Bet you're sorry you voted for Obama now

[pattygreen 5]

RECOVERY.GOV

STATEMENT: “We will launch a sweeping effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.” – President Obama, January 28, 2009

EXPIRATION DATE: “More than two months after some of the funds were released, [Recovery.gov] offers little detail on where the money is going . . . The government [spent] $84 million on a website that doesn’t have a search function, when its purpose is to ‘root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government.’” April 2, 2009

[pattygreen 5]

Eighteen lies from his first 100 days:

1. “As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

2. “I will make sure that we renegotiate [NAFTA].“

3. Opposed a Colombian Free Trade Agreement because advocates ignore that “labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis.”

4. “Now, what I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.”

5. “If we see money being misspent, we’re going to put a stop to it, and we will call it out and we will publicize it.“

6. “Yesterday, Jim, the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.”

7. “I want to go line by line through every item in the Federal budget and eliminate programs that don’t work, and make sure that those that do work work better and cheaper.”

8. “[My plan] will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell.”

9. “Instead of allowing lobbyists to slip big corporate tax breaks into bills during the dead of night, we will make sure every single tax break and earmark is available to every American online.”

10. “We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress’s seniority, rather than the merit of the project.”

11. “If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.”

12. “Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe the United States has to be frank with the Chinese about such failings and will press them to respect human rights.”

13. “We must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights.”

14. “Lobbyists won’t work in my White House!“

15. “The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result.”

16. “I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills.”

17. “Obama will 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.” Obama is 1-for-11 on this promise so far.

18. A special one on the 100th day, “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d do.”

[pattygreen 5]

And a list from of promises that expired during the campaign:

IRAQ

STATEMENT: “Based on the conversations we’ve had internally as well as external reports, we believe that you can get one to two brigades out a month. At that pace, the forces would be out in approximately 16 months from the time that we began. That would be the time frame that I would be setting up,” Obama to the New York Times, November 1, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: March 7, 2008: Obama foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, to the BBC: “You can’t make a commitment in whatever month we’re in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are gonna be like in Jan. 2009. We can’t even tell what Bush is up to in terms of troop pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that [Obama has] crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US senator.”

Also: July 3, 2008: “My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything I’ve said, was always premised on making sure our troops were safe,” Obama told reporters as his campaign plane landed in North Dakota. “And my guiding approach continues to be that we’ve got to make sure that our troops are safe, and that Iraq is stable. And I’m going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold.”

STATEMENT: On June 14, Obama foreign-policy adviser Susan Rice called the RNC’s argument that Obama needed to go to Iraq to get a firsthand look “complete garbage.”

EXPIRATION DATE: On June 16, Obama announced he would go to Iraq and Afghanistan “so he can see first hand the progress of the wars he would inherit if he’s elected president.”

DEBATES

STATEMENT: May 16, 2008: “If John McCain wants to meet me, anywhere, anytime to have a debate about our respective policies in Iraq, Iran, the Middle East or around the world, that is a conversation I’m happy to have.”

EXPIRATION DATE: June 13, 2008: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe: “Barack Obama offered to meet John McCain at five joint appearances between now and Election Day — the three traditional debates plus a joint town hall on the economy in July [on the Fourth of July] and an in-depth debate on foreign policy in August.”

IRAN

STATEMENT: “We can, then, more effectively deal with what I consider to be one of the greatest threats to the United States, to Israel, and world peace, and that is Iran,” Obama speaking to American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Chicago, March 5, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: “Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny . . . They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.” – May 20, 2008

STATEMENT: Question at the YouTube debate, as the video depicted leaders of the countries, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea?”

“I would,” Obama answered. July 27, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: May 10, 2008: Susan E. Rice, a former State Department and National Security Council official who is a foreign-policy adviser to the Democratic candidate: “But nobody said he would initiate contacts at the presidential level; that requires due preparation and advance work.”

JEREMIAH WRIGHT/TRINITY UNITED

STATEMENT: “I could no more disown Jeremiah Wright than I could disown my own grandmother.”

–Barack Obama, March 18, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: on April 28, 2008, Obama cut all ties to Wright, declaring, “Based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought.”

STATEMENT: Obama said on March 18, 2008, that his church, Trinity United, “embodies the black community in its entirety” and was being caricatured.

EXPIRATION DATE: On May 31, 2008, Obama resigned his membership at Trinity United Church.

JIM JOHNSON

STATEMENT: Criticism of running-mate vetter Jim Johnson’s loan from Countrywide was “a game” and that his vice-presidential vetting team “aren’t folks who are working for me.” June 10, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 11, 2008, when Obama accepted Johnson’s resignation.

