congressional leaders to hold all future negotiations in an open, televised format, as the President promised.
William Redpath, LP National Chairman, commented, "The President has no power to force Congress to hold televised negotiations, but he is clearly the driving force behind the health care legislation being considered by the Congress. Unfortunately, the President doesn't want to keep his promise. And, we all know why. Public approval of health care overhaul is down to about 40% and is sure to plummet further once a little sunshine is inserted into the legislative process."
Redpath continued, "Open negotiations would let Americans see how esthetically pleasing sausage making is when compared to Congress' negotiation process and the details of the health care legislation. The public would gain a much better understanding of how horrible this legislation is. President Obama and Democratic Party leaders probably think open negotiations would create a public groundswell that would effectively kill their ill-considered remake of one-sixth of the American economy that would likely bring the day of our next financial crisis that much closer."
Redpath concluded, "Government has an enormous cost estimate credibility problem. When Medicare Part A started in 1965, the projected cost in 1990 was $9 billion. It turned out to be $67 billion. When Medicaid's special hospitals subsidy was added in 1987, it was only supposed to cost $100 million per year, but, by 1992, it cost 110 times that amount. If the government is wrong by a factor of 7.5 or more this time, the result will truly be catastrophic for the US economy."
The LP opposes both the House and Senate versions of the current health care overhaul bill.
On the subject of health care, the LP Platform states:
We favor restoring and reviving a free market health care system. We recognize the freedom of individuals to determine the level of health insurance they want, the level of health care they want, the care providers they want, the medicines and treatments they will use and all other aspects of their medical care, including end-of-life decisions.
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Showing posts with label promise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label promise. Show all posts
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Obama's First 50 Days: Devastating to Taxpayers
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) released a taxpayer timeline of President Obama's first 50 days in office:
January 20: The Dow opens at 8,279.63. Obama is inaugurated. The Dow falls 330 points.
January 26: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is confirmed despite his tax problems.
February 2: In order to ensure "What happens in Chicago, stays in Chicago" by preventing corruption and kickbacks arising from the "stimulus" bill, ATR asks each Member of Congress planning to vote for the bill to sign a statement promising that they, their family, and the members of their staff will not personally benefit from the bill. All refuse.
February 3: Health & Human Services Secretary-designate Tom Daschle withdraws his nomination due to tax problems. Chief Performance Officer-designate Nancy Killefer withdraws her nomination due to tax problems.
February 4: On the sixteenth day of his presidency, Obama breaks one of the central promises of his campaign by singing into law a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack, to take effect April 1. Obama promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would never raise any form of taxes on those making less than $250,000 per year, for example:
"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"
(September 12, 2008, Dover, NH -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8erePM8V5U )
This tax increase will fall squarely on the shoulders of the middle- and low-income Americans Obama said he would not raise taxes on: 55 percent of smokers are "working poor," one in four smokers live below the poverty line, and on average, smokers, whose median income is a little more than $36,000 make about 30 percent less than non-smokers.
February 9: Obama holds his first press conference, during which he calls for massive government spending increases. He fails to provide a single historical example where a government increased spending which led to increased jobs, income, and wealth on any sustainable basis. Obama also has the audacity to claim the "stimulus" plan is free of pet projects and earmarks:
"What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable."
Responding to a reporter's question as to what specific metric the American people should use to determine whether Obama's programs are working, Obama replies:
"I think my initial measure of success is creating or saving 4 million jobs."
How, exactly, does one measure a "saved" job? (See March 4 for details)
During the press conference, Obama builds expectations about the next day's planned announcement by Treasury Secretary Geithner.
February 10: Instead of presenting the promised specific plan, Geithner instead offers vague statements and echoes FDR's economically paralyzing "bold, persistent experimentation" philosophy with this gem:
"We will have to adapt our program as conditions change. We will have to try things we've never tried before. We will make mistakes. We will go through periods in which things get worse and progress is uneven or interrupted."
The Dow falls 380 points.
February 12, sometime around 10:00 PM: The "Stimulus" conference report is completed behind closed doors. Less than sixteen hours pass before the bill is taken up by the House.
