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Rahm Emanuel Archive

Tuesday

10

March 2009

0

COMMENTS

Obama Votes Present On Omnibus

Written by , Posted in Waste & Government Reform

“Absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.” – Barack Obama, presidential debate, 09/26/2008

Candidate Obama promised tough action on earmarks and wasteful spending.  In contrast, his attitude toward earmarks as President has been one of complete disinterest.

Facing criticism over the bloated omnibus bill being frantically championed by a swearing Nancy Pelosi, Obama’s lackeys have been completely dismissive of the idea that the President has any obligation to uphold his promise. Rahm Emanuel blithely declared it “last year’s business.” Peter Orszag, Obama’s OMB chief, used the exact same phrase and then went on to say, “We want to just move on. Let’s get this bill done, get it into law and move forward.”

There is clearly a coordinated campaign to dismiss criticism of the President’s backtracking on waste and earmarks.  Taxpayers for Common Sense estimates $7.7 billion from 8500+ in earmarks, though democrats have dishonestly put forth a lower estimate of $3.8 billion.  But whatever the exact figure is, it is clear that Obama thinks that, by portraying this as last year’s business that just needs to be passed without scrutiny, he can do on tough issues in Washington what he did in Chicago: vote present.

Tuesday

6

January 2009

0

COMMENTS

Biden Goes To War

Written by , Posted in Economics & the Economy

Joe Biden has finally realized we’re at war.  This might be encouraging if he was referring to radical Islamic jihad.  Sadly, Joe Biden has another enemy set in his sights: the economy.

Vice-president-elect Joe Biden likened the country’s economic crisis to the attacks of 9/11 Monday in a private meeting on Capitol Hill.

“We’re at war,” Biden told congressional leaders of both parties during their sit-down with Barack Obama in the Capitol, according to two sources familiar with the exchange.

It’s not the first time the vice-president-elect has used stark language to underscore the perilous state of the economy. In an interview last month on ABC’s “This Week,” Biden said that a stimulus package was needed to keep the economy from “absolutely tanking.”

Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander said Biden “was speaking of how after September 11th, that the Congress came together and worked together for the sake of the country, that the Congress worked day and night to accomplish what was necessary. We did it then and we can do it now.”

The left has been dying to find a crisis they could exploit to pass their big government agenda.  As soon to be chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel put it, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

Obama fashions himself after FDR, a disaster of a President who prolonged the misery of the 30’s.  Roosevelt also understood the power of crisis for making huge power grabs.  He even went so far as to try to deliberately exacerbate the crisis, arguing with his Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, that they should manipulate bond prices and keep them chaotic for political gain.

Will Obama-Biden stoop to that level?  It’s impossible to know, but the agenda they plan to ram through, under the false pretense of “saving” us from a financial crisis that left only 99.65% of commercial banks in business through 2008, will be bad enough.  In order to ensure this agenda can pass without too much scrutiny, expect them to continue sounding the false siren of war.