Debunking Obama’s press conference

By Ken Falkenstein | Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 | Policy

President Obama, like all typical leftists, works tirelessly to obscure his statist agenda.  Today’s press conference contained numerous examples of Obama’s use of leftist tactics of obfuscation.  Since the leftist establishment news media won’t take a critical look at anything Obama says, I’ll do their job for them:

[W]e’re reviewing government regulations so that we can fix any rules in place that are an unnecessary burden on businesses.

FACT:  Obama has already done the polar opposite:  He increased the pages of regulations by 18% in his first 18 months in office, and ObamaCare, DoddFrank, net neutrality, and education “reform” is adding thousands of pages of new regulations on businesses that will add tens of billions of dollars to the cost of doing business each year.

Right now, Congress could send me a bill that puts construction workers back on the job rebuilding roads and bridges –- not by having government fund and pick every project, but by providing loans to private companies and states and local governments on the basis of merit and not politics.

FACT:  The first thing Obama did upon assuming office was steal $800 billion from our kids in the guise of “stimulus” ($1.3 trillion including interest) that he promised would “put construction workers back on the job rebuilding roads and bridges” with “shovel-ready jobs” that Obama now admits never happened.  That money in fact went primarily to state and local governments to save government jobs.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

Right now, Congress can advance a set of trade agreements that would allow American businesses to sell more of their goods and services to countries in Asia and South America . . .

FACT:  Obama has spent his tenure as president to date obstructing the passage of free trade agreements at the behest of his union sponsors and is only supporting those agreements now because the Trade Adjustment Assistance legislation, a $7 billion gift to big labor in the guise of “retraining” union workers, has been added to these bills.

And right now, we could give middle-class families the security of knowing that the tax cut I signed in December will be there for one more year.

The tax cut Obama signed in December was an extension of the Bush tax cuts that Obama fought fiercely, but ultimately unsuccessfully, against congressional Republicans not to extend.

Of course, one of the most important and urgent things we can do for the economy is something that both parties are working on right now –- and that’s reducing our nation’s deficit.  Over the last few weeks, the Vice President has been leading negotiations with Democrats and Republicans on this issue, and they’ve made some real progress in narrowing down the differences.  As of last week, both parties had identified more than $1 trillion worth of spending cuts already.

FACT:  “Of course,” Obama tripled the deficit in his first two years and increased the national debt by sixty percent during that time.  And, “of course,” Obama demanded a “clean” debt ceiling increase without any spending cuts whatsoever and only sent Biden to negotiate when his “clean” debt ceiling increase was rejected unanimously by both parties in Congress.  And, “of course,” Obama himself has not participated in any meaningful debt reduction negotiations with congressional Republicans.  And, “of course,” the negotiations taking place consist of Republicans pushing for as much spending reductions as they can get and Obama’s Democrats pushing to cut spending as little as they can get away with.

But everyone also knows that we’ll need to do more to close the deficit.  We can’t get to the $4 trillion in savings that we need by just cutting the 12 percent of the budget that pays for things like medical research and education funding and food inspectors and the weather service.  And we can’t just do it by making seniors pay more for Medicare.  So we’re going to need to look at the whole budget, as I said several months ago.  And we’ve got to eliminate waste wherever we find it and make some tough decisions about worthy priorities.

FACT:  The $4 trillion figure over ten years is not what we need to close an annual deficit that will add up to approximately $18 trillion over that same ten years.  The $4 trillion figure is Obama’s arbitrary number to counter the Republicans efforts to cut $6-10 trillion (depending on which Republican plan you look at).  The rest of this diatribe is just the tired old leftist tactic of trying to scare old people by pretending that the only cuts that can be made in spending are to programs that assist the elderly while ignoring all of the programs that assist labor unions, government employees, and other leftist groups.

It means we’ll have to tackle entitlements, as long as we keep faith with seniors and children with disabilities by maintaining the fundamental security that Medicare and Medicaid provide.

FACT:  Obama and his Democrats demagogue every effort to reform entitlement programs.  The truth is that there is no way to “tackle entitlements” without demanding some sacrifices from current and – especially – future recipients.  Obama knows this and has no intention of “tackling entitlements” while there are old people whom he believes can be scared into voting for him and his party.

And, yes, we’re going to have to tackle spending in the tax code.