Friday, February 13
2:24 PM: With not a single Member voting for the bill having claimed to have actually read it, the House passes the conference report for H.R.1, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009."
5:29 PM: With not a single Member voting for the bill having claimed to have actually read it, the Senate passes the conference report for H.R. 1.
The Dow falls 82 points.
February 17: Obama signs the "Stimulus" bill and violates his pledge to the American people that he will allow legislation to be posted online for five full days before signing it. The stimulus bill was posted for only four days, not five.
"No more secrecy. ... when there's a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you, the American voter, will have five days to look online and find out what it is before I sign it, so that you know what your government's doing."
(June 22, 2007. Manchester, New Hampshire, http://tinyurl.com/dl2wog)
The Dow falls 293 points.
February 24: Obama makes his first address to a joint session of Congress and claims he doesn't believe in "bigger government." Obama also says he is proud that "we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks."
February 25: The first trading day after Obama's address, the Dow drops 78 points.
February 26: Obama releases his budget outline which raises taxes on individuals, small businesses, capital gains, dividends, and foreign source profits of corporations while eliminating several energy tax credits.
The budget also calls for a "cap and trade" regime which makes an absolute mockery of Obama's central campaign promise not to raise any form of taxes on those making less than $250,000 per year.
Obama also shatters his campaign promise to enact net spending cuts during his administration:
"So we're going to have to make some investments but we've also got to make spending cuts, and what I've proposed -- you'll hear Senator McCain say 'he's proposing a whole bunch of new spending' -- but, actually, I'm cutting more than I'm spending. So that it will be a net spending cut."
(Oct. 7, 2008. Second Presidential Debate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM0Eri8VWiw)
The Dow drops 86 points.
March 1: The Obama administration foreshadows another broken promise when Peter Orszag, appearing on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, claims the 8,000 earmarks in the 2009 Omnibus are "last year's business. We just need to move on."
To say the least, this is not consistent with Obama's campaign promises on earmarks and "change":
"And, absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely."
(Oct. 14, 2008. First Presidential Debate)
March 3: Obama compares the stock market to a political daily tracking poll:
"The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day-to-day," Obama said. "And if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong."
Obama also indicates to union leaders he will sign "card check" legislation.
The Dow drops 38 points.
March 4: While testifying before the Senate, Treasury Secretary Geithner is challenged by Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) as to the invention by the Obama administration of a new metric -- "creating or saving" jobs -- the very same metric Obama claimed on Feb. 9 is the most important measure of success:
"You created a situation where you cannot be wrong. If the economy loses 2 million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs," Baucus said. "You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct."
March 4: CNN visits the site of the first "stimulus" dollars to hit the ground: A $8.5 million bridge serving the town of Tuscumbia, Missouri - population 223.
March 5: While testifying before the House, Treasury Secretary Geithner concedes Obama's budget raises taxes on small businesses, but focuses on a meaningless metric: the percentage of small businesses affected rather than the fact that two-thirds of small business profits will be subject to higher taxation.
The Dow falls 279 points.
March 9: The Dow closes at 6,547.05. From Inauguration Day to March 9, the Dow is down 1,732.58, a 21 percent drop.
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January 20: The Dow opens at 8,279.63. Obama is inaugurated. The Dow falls 330 points.
January 26: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is confirmed despite his tax problems.
February 2: In order to ensure "What happens in Chicago, stays in Chicago" by preventing corruption and kickbacks arising from the "stimulus" bill, ATR asks each Member of Congress planning to vote for the bill to sign a statement promising that they, their family, and the members of their staff will not personally benefit from the bill. All refuse.
February 3: Health & Human Services Secretary-designate Tom Daschle withdraws his nomination due to tax problems. Chief Performance Officer-designate Nancy Killefer withdraws her nomination due to tax problems.
February 4: On the sixteenth day of his presidency, Obama breaks one of the central promises of his campaign by singing into law a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack, to take effect April 1. Obama promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would never raise any form of taxes on those making less than $250,000 per year, for example:
"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"
(September 12, 2008, Dover, NH -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8erePM8V5U )
This tax increase will fall squarely on the shoulders of the middle- and low-income Americans Obama said he would not raise taxes on: 55 percent of smokers are "working poor," one in four smokers live below the poverty line, and on average, smokers, whose median income is a little more than $36,000 make about 30 percent less than non-smokers.
