The President’s Serial Mendacity

At some point, regardless of political affiliation, we will evaluate the performance of our elected officials, either consciously or subconsciously. Many will rely only on their party’s position, discarding facts in favor of partisan politics. Those who can be impartial will pay particular attention to the current social, economic, and political issues and make judgments based upon whether solutions have been provided that address each problem. Paradoxically, if the country is doing well, then promises made, and not kept, during the campaigns are ignored and everyone sits back and enjoys the positive status. However, making promises, that wins the White House, without delivering on promises clearly made during the campaign, has exponentially more impact in grading a president’s performance. Current polls have shown the president’s popularity going down faster than the Titanic. Projecting a personal ideology is one thing, but ignoring national issues in support of principles that fundamentally transform America into something the majority of Americans do not want is becoming increasingly more evident. The president is the chief executive officer of the country. He is responsible for solving the country’s problems. He is NOT the human relations director or travel director. Had he interviewed, based on his background and experience, for the presidency of any corporation he would have been turned down for more reasons than one. There is no question in my mind that he could easily have won the public relations positions in almost any corporation.

It is important, at this time, especially with the 2014 mid-term elections coming up, that we review many of those promises so that we do not make the mistake of giving him complete support of both houses. During his campaign, the following are just a few of the many promises made. These promises highlight, more than anything else, the true character of a politician concerned more about himself and his personal agenda than of the overall well being of the country that welcomed him to the presidency so eagerly. 

Obama repeatedly assured the public he would protect Medicare; but now presses for savage cuts in Medicare and attributes the cuts to the Republicans.

His first stimulus bill, assured us that 90% of the jobs created would be in the private sector; however most of them are in the public sector.

If he became the nominee of the Democratic party he would (unlike Hillary Clinton) abide by the campaign finance limits of public funding; but soon after the nomination, he reneged on that pledge.

He criticized the number of lobbyists in the Bush administration and solemnly assured us that he would appoint no lobbyists to his administration; but once elected he proceeded to appoint even more lobbyists than his predecessors did,  as well as many, many more czars.

Obama criticized the size of George Bush’s deficit and promised to stop deficit spending if elected; but he has already quadrupled the size of the deficit he objected to and recklessly continues new federal spending.

Obama criticized bills before the congress that were too long for anyone to be able to read and promised to stop that; but the bills he has been backing throughout his first year are infinitely longer (2000+ pages) than the ones he criticized.

Obama promised an end to the corruption of earmarks and pork, but in the bills he has supported this year there have been more and bigger earmarks than ever before.

Obama promised us that CIA personnel involved in the interrogation of terrorists would not be prosecuted; but his administration is now doing exactly that.

Obama assured a joint session of Congress that the health bill he supported (pre-Stupak) would not provide public funding for abortions; but bitter resistance on the part of House Democrats to inclusion of language to that effect soon proved that it did.

Candidate Obama promised that he would make sure that there was always enough time for the public to read legislation before it was enacted; but he has done exactly the opposite, repeatedly pressing for even faster passage of even longer bills.

Candidate Obama met fears that he would be a tax and spend liberal by promising, emphatically and repeatedly, that those earning under $200,000 would see no increase in their taxes of any kind; but he now urges passage of a healthcare bill that breaks that pledge in many different ways, and his unrestrained increase in federal spending makes more tax increases inevitable.

Candidate Obama promised bipartisanship and an end to partisan bickering; but in a display of especially ruthless partisanship his allies have shut Republicans out of all key meetings on his health care initiative, with the unprecedented result that domestic legislation of historic importance garnered not a single Republican vote in the Senate.

Candidate Obama criticized his opponent’s plan to tax employer paid healthcare benefits, and promised he would not tax them; but the bill he now backs will do just that.

Obama had promised that he would not sign a healthcare bill that would add one dime to the federal deficit; but the bill he now backs adds trillions in new federal spending, offset only by new sources of unapproved tax revenue increases. 

