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Exnav wrote:Something I never thought I would say, but Obama makes me miss Bill Clinton.

redrocket190 wrote:Obama Keeping Promises That Grow Government; Abandoning Promises That Hold It Accountable

Posted on June 22, 2009, 4:40pm | Radley Balko

McClatchy summarizes the long list of policies where President Obama has reneged on campaign promises—either in letter or spirit—and adopted the policies of his predecessor. We've covered many of them here, but they range from a broad application of the state secrets doctrine to invocations of executive privilege to the Defense of Marriage Act to a host of other issues related to transparency and disclosure.

My own hunch is that presidents try to keep campaign promises that expand the government and their own power, and either back down from or are unwilling to expend much capital on promises that make government smaller and more accountable, thus limiting their own power.

Looking over PolitiFact's report card on Obama's campaign promises, that seems to be about right thus far. By my count (and some of this is certainly subjective) of the of the 31 promises the site says Obama has kept thus far, 20 in some way grow or expand the federal government. Just six make the government smaller, more transparent, or more accountable. The remaining five have no effect, or amount to a wash.

Of the six campaign promises PolitiFact says Obama has unquestionably broken, five would have limited his own power, provided tax breaks, or provided more accountability and transparency to the federal government. One was mostly symbolic (recognizing the Armenian genocide). So far, he hasn't broken a single promise that would grow or expand the government, though he has compromised on a few, and many have been stalled.

PolitiFact also gives Obama more credit than he deserves on some promises. For example, Obama's promise that "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," was broken when he signed a bill raising taxes on cigarettes to pay for an expansion of the SCHIP program. PolitiFact calls this a "compromise." But "not any of your taxes" seems pretty clear. Obama didn't say, "not any of your taxes, so long as you don't smoke" or "so long as you don't have habits the government finds distasteful."

In short, I think it's safe to say that Obama has been willing to spend plenty of political capital on his promises that vastly expand the size and scope of the federal government, and relatively little on promises related to eliminating waste, putting limits on his own power, or making the government more transparent and accountable.

It's worth emphasizing that this analysis isn't holding Obama to some libertarian standard of the ideal president—I'm not looking at how many of his total policies grow government versus how many limit it or hold it accountable. It's holding him up against his own campaign promises. That is, even when you assume the positions of left-of-center, big government Obama-the-candidate as your baseline, Obama-the-president comes up short.

dannygraves wrote:I seriously wonder what our country will be like at the end of his term.

redrocket190 wrote:The USA is still very heavily involved in Iraq and is to send more troops to Afghanistan. The America as an imperial empire is still alive and well - defense spending, huge new embassies in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. No real exit strategy and therefore embroiled in huge spending on "nation-building".

The chance of recession, depression, stagflation has not been stopped but simply delayed with unbelievable amounts of new debt and money pumped into the economy. No one has any idea how this will be re-payed without default, inflation or much higher taxes. We are doing the same as Japan did and they ended up with the "lost decade". Insanity is doing the same and expecting a different result.

Still intervening in markets, industries and failed companies. Still propping up bubbles with low interest rates and guarantees to Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae etc. x2

Still eroding civil liberties with renewal of the unconstitutional Patriot Act.

Obama has however exceeded even Bush's impact on the economy with cap and trade and the health care plan.

Different day. Same shit. Power and money are intrinsically corrupting and both political parties are products of this fact. Maybe different philosophies on some social issues, but overall the country was going in the wrong direction and continues to do so.

thestuz wrote:

dannygraves wrote:I seriously wonder what our country will be like at the end of his term.

but sont forget what it was like at the start of his term. so far he has pulled out of that faggot of a war in iraq (saving countless billions), hes stopped what was supposed to be the biggest depression in history, and he might manage to fix the countries health care crisis(jurys still out on that one) just imagine if you still had that DUMB FUCK WHITEBOY BUSH!! (and im white by the way) bush ruined your international reputation, sent you to dumb fuck illegal wars, fucked up the 911 inquirey, let his close family friends(the binladens) escape and then left you with a economy in free fall while he headed off with with his zionist mates that made a killing out of it all. hes prob sitting back in his ranch right now, sippin whiskey from a glass laughin it up. were too busy slingin shit at the man whos tryin to fix shit up. that aint right.

