644 For example, see Gregory Korte, AmeriCorps fraud seldom followed up, USA TODAY, February 8, 2011, Jim Bovard, Bush’s AmeriCorps Fraud, Freedom Daily, September 2007.
645 George W. Bush, Labor Day remarks, 2003, to the Ohio Operating Engineers.
646 See, for example, FBI targets fraud in TARP, stimulus fund, Reuters, June 2, 2009.
647 Ellen E. Schultz, Theo Francis, How Cuts in Retiree Benefits Fatten Companies’ Bottom Lines, The Wall Street Journal, March 16, 2004; Bruce Bartlett, Impostor, 2006, p. 78.
648 Citizens Against Government Waste, Critical Waste Issues, www.cagw.org.
Chapter 85: U.S. Presidents and Socialism, conclusion
—Obama—
In both peace and war, the ruling executives of the United States are bound by oath to uphold, defend and protect the U.S. Constitution. Did he?
The blight on President Barack Obama’s presidency is that he made another of those blatant reaches for power that so many presidents in the past have made by offering everything to everyone. Basic economic restraint was rejected for the bailout, raising the debt ceiling, the borrowing, and the numerous dictatorial rulings outside the controls of Congress, largely to support political activism instead of political stability. After six years in office, the president had cut an ugly swath through the heart of United States with $8 trillion in new debