If you think of a major national problem, you probably also can think of the latest "solution" to that problem offered by president Obama and the Obamacrats. Those "solutions" vary from kicking the can down the road (basically no solution) to making a phony change or two to changing the subject in order to ignore the real problem. Here are some examples:
Kicking the can down the road--One of the biggest long term problems facing the USA is the soaring and uncontrolled cost of entitlements. Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid each is rising quickly in total cost, and the revenues to pay for these programs have lagged far behind the soaring expenses. Each of the GOP presidential candidates has offered a plan as to how to deal with the problem. Depending on the candidate, these plans include measures such as fixing the amount paid out for Medicaid and then sending those funds to the states while giving the states the ability to set benefit levels without federal interference. Other GOP solutions include reducing the future Social Security benefits for the wealthy, changing the retirement age for future Medicare beneficiaries and the like. None of these proposals is a happy one. In each case, tough choices need to be made in order to save the future of these programs. The GOP candidates are making those choices.
So, what is Obama's plan for entitlements? The answer is simple: he has no plan. Indeed, everything Obama has done makes the entitlement problem worse. For Social Security, Obama has pushed through two years of a payroll tax holiday. This change cut the amount of money available for Social Security by a quarter of a trillion dollars in just two years. For Medicare, Obama has cut the available funds by half a trillion dollars and put those funds into Obamacare instead. The costs of Medicare were not cut, so the deficit in Medicare will just be larger faster. It will make the death of Medicare come much quicker. As for Medicaid, Obama included provisions in Obamacare that added millions more beneficiaries to the program. The cost for those additional millions of Medicaid recipients were not fully funded, however. As a result, the deficit in Medicaid funding has increased. So, in this critical area, Obama has done nothing but make things worse.
Phony Solutions--We all know that the federal government has huge debt problems. America's government spends nearly 60% more than it takes in. The GOP candidates have proposed spending cuts. They have proposed changes to the tax structure to increase growth. They have proposed a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Yesterday, Republican congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee proposed a budget that would cut $5.3 trillion in spending over ten years, revamp the tax structure and get entitlement spending under control. President Obama also proposed a budget this year which does none of these things. Instead, Obama keeps talking about raising the taxes on the wealthy. We have all heard it. Indeed, anyone who has paid even the slightest attention knows that Obama is pushing something he calls the "Buffett Rule". Under that rule, anyone earning over a million dollars per year would have to pay taxes at least at the rate of 30%. I have heard Obama deliver parts of at least seven speeches on this subject.
Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis detailing how much the Buffett Rule could raise. Over the next decade, the Buffett Rule, if adopted, would add $31 billion to federal revenues. That is about $3.1 billion per year. The budget deficit is over $1 trillion per year. That means that the Buffett Rule would cover about one-third of one percent of the deficit at most.
The simple truth is that Obama has latched onto a phony solution to the deficit in order to avoid the real question: where can spending be cut. We cannot raise the tax rates high enough to cover the current level of spending without sending the country into a depression. Obama knows this, but the Obamacrats do not want to cut spending on anything. That is why they offer the phony solutions.
Changing the Subject--About a month ago, Obama released new regulations that required all employers to provide health insurance including full coverage without any co-pay or deductible for contraceptives and abortion (morning after) pills. Contraceptives and morning after pills are readily available to everyone across the country, but Obama wanted to make sure that no one would have to pay for these items. Of course, Obama knowingly issued the regulation which forced religious institutions that had moral objections to contraceptives or abortion to include these services in the health plans of their employees. The outrage was immediate. Catholic hospitals and universities were going to be forced to break the teachings of their faith by providing services to their employees that were repugnant to their beliefs. The hierachy of the Catholic Church began to object, and millions across the country added their voices to this attack on religious freedom. Obama and the Obamacrats dealth with the problem by changing the subject: Republicans were in a war against women; they wanted to prevent them from getting contraceptives. This was nonsense, of course, but it became the rallying cry of the Obamacrats nonetheless.
As part of the war on women meme, Democrats held a make-believe committee hearing in DC and called a Georgetown law student to testify how her health plan did not provide free contraceptives. She did not say that she had no access to contraceptives. Nor did she explain how she could afford to pay $200,000 for law school but could not afford a few hundred bucks during that time for birth control pills. Nevertheless, after her testimony Rush Limbaugh went after her on his radio show. He called her some unflattering names like slut and prostitute. This lit the fuse for a full explosion of the Obamacrat world. Here was proof that the GOP was in a war on women. Republicans hated women, the Obamacrats cried. Republicans want women back in the 16th century, the Obamacrats cried. Republicans were disrespectful to women, the Obamacrats cried. Obama himself called the law student and said he had to do so "for his daughters." Although Limbaugh does not speak for the GOP, the onslaught continued. As a result, Limbaugh quite properly apologized, but then something else happened: for really the first time in a long time the GOP fought back on one of these Obamacrat smears. Bill Maher, the HBO personality, made a high profile contribution to Obama of $1 million. Maher, of course, has called various conservative women names like bimbos, boobs, the "t" word, the "c" word, and worse. Republicans pointed out Maher's various attacks on these women as women and called on Obama to reject the Maher contribution. Obama and the Obamacrats were silent. I believe they were stunned to be on the receiving end of one of their own patented smear attacks. The questions kep being asked, but no answer was forthcoming. Then they tried saying that Maher was an entertainer on HBO while Limbaugh spoke for the GOP. That failed since it was patently untrue. Then they tried saying that Maher went too far in what he said without giving back the million bucks. It did not matter; the Obamacrats were caught in their own hypocrisy. They changed the subject and, for once, they got caught in their own backlash.
Well now they are trying again. On Monday, Bob Beckel was on the Hannity show. Beckel is someone who frequently spouts "facts" which turn out to be untrue. Hannity asked him if Obama should give back the Maher million and Beckel tried to use Obamacrat tactics by changing the subject. Beckel said that the GOP took money from the Koch brothers who "sold arms to Iran", something much worse than taking money from Maher. That was quite a change of subject. Of course, it was completely untrue. The Koch brothers are in the oil business. They are not arms dealers. They have never been arms dealers. Their companies do not deal with Iran. They are in full compliance with US law. Beckel's charge was just another lie. Once again, however, it did not go unanswered. Koch Industries issued a statement immediately setting the record straight.
We need a president who will face problems and actually deal with them. Dishonesty, deceptions and avoidance are not the qualities of a leader.
OBAMA HAS GOT TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!
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