FACT:  Leftists like Obama routinely twist the English language to try to obscure their actual intentions.  In this case, Obama is trying to obscure his demand for tax increases in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression by characterizing his proposed tax increases as “spending in the tax code.”  George Orwell would be in awe of this in example of NewSpeak.

The tax cuts I’m proposing we get rid of are tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires; tax breaks for oil companies and hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners.

FACT:  First, “tax cuts I’m proposing we get rid of” is ObamaSpeak for tax increases.  And the “millionaires and billionaires” who own “corporate jets” whose taxes he wants to raise are everyone who earns $250,000 per year or more – which is predominantly small business owners who pay their business taxes in their personal capacity.

And if we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, if we choose to keep a tax break for corporate jet owners, if we choose to keep tax breaks for oil and gas companies that are making hundreds of billions of dollars, then that means we’ve got to cut some kids off from getting a college scholarship.  That means we’ve got to stop funding certain grants for medical research.  That means that food safety may be compromised.  That means that Medicare has to bear a greater part of the burden.  Those are the choices we have to make.

FACT:  Obama here alleges that unless we raise taxes in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression, students, medical patients, old people, and everyone who eats food will be left to die.  Note, however, that his precious unions and government workers are not among those who are at stake if we make the wrong “choices.”

The Vice President and I will continue these negotiations with both leaders of both parties in Congress for as long as it takes, and we will reach a deal that will require our government to live within its means and give our businesses confidence and get this economy moving.

FACT:  This might be the most dishonest of the many dishonest statements that Obama has made throughout his career.  Obama has never begun to participate in these negotiations because he is unwilling to face the political risks inherent is such leadership.  And Obama’s policies, more than anything else, are specifically what have prevented the government from living within its means, what have prevented businesses from having confidence, and what has prevented the economy from moving.  Obama certainly does understand the meaning of “audacity.”

Call me naïve, but my expectation is that leaders are going to lead.

FACT:  Okay, Mr. President, you are naïve.  And you have yet to lead on any aspect of reducing the deficit and debt, always choosing instead to send surrogates to negotiate and to oppose everyone else’s proposals without offering any of your own.

Democrats have to accept some painful spending cuts that hurt some of our constituencies and we may not like.  And we’ve shown a willingness to do that for the greater good.  To say, look, there are some things that are good programs that are nice to have; we can’t afford them right now.

FACT:  Really?  Name one.

So we’re going to have to look at entitlements — and that’s always difficult politically.  But I’ve been willing to say we need to see where we can reduce the cost of health care spending and Medicare and Medicaid in the out-years, not by shifting costs on to seniors, as some have proposed, but rather by actually reducing those costs.

FACT:  Even Obama doesn’t understand what this means, other than that he’s not willing to have any entitlement cuts or reforms go into effect until long after he has left office regardless of the impact of these unsustainable programs on the debt and economy.

So the question is, if everybody else is willing to take on their sacred cows and do tough things in order to achieve the goal of real deficit reduction, then I think it would be hard for the Republicans to stand there and say that the tax break for corporate jets is sufficiently important that we’re not willing to come to the table and get a deal done.  Or, we’re so concerned about protecting oil and gas subsidies for oil companies that are making money hand over fist — that’s the reason we’re not going to come to a deal.

FACT:  The “straw man” tactic of misrepresenting the conservative or Republican position and then attacking the misrepresented position rather than their actual position is a classic leftist tactic.  No one outside of the leftist establishment news media and the mindless leftist base of the Democrat Party actually believes that the Republican position on taxes is to give tax breaks for corporate jets and protect oil and gas subsidies.  But Obama’s establishment news media will let him, as President of the United States addressing the news media directly, get away with this kind of nonsense.

[Responding to a question of whether the War Powers Act is unconstitutional] [D]o I think that our actions in any way violate the War Powers resolution?  The answer is no.  So I don’t even have to get to the constitutional question.  There may be a time in which there was a serious question as to whether or not the War Powers resolution — act was constitutional.  I don’t have to get to the question.

FACT:  Obama never answered the question, and the leftist news media never insisted that he do so.  And, by the way, the answer is yes, the War Powers Act is unconstitutional.  But to the extent that it is constitutional, Obama is violating it in Libya.

What I’ve seen happen over the last several years, and what happened in New York last week I think was a good thing, because what you saw was the people of New York having a debate, talking through these issues.  It was contentious; it was emotional; but, ultimately, they made a decision to recognize civil marriage.  And I think that’s exactly how things should work.