February 9: Obama holds his first press conference, during which he calls for massive government spending increases. He fails to provide a single historical example where a government increased spending which led to increased jobs, income, and wealth on any sustainable basis. Obama also has the audacity to claim the "stimulus" plan is free of pet projects and earmarks:
"What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable."
Responding to a reporter's question as to what specific metric the American people should use to determine whether Obama's programs are working, Obama replies:
"I think my initial measure of success is creating or saving 4 million jobs."
How, exactly, does one measure a "saved" job? (See March 4 for details)
During the press conference, Obama builds expectations about the next day's planned announcement by Treasury Secretary Geithner.
February 10: Instead of presenting the promised specific plan, Geithner instead offers vague statements and echoes FDR's economically paralyzing "bold, persistent experimentation" philosophy with this gem:
"We will have to adapt our program as conditions change. We will have to try things we've never tried before. We will make mistakes. We will go through periods in which things get worse and progress is uneven or interrupted."
The Dow falls 380 points.
February 12, sometime around 10:00 PM: The "Stimulus" conference report is completed behind closed doors. Less than sixteen hours pass before the bill is taken up by the House.
Friday, February 13
2:24 PM: With not a single Member voting for the bill having claimed to have actually read it, the House passes the conference report for H.R.1, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009."
5:29 PM: With not a single Member voting for the bill having claimed to have actually read it, the Senate passes the conference report for H.R. 1.
The Dow falls 82 points.
February 17: Obama signs the "Stimulus" bill and violates his pledge to the American people that he will allow legislation to be posted online for five full days before signing it. The stimulus bill was posted for only four days, not five.
"No more secrecy. ... when there's a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you, the American voter, will have five days to look online and find out what it is before I sign it, so that you know what your government's doing."
(June 22, 2007. Manchester, New Hampshire, http://tinyurl.com/dl2wog)
The Dow falls 293 points.
February 24: Obama makes his first address to a joint session of Congress and claims he doesn't believe in "bigger government." Obama also says he is proud that "we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks."
February 25: The first trading day after Obama's address, the Dow drops 78 points.
February 26: Obama releases his budget outline which raises taxes on individuals, small businesses, capital gains, dividends, and foreign source profits of corporations while eliminating several energy tax credits.
The budget also calls for a "cap and trade" regime which makes an absolute mockery of Obama's central campaign promise not to raise any form of taxes on those making less than $250,000 per year.
Obama also shatters his campaign promise to enact net spending cuts during his administration:
"So we're going to have to make some investments but we've also got to make spending cuts, and what I've proposed -- you'll hear Senator McCain say 'he's proposing a whole bunch of new spending' -- but, actually, I'm cutting more than I'm spending. So that it will be a net spending cut."
(Oct. 7, 2008. Second Presidential Debate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM0Eri8VWiw)
The Dow drops 86 points.
March 1: The Obama administration foreshadows another broken promise when Peter Orszag, appearing on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, claims the 8,000 earmarks in the 2009 Omnibus are "last year's business. We just need to move on."
To say the least, this is not consistent with Obama's campaign promises on earmarks and "change":
"And, absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely."
(Oct. 14, 2008. First Presidential Debate)
March 3: Obama compares the stock market to a political daily tracking poll:
"The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day-to-day," Obama said. "And if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong."
Obama also indicates to union leaders he will sign "card check" legislation.
The Dow drops 38 points.
March 4: While testifying before the Senate, Treasury Secretary Geithner is challenged by Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) as to the invention by the Obama administration of a new metric -- "creating or saving" jobs -- the very same metric Obama claimed on Feb. 9 is the most important measure of success:
"You created a situation where you cannot be wrong. If the economy loses 2 million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs," Baucus said. "You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct."
March 4: CNN visits the site of the first "stimulus" dollars to hit the ground: A $8.5 million bridge serving the town of Tuscumbia, Missouri - population 223.
