PrintAugust 25, 2009
Dr. Obama and the Hypocrite's Oath
President Obama's preferred method of implementing his leftist agenda is to rush emergency, must-sign-yesterday bills through Congress. Forget about reading the legislation. Just trust Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer and Barney Frank with the details.
The problem with this method is that when the details finally come out, it's too late for the people to do anything about it. President Obama's preferred method naturally fosters frustration and anger. Due to the economic "crisis," Obama and the far left element of the Democrat Party had to pass an emergency stimulus spending plan before anyone had time to read it. Afterwards, the public learned that the bulk of the emergency bill to save the economy in 2009 would not be implemented until 2010 and beyond. As the public learns of the legislation's massive waste and cronyism it is becoming apparent that the so-called stimulus was more about stimulating the power of the left than the economy.
Of course the rushed, crises-based legislation is just part of the whirlwind presidency of Obama. Mr. Obama has unconstitutionally appointed 32 czars and counting (including car and salary czars) and has exerted unprecedented government control over the auto, banking, and financial industries. In just six months the administration has more than quadrupled the national debt, passed a $787 billion spending spree, pushed cap and trade (tax) through the House in the dark of night and is feverishly pushing for a radical overhaul of the entire health care system. Obama is no doubt the most ideologically ambitious president in U.S. history. After all, he has a flawed country to fundamentally transform.
The key to understanding the public outrage at the town hall meetings is to understand that the outrage is multidimensional. It's not just about health care; it's about the audacity of Obama. How dare he speak of a new era of transparency as he tries to stuff more major, life-changing, yet unread legislation down our collective throat:
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. . . . Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.
(Click here to read the full text of Dr. Obama's Hypocrite's Oath, otherwise known as Obama's Transparency and Open Government Memorandum.)
Everything about the Obama presidency was built upon one fraud and hypocrisy after another. Yet, his promise of "transparency" is particularly obscene. On the question of transparency Obama voters had to suspend their disbelief on a grand scale. After all, this is the man who still stubbornly refuses to release his records, including his long form birth certificate, showing the hospital and physician of record. Now, in context of this piece, I don't care if Obama was born in Hawaii, on the moon or descended from heaven. Where he was born is not the point. The point is the man's lack of transparency and utter contempt for the people in arrogantly refusing to release his hospital, medical, school, college, and law school records and passports.
Which brings us to recall Mr. Transparency pounding the table and foolishly demanding that Congress have a "health care" bill on his desk before the August break. At the July 13 speech at the Rose Garden a condescending Obama warned his critics:
"I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone. We are going to get this done. Inaction is not an option. Don't bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen."
On a side note, what is to be said of Obama's competence in attempting to rush through such a monumental overhaul? Other than running a smoke and mirrors campaign Obama has no executive experience -- and that fact is beginning to flash brightly. Only fools, novices and ideologues rush in where angels dare to tread.
After having been all but worshipped as the liberal messiah, Obama's response to legitimate opposition was to dismiss it as annoying "chatter." After the chatter of the people rose to full-on protest, however, Obama was forced to give up the August deadline. The Obama faithful in the media then framed it as though Obama wanted a debate on health care all along. And Obama began to change his tune:
We just heard today that well, we may not be able to get the bill out of the Senate by the end of August or the beginning of August. That's OK. I just want people to keep on working. Just keep working. I want . . . it done by the end of this year. I want it done by the fall.
Now he wants it done by the fall. Surely, Mr. Openness never intended to impose more costly and life-changing legislation on the people behind closed doors -- legislation that no one, including Obama himself, had fully read.
Now the President wants the "mob" to calm down so we can have a civil but "vigorous" debate. One in which he and his friends in the "mainstream" news media can dispel the "misrepresentations" of the misinformed. The latest headline from the starry-eyed press is that Obama is calling for an "honest debate," on health care. That's like the fox calling for an honest debate with the henhouse on egg preservation.
But now there is a slight problem for the White House. After reading the proposed House bill the people, this time, have the facts (facts of which Obama apparently does not have). Those facts together with the analyses of the Congressional Budget Office, Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Hoover Institution and other organizations unsurprisingly clash with the poll-tested rhetoric of the White House and the dittos of the "mainstream" media.
What we are witnessing and what the White House fails to see is that the dog and pony show is over. Mr. Obama is repeating his poll-tested words about health care, but this time the people have the actual House bill and can separate talking points from reality.
Regardless of whether Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress "go it alone" and push through their leftist longing for government controlled health care, the exposing of Obama's hypocrisy has begun. Think of the Great and Powerful Oz continuing to fake it even after the curtain is removed. So long as the Democrats remain in total control of the federal government Obama will be able to move around the levers and authoritatively speak into the microphone; but new elections are fast approaching. And many are awakening from their teleprompter-induced messianic trance.
The Obama media are trying to replace the curtain, but regardless of how hard they try, they cannot keep the up the covering indefinitely. No one can change the fact that behind the curtain stands an inexperienced ideologue who is hell-bent on remaking America.
Monte Kuligowski is an attorney who can be reached at montekuligowski@gmail.com