FACT:  Obama ran for president on a platform that opposed gay marriage.  Now that he needs political support from the gay community, he says his views on the subject are “evolving.”  And he supports letting each state make its own policy on the subject.  He is right that this is an issue for each state to decide, but his position on the subject obviously is based on political cowardice and not a sincere belief in federalism, as reflected in his unconstitutional ObamaCare scheme and in his unprecedented use of federal regulatory rule-making.

Now, you asked specifically about one decision that was made by the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB, and this relates to Boeing.  Essentially, the NLRB made a finding that Boeing had not followed the law in making a decision to move a plant.  And it’s an independent agency.  It’s going before a judge.  So I don’t want to get into the details of the case.  I don’t know all the facts.  That’s going to be up to a judge to decide.

FACT:  Is this what Obama meant earlier when he said “leaders are going to lead”?  I guess he meant that he would show leadership unless doing so would contradict the agenda of his union sponsors.

Q.  You said that it’s a positive step that so many states, including New York, are moving towards that.  Does that mean that you personally now do support same-sex marriage, putting aside what individual states decide?  Is that your personal view?

THE PRESIDENT:  I’m not going to make news on that today.  (Laughter.)  Good try, though.

FACT:  More “leaders are going to lead” from our president.

Q.    I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to say anything further on the same-sex marriage issue, but what you said before really led me to believe that that’s what is in your personal mind.  And I’m wondering what’s the distinction you’re drawing.

THE PRESIDENT:  Laura, I think this has been asked and answered.  I’ll keep on giving you the same answer until I give you a different one, all right?  And that won’t be today.  (Laughter.)

FACT:  And even more Obama-style leadership.

These guys have said [that if the debt ceiling isn't raised], well, maybe we just pay the interest on — for bondholders.  So are we really going to start paying interest to Chinese who hold treasuries and we’re not going to pay folks their Social Security checks?  Or we’re not going to pay to veterans for their disability checks?  I mean, which bills, which obligations, are we going to say we don’t have to pay?

FACT:  Obama once again acts as if the only place spending can be cut is on programs to benefit old people and veterans.  His silence on programs benefiting labor unions and government workers is deafening.  But then, why lead when there’s an opportunity to demagogue?

And last point I want to make about this.  These are bills that Congress ran up.

FACT:  Obama is actually blaming the Republican Congress that has opposed his spending binge for “running up” the debt.  Kinda gives a whole new meaning to “audacity.”  But then, projection – accusing your innocent opponent of doing the evils that you yourself have done – is a classic leftist tactic.

And, you know, Malia and Sasha generally finish their homework a day ahead of time.  Malia is 13, Sasha is 10.

Q    Impressive.

THE PRESIDENT:  It is impressive.  They don’t wait until the night before.  They’re not pulling all-nighters.  (Laughter.)  They’re 13 and 10.  Congress can do the same thing.  If you know you’ve got to do something, just do it.

FACT:  Where was Obama’s condescending scolding when his Democrats failed to pass a budget at all during the last congress, when they held such massive supermajorities that the Republicans lacked the numbers to stop anything the Democrats wanted to do (see, e.g, imposing ObamaCare on a country that overwhelmingly opposed it)?  And does Obama himself plan to “wait until the night before” before beginning to negotiate with the Republicans on deficit reduction?

And I’ve got to say, I’m very amused when I start hearing comments about, well, the President needs to show more leadership on this.

FACT:  The American people are not amused at the president being MIA on the most important issue of our times.

Now is the time to go ahead and make the tough choices.  That’s why they’re called leaders.

FACT:  Yes, Mr. President, they’re called leaders because they are attempting to lead.  You’re not.

And so there’s no point in procrastinating.  There’s no point in putting it off.  We’ve got to get this done.  And if by the end of this week, we have not seen substantial progress, then I think members of Congress need to understand we are going to start having to cancel things and stay here until we get it done.

They’re in one week, they’re out one week.  And then they’re saying, Obama has got to step in.  You need to be here.  I’ve been here.  I’ve been doing Afghanistan and bin Laden and the Greek crisis.  You stay here.  Let’s get it done.

FACT:  Obamas to Summer on Martha’s Vineyard once more in August Obama plays nearly 70 rounds of golf since assuming presidency

Thank you.  Good night.  And God bless America.

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