CR500R7 wrote:Ten years behind America? Bullshit!

Australia is something like 13 hours ahead of America.



Sorry dude couldn't help myself.

thestuz wrote:na, not an ex-patriot man, just take a real interest in politicts cos politics is what changes/shapes our lives/lifestyles. what happens in america seems to have knock on effects down here. as they say,"australia is ten years behind america". so knowledge is good.

Exnav wrote:

thestuz wrote:na, not an ex-patriot man, just take a real interest in politicts cos politics is what changes/shapes our lives/lifestyles. what happens in america seems to have knock on effects down here. as they say,"australia is ten years behind america". so knowledge is good.

Have you ever traveled to or lived in the US?

thestuz wrote:

dannygraves wrote:I seriously wonder what our country will be like at the end of his term.

but sont forget what it was like at the start of his term. so far he has pulled out of that faggot of a war in iraq (saving countless billions), hes stopped what was supposed to be the biggest depression in history, and he might manage to fix the countries health care crisis(jurys still out on that one) just imagine if you still had that DUMB FUCK WHITEBOY BUSH!! (and im white by the way) bush ruined your international reputation, sent you to dumb fuck illegal wars, fucked up the 911 inquirey, let his close family friends(the binladens) escape and then left you with a economy in free fall while he headed off with with his zionist mates that made a killing out of it all. hes prob sitting back in his ranch right now, sippin whiskey from a glass laughin it up. were too busy slingin shit at the man whos tryin to fix shit up. that aint right.

britincali wrote:I can sum this up nicely

This country LOVES to live beyond its means hell its the american dream, I almost got caught up in it but thank god I had a feeling things were gonna go down the shitter The credit card spending bill is now overdue and the red letters are in the mail, Ive never heard of a country filing chapter 13 but hey somethings gotta happen

Iraq... no the entire middle east is ALL ABOUT THE OIL, this place loves oil and I personally consume barrels of the shit monthly , if we dint need or use oil there would be no troops there PERIOD.

Bush was an idiot, but thanfully the pres does not make as many decisions as we give them credit for.

There is a 0.000001% chance obama is the antichrist, thankfully I do not believe in religious mumbo jumbo so thats now a 0% chance. He does however have a completely impossible task in front of him.

And thats all I can be bothered typing

Oh and auzzies are all inbreeds and theves.

First at hand is the financial crisis, Why in the hell are they trying to cram health care down our throat it's only going to cost more.

Quit trying to spend and lets try to save.
:

britincali wrote:

A reform is needed tho, the system in place simply doesnt work.

like...85% of the populace had insurance of some form or another. only 15% is without, but if they got hit by a truck, they could and would recieve immediate care. And our healthcare here is the best of anywhere.....why you think people from around the world come here to get fixed? about the only thing that needs changed is pricing. a 3 day hospital stay can be 30 grand....BS. you notice, all these "nonprofit" hospitals continually expanding and expanding......they are blowing their money to keep nonprofit status......instead of adding a new wing, credit the patients back a % of their bill.......or just lower the damn cost. of that 30 grand, i bet not even 10 makes it to the doctors and nurses that took care of you.

the only thing that needs changed is pricing..

britincali wrote:I can sum this up nicely

This country LOVES to live beyond its means hell its the american dream, I almost got caught up in it but thank god I had a feeling things were gonna go down the shitter The credit card spending bill is now overdue and the red letters are in the mail, Ive never heard of a country filing chapter 13 but hey somethings gotta happen

Iraq... no the entire middle east is ALL ABOUT THE OIL, this place loves oil and I personally consume barrels of the shit monthly , if we dint need or use oil there would be no troops there PERIOD.

Bush was an idiot, but thanfully the pres does not make as many decisions as we give them credit for.

There is a 0.000001% chance obama is the antichrist, thankfully I do not believe in religious mumbo jumbo so thats now a 0% chance. He does however have a completely impossible task in front of him.

And thats all I can be bothered typing

Oh and auzzies are all inbreeds and theves.