Many of us saw through the rhetoric long before the November election. Many are only now starting to see that the meaning of words is only important when it suits Barack Obama and his personal agenda.
Wrangling votes for the “cap and trade” legislation in the House, Obama backed off a campaign promise to auction off all “allowances” – permits to release a set amount of greenhouse gases. Instead of selling them to raise money for other environmental initiatives, the White House allowed congressional Democratic leaders to trade them for votes, assigning allowances to the refinery-heavy district of, for instance, Texas Rep. Gene Green in exchange for his support.
Obama’s political operation has dispensed with its post-inauguration cocktails for Republicans – or more often, ignoring them outright — in favor of the old politics of engage, attack and cajole. Obama’s even engaging in a little Democrat-on-Democrat politics, as his ex-campaign arm is beaming TV ads into the home states of moderate fence-sitters on health care.
Wanting “health care reform” legislation shoved willy-nilly and unread through both the House and the Senate before the August recess, and
As unemployment rises and economic forecasts sour, the White House has delayed until August the release of its mid-year budget review, which is likely to include a revised projection of the 2009 deficit.
“Let’s be honest about what this is: an attempt to hide a record-breaking deficit as Democratic leaders break arms to rush through a government takeover of healthcare,” said John Boehner of Ohio, the top Republican in the House of Representatives.
“By burying this budget update until after Congress leaves town next month, the administration is not willing to own up to the consequences of this dangerous fiscal agenda,” he said.
The White House Office of Management and Budget called the delay normal for the first year of a new presidential term.
Normal? Maybe. But under the circumstances, it is simply another example of the dangerous recklessness and lack of transparency that has become the hallmark of this administration. It’s even beginning to dawn on Obama’s close allies in Congress (though more probably because they fear for their own relection bids than because of any legitimate morals or principles or respect of law).
In a signing statement accompanying the $106 billion [war spending] bill, Obama said [in June] he wouldn’t allow the legislation to interfere with his authority as president to conduct foreign policy and negotiate with other governments.
Earlier in his six-month-old administration, Obama issued a similar statement regarding provisions in a $410 billion omnibus spending bill. He also included qualifying remarks when signing legislation that established commissions to govern public lands in New York, investigate the financial crisis and celebrate Ronald Reagan’s birthday.
Now Representative David Obey of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee; Representative Nita Lowey and Representative Gregory Meeks, both of New York, who chair subcommittees on those panels, have taken exception to this Executive Branch overstepping of boundaries set by Congress within pieces of legislation and even put their “concerns” in writing:
“During the previous administration, all of us were critical of (Bush’s) assertion that he could pick and choose which aspects of congressional statutes he was required to enforce. We were therefore chagrined to see you appear to express a similar attitude.”
Bummer, Reps. Welcome to the world of your constituents.