FISA

STATEMENT: Obama spokesman Bill Burton on October 24, 2007: “To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”

EXPIRATION DATE: June 20, 2008: “Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program.”

NUCLEAR ENERGY

STATEMENT: “I am not a nuclear energy proponent.” Barack Obama, December 30, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: The above statement actually was the expiration date for his previous position, “I actually think we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix,” expressed on July 23, 2007; the above statement expired when he told Democratic governors he thought it is “worth investigating its further development” on June 20, 2008.

NAFTA

STATEMENT: Tim Russert:: “Senator Obama . . . Simple question: Will you, as president, say to Canada and Mexico, ‘This has not worked for us; we are out’?”

Obama: “I will make sure that we renegotiate, in the same way that Senator Clinton talked about. And I think actually Senator Clinton’s answer on this one is right. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced. And that is not what has been happening so far.” February 23, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 18, 2008, Fortune magazine: “’Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,’ he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA ‘devastating’ and ‘a big mistake,’ despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.

“Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? ‘Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don’t exempt myself,’ he answered.

“‘I’m not a big believer in doing things unilaterally,’ Obama said. ‘I’m a big believer in opening up a dialogue and figuring out how we can make this work for all people.’”

PUBLIC FINANCING

STATEMENT: “If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.” Also, a Common Cause questionnaire dated November 27, 2007, asked “If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?”, Obama checked, “Yes.”

EXPIRATION DATE: June 19, 2008: Obama announced he would not participate in the presidential public financing system.

WORKING OUT A DEAL ON PUBLIC FINANCING

STATEMENT: “What I’ve said is, at the point where I’m the nominee, at the point where it’s appropriate, I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that works for everybody.”Obama to Tim Russert, Febuary 27.

EXPIRATION DATE: When Obama announced his decision to break his public-financing pledge on June 19, no meeting between the Democratic nominee and McCain had occurred.

WELFARE REFORM

STATEMENT: “I probably would not have supported the federal legislation [to overhaul welfare], because I think it had some problems.” Obama on the floor of the Illinois Senate, May 31, 1997

EXPIRATION DATE: April 11, 2008: Asked if he would have vetoed the 1996 law, Mr. Obama said, “I won’t second guess President Clinton for signing” it. Obama to the New York Times.

GAY MARRIAGE

STATEMENT: “Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as president. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage.” – campaign spokesman, May 5, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 29, 2008: “I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states . . . Finally, I want to congratulate all of you who have shown your love for each other by getting married these last few weeks.” — letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club

PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION

STATEMENT: “Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.” – interview with Relevant magazine, July 1, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: July 5, 2008: “My only point is that in an area like partial-birth abortion having a mental, having a health exception can be defined rigorously. It can be defined through physical health, It can be defined by serious clinical mental-health diseases.” — statement to reporters.

DIVISION OF JERUSALEM

STATEMENT: “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” – speech before AIPAC, June 4, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 6, 2008: “Jerusalem is a final-status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties” as part of “an agreement that they both can live with.” – an Obama adviser clarifying his remarks to the Jerusalem Post

[pattygreen 5]

You wanted a list of his broken promises. Well, there you have them.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

"There is no doubt that we've been living beyond our means and we're going to have to make some adjustments. Now, what I've done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut," Mr. Obama promised during the third presidential debate on Oct. 15, 2008. He made the same promise about a "net spending cut" again during the second presidential debate.

Despite these talking points, Mr. Obama plans to increase the debt by at least $9.1 trillion over the next decade. In that period of time, Mr. Obama's programs will increase federal spending by $400 billion to $500 billion per year over what his predecessor, President George W. Bush, planned. Far from keeping his promise, this is the largest peacetime increase ever in government spending. Washington times

You can go to all your conservative websites and cut and paste other people's blogs but that doesn't change the fact that Pres. Obama has been a great president and bush was a failure.

As to campaign promises: All politicians make them. And after Obama was overwhelmingly elected, he soon found out that bush left him a bigger mess than he had anticipated and the economy was in a much more precarious condition.

He took the bold steps he needed to to turn things around. Aware of the rising deficit he commissioned a bi-partisan debt reduction committee. Now - you can't have it both ways. You can't keep yapping about the deficit and then complain when some of his campaign promises can't be kept because he might have to cut services (or tax cuts or some other promise) or raise taxes on some things.

I don't give a rat's a$$ if he raises taxes on gasoline or cigarettes. Talk about being petty about everything he does.

We have to pay for these wars bush started. How do you propose we do that?