Obama coerced congress into passing his stimulus bill by promising that if it were passed unemployment could go no higher then 8%; but unemployment went as high as 10%. In the total of his years in office the unemployment rate has never been below 7.5%

Obama has repeatedly assured the American people that if they like their current health plan they can keep it; but the House bill, which he supported, created huge incentives for employers to drop their coverage and shift their members to a public option.

Obama has just as often assured the public that under his health plan everyone will be able to keep their current doctor; but many are certain to lose their doctors when ObamaCare’s large cuts in Medicare funding induce more doctors to withdraw from Medicare coverage, as they also would were employers to transfer patients to a public option to save money.

Obama assured a joint session of Congress that his health plan would not fund illegal aliens; but his allies had been busy voting down amendments to that effect.  (This was the point of Joe Wilson’s outburst: “Lier”)

Obama claimed that Caterpillar’s CEO had told him that Caterpillar would begin hiring again as a result of the stimulus bill; but that individual immediately announced that he had said no such thing, and that Caterpillar would in fact be laying off more workers.

Candidate Obama promised that Guantanamo would be closed by January 1, 2010; but it is still open.

Candidate Obama promised that his administration (unlike his predecessor’s) would be so transparent that TV cameras (C-Span) would be there for key deliberations; but an unprecedented level of secrecy prevails as the final stages of Obamacare were negotiated behind closed doors and kept so secret that even the Senate majority whip admitted that he had no idea what was going on.  Requests for Obama to honor the promise of C-Span cameras are being ignored.

To gain traction for his attempt to return a would-be socialist dictator in Honduras to power, Obama claimed that he had been overthrown in an illegal coup; but the congressional research service pointed out correctly that ex-President Zelaya had been removed for constitutionally sufficient cause by legal and constitutional means.

Obama claims that he wants a public option only to increase choice and competition; but the House bill would clearly reduce choice both by squeezing unsubsidized private health plans out of the market, and by setting rigid conditions on acceptable plans that would narrow available options.

Candidate Obama claimed that violent radical Bill Ayers was just another guy in his neighborhood; but the record shows that the two had worked closely together.

Obama assured us that his stimulus bill would create or save a million jobs; but he was claiming as fact what could never have been more than a wild (and highly improbable) guess, and his more recent attempts to justify that guess have been fraudulent.

Obama assured us that his health plan would never ration care, or “pull the plug” on grandma; but the legislation he backs sets up panels to make crucial decisions on when to withhold care, and it makes such deep cuts in Medicare that rationing is inevitable.

Obama assured us that health insurance premiums would not go up when Obamacare becomes law, insisting indignantly that people who say this have not read the bill; but the legislation forces insurers to cover preexisting conditions, which has compelled them to raise premiums substantially.

This is an extraordinary record of serial mendacity. One or two instances might charitably be regarded as rash promises later regretted, or as the wishful thinking of someone who had not thought through the implications of what he was saying. But when it happens again and again—and the instances highlighted above are by no means exhaustive—only one judgment seems possible:  this is the record of a habitual, shameless hypocrite, a man who will say anything to get what he wants. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. What does it say of us who have been fooled repeatedly? How shameful is it for a society to completely ignore this disgraceful record, which is never the subject of a reproachful editorial in the New York Times, the Washington Post, or CBS news? Richard Nixon was removed from office, and Bill Clinton impeached for a single lie. Who could look at Obama’s record without concluding that many of his contradictory, and untrue, statements are in a complete league of their own.
President Obama evidently believes that he can solve any problem with a speech. However, he really does not care if what he says is true or not, as long as he is living in the moment. He says so many things that are not true that it is almost impossible to keep tract of everything he says wrong. He does not appear that he feels any responsibility to honor the assurances and promises he makes. As a result, this nation is now in a position where it cannot believe a word that he says, and that amounts to an unprecedented crisis of confidence in the presidency. All governments will eventually deteriorate and fail if allowed to continue to participate in politically untrue statements. The press, more than any other organization, is significantly responsible for holding the president and congress accountable for their actions. It has become so convincingly apparent that the mainstream media is willing to forgive all of the above because of the color of his skin rather than the performance of his administration. 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

 And, therein lies the problem: …” to the best of my ability”…