March 5: While testifying before the House, Treasury Secretary Geithner concedes Obama's budget raises taxes on small businesses, but focuses on a meaningless metric: the percentage of small businesses affected rather than the fact that two-thirds of small business profits will be subject to higher taxation.
The Dow falls 279 points.
March 9: The Dow closes at 6,547.05. From Inauguration Day to March 9, the Dow is down 1,732.58, a 21 percent drop.
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Monday, January 19, 2009
Obama Stimulus Plan Breaks Campaign Promise to Small Businesses
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On February 22, 2008, Barack Obama released the following statement:
"It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."
(http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)
The statement was made in response to more than 12 federal investigations, which found billions of dollars in federal small business contracts had been diverted to Fortune 500 corporations, their subsidiaries and thousands of other large businesses in the United States and Europe.
Report 5-15 from the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the SBA and the entire Federal government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards." (http://www.sba.gov/IG/05-15.pdf)
Since the exposure of this issue in 2002, nearly every major newspaper in the United States has covered the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.
Now, in the face of one of the most catastrophic economic disasters in U.S. history, President-elect Obama has failed to include any provision in his economic stimulus plan to stop the diversion of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.
President-elect Obama's refusal to take decisive action to stop the diversion of up to $100 billion a year in federal small business contracts seems to be a direct contradiction to everything he has said about taking "dramatic action" to "put people back to work."
Many of the nation's most respected experts on the economy like Dr. Laura Tyson and Carly Fiorina agree the best way to stimulate our nation's failing economy is to direct federal infrastructure funds to small businesses. Tyson is the former Chair of the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration and is currently an economic adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. Fiorina is the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and McCain campaign economic advisor.
President-elect Obama's refusal to stop the fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs will only result in more lost jobs at middle class firms across the nation.
"It does not make sense to throw nearly a trillion of hard earned taxpayer dollars at an economic stimulus plan and then ignore fraud and abuse in longstanding federal programs specifically designed to create jobs and stimulate the middle class economy," President of the American Small Business League Lloyd Chapman said. "It would take one sentence in this bill to create thousands of jobs and to redirect billions of dollars in federal contracts to legitimate small businesses all around the country. My advice to President-elect Obama is that if he sincerely wants to create jobs in America he needs to include this one line in the stimulus package, 'The federal government can no longer report awards to publicly traded companies as small business awards.'"
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"It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."
(http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)
The statement was made in response to more than 12 federal investigations, which found billions of dollars in federal small business contracts had been diverted to Fortune 500 corporations, their subsidiaries and thousands of other large businesses in the United States and Europe.
Report 5-15 from the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the SBA and the entire Federal government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards." (http://www.sba.gov/IG/05-15.pdf)
Since the exposure of this issue in 2002, nearly every major newspaper in the United States has covered the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.
Now, in the face of one of the most catastrophic economic disasters in U.S. history, President-elect Obama has failed to include any provision in his economic stimulus plan to stop the diversion of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.
President-elect Obama's refusal to take decisive action to stop the diversion of up to $100 billion a year in federal small business contracts seems to be a direct contradiction to everything he has said about taking "dramatic action" to "put people back to work."
Many of the nation's most respected experts on the economy like Dr. Laura Tyson and Carly Fiorina agree the best way to stimulate our nation's failing economy is to direct federal infrastructure funds to small businesses. Tyson is the former Chair of the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration and is currently an economic adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. Fiorina is the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and McCain campaign economic advisor.
President-elect Obama's refusal to stop the fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs will only result in more lost jobs at middle class firms across the nation.
"It does not make sense to throw nearly a trillion of hard earned taxpayer dollars at an economic stimulus plan and then ignore fraud and abuse in longstanding federal programs specifically designed to create jobs and stimulate the middle class economy," President of the American Small Business League Lloyd Chapman said. "It would take one sentence in this bill to create thousands of jobs and to redirect billions of dollars in federal contracts to legitimate small businesses all around the country. My advice to President-elect Obama is that if he sincerely wants to create jobs in America he needs to include this one line in the stimulus package, 'The federal government can no longer report awards to publicly traded companies as small business awards.'"
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