As for that picture of Michelle Obama kissing him and some unflattering comment - do you want me to search for the picture of Angela Merkel (German pres.) cringing at bush's shoulder hug?

You neocons are just so damn frustrated that he just keeps getting his agenda passed, the country is doing much better than it was when he took office and just you teabaggers, beck, limbaugh, palin and other similar losers keep yapping and harping about things no one else cares about.

Edited May 15, 2010 by Cleo's Mom

[Cleo's Mom 257]

You mentioned Pres. Obama's golfing. When asked what he was sacrificing for the two wars he started, bush said he was giving up golf. Wow, what a sacrifice considering the following:

"President Bush recently spent his 879th day at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, since the Supreme Court, in all its great wisdom, elevated him to the presidency. This according to NPR's "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me," which noted that Bush broke former President Reagan's record for taking vacations from the White House."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/1…

And let's not forget that he was cutting brush in Crawford County after receiving a memo in August entitled: Osama bin Laden determined to strike within the United States" and continued reading "My Pet Goat" when we were.

Now, just sit back for a minute and imagine if Pres. Obama had done this. Wow! The heads of those on the right would explode. There would be pieces of orange all over the place from Boehner alone.

Edited May 15, 2010 by Cleo's Mom

[Cleo's Mom 257]

With regard to Pres. Obama's handling of terrorism. He is doing a way better job than bush did. Catching more terrorist, and handling the christmas day bomber the same that bush did with the shoe bomber. bush only tried 3 in military tribunals and hundreds in criminal courts. But somehow now it is a problem.

Go back and read more about this on the "hypocrisy of republicans" thread that you got locked.

Republican hypocrisy -

Let's start with the handling of terrorists:

The republicans have been relentless in their criticism of Pres. Obama's handling of terrorists.

- In 2009, we caught twice as many terrorists as did bush.

- Only the terrorists released from Gitmo by bush have rejoined terrorists groups.

- bush tried hundreds of terrorists in civilian courts while Pres. Obama is criticized by republicans for doing so.

- bush took 10 days to respond to Richard Reed (the shoe bomber) but Pres. Obama was criticized for taking 3 days to speak about the Christmas day underwear bomber.

- bush tried the shoe bomber in civilian court but Pres. Obama is criticized for wanting to try the underwear bomber in civilian court.

- the republicans leaders criticized the underwear bomber being mirandized but were told on Christmas Day that the FBI had the underwear bomber in custody. They claim they didn't know the FBI would mirandize him!! The shoe bomber was mirandized within 5 minutes.

Edited May 15, 2010 by Cleo's Mom

[tdslf1 0]

PG,

We know your talking points. What we said was DISPUTE the points of his accomplishments per Cleo's post. We know you went there. You made sure you came back with his broken promises. Come back with DISPUTE of his accomplishments. Are the birds chirping........

Edited May 15, 2010 by tdslf1

[pattygreen 5]

You can go to all your conservative websites and cut and paste other people's blogs but that doesn't change the fact that Pres. Obama has been a great president and bush was a failure.

Your opinion

As to campaign promises: All politicians make them. And after Obama was overwhelmingly elected, he soon found out that bush left him a bigger mess than he had anticipated and the economy was in a much more precarious condition.

Your answer for everything Obama does: " Bush left him a mess." I think it's time he started own some of the messes himself!

He took the bold steps he needed to to turn things around. Aware of the rising deficit he commissioned a bi-partisan debt reduction committee. Now - you can't have it both ways. You can't keep yapping about the deficit and then complain when some of his campaign promises can't be kept because he might have to cut services (or tax cuts or some other promise) or raise taxes on some things.

I don't give a rat's a$$ if he raises taxes on gasoline or cigarettes. Talk about being petty about everything he does.

We have to pay for these wars bush started. How do you propose we do that?

As for that picture of Michelle Obama kissing him and some unflattering comment - do you want me to search for the picture of Angela Merkel (German pres.) cringing at bush's shoulder hug?

You neocons are just so damn frustrated that he just keeps getting his agenda passed, the country is doing much better than it was when he took office and just you teabaggers, beck, limbaugh, palin and other similar losers keep yapping and harping about things no one else cares about.

Obama's trillions dwarf Bush's 'dangerous' spending

By: Byron York

Chief Political Correspondent

February 24, 2009

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, are seen in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Feb. 23, 2009, before they addressed the National Governors Association regarding the economic stimulus package. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Pelosi and Reid called Bush's budgets "dangerous" and "unpatriotic," but with Obama, they've changed their tune

Back in 2006, when Democrats were hoping to win control of the House and Senate, party leaders worked themselves into a righteous outrage over the issue of out-of-control federal spending. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the Republican budget “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic” because it increased the amount of U.S. debt held by foreign countries. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans of going on “an unprecedented and dangerous borrowing spree” and declared GOP leadership “the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of our country … no other president or Congress even comes close.”

You won’t find too many defenders of George W. Bush’s record on spending these days, even among Republicans. But a check of historical tables compiled by the Office of Management and Budget shows that the spending that so distressed Pelosi and Reid seems downright modest today. After beginning with a Clinton-era surplus of $128 billion in fiscal year 2001, the Bush administration racked up deficits of $158 billion in 2002, $378 billion in 2003, $413 billion in 2004, $318 billion in 2005, $248 billion in 2006, $162 billion in 2007, and $410 billion in 2008.

The current administration would kill to have such small numbers. President Barack Obama is unveiling his budget this week, and, in addition to the inherited Bush deficit, he’s adding his own spending at an astonishing pace, projecting annual deficits well beyond $1 trillion in the near future, and, in the rosiest possible scenario, a $533 billion deficit in fiscal year 2013, the last year of Obama’s first term.

And what about the national debt? It increased from $5 trillion to $10 trillion in the Bush years, leading to dramatically higher interest costs. “We pay in interest four times more than we spend on education and four times what it will cost to cover 10 million children with health insurance for five years,” Pelosi said in 2007. “That’s fiscal irresponsibility.”

Now, under Obama, the national debt — and the interest payments — will increase at a far faster rate than during the Bush years.

“We thought the Bush deficits were big at the time,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, told me this week as he prepared to attend Obama’s Fiscal Responsibility Summit. “But this is going to make the previous administration look like rank amateurs. We could be adding multiple trillions to the national debt in the first year.”

At some point last week, the sheer velocity of Obama’s spending proposals began to overwhelm even experienced Washington hands. In the span of four days, we saw the signing of the $787 billion stimulus bill, the rollout of a $275 billion housing proposal, discussion of Congress’s remaining appropriations bills (about $400 billion) and word of a vaguely-defined financial stabilization plan that could ultimately cost $2 trillion. When representatives of GM and Chrysler said they might need $21 billion more to survive, it seemed like small beer.

The numbers are so dizzying that McConnell and his fellow Republicans are trying to “connect the dots” — that is, to explain to the public how all of those discrete spending initiatives add up to a previously unthinkable total. Obama’s current spending proposals, Republicans point out, will cost more than the United States spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the general war on terror and Hurricane Katrina in the last seven years. And that’s before you throw in the $2 trillion fiscal stabilization plan.

“This is big government, man,” McConnell exclaimed, his matter-of-fact manner giving way to sheer amazement. “It makes previous attempts at big government pale in comparison — they’re going to go beyond the New Deal and the Great Society by far.”

The new spending guarantees that the problems that so disturbed Pelosi and Reid just a couple of years ago — high interest payments and an increasing number of foreign debt-holders — will get worse. Yet so far, the Democratic leaders have refrained from using words like unpatriotic, irresponsible and dangerous to describe Obama’s budget.

Of course, they would never use such phrases to attack their own team. But the most important thing to understand about Pelosi and Reid is that while their rhetoric has changed, their substance hasn’t. Back in the Bush days, when they were denouncing Republican over-spending, they were also pushing the congressional leadership to spend more, not less, on just about everything. Now, returned to power, they’re doing the same thing. Only bigger. Byron York

[Cleo's Mom 257]

to pattygreen:

and while you are spending all this time on your neocon, obama bashing websites you need to give your proof and source for your claim about the real cost of healthcare.

everyone on here is a witness to the fact that i have asked you to supply it or say it was a lie - many times!!!

i am calling you on on this pattygreen.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Obama hasn't created any messes. His stimulus spending has helped turn this economy around. He is taking steps to reduce spending with this commission and has frozen the budgets of many offices.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

I feel her pain:

[tdslf1 0]

PG,

We are still waiting for a DISPUTE of ACCOMPLISHMENTS per Cleo's post.

birds still chirping...........

[Cleo's Mom 257]

PG,

We are still waiting for a DISPUTE of ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

birds still chirping...........

We'll both be waiting a long time - since she is unable to provide proof for her healthcare costs.

[pattygreen 5]

This a great youtube video that shows exactly how Obama's spending compares to Bush's. If you don't like to click on links, then you can look it up yourself. It's called The National Debt Road Trip.

Edited May 15, 2010 by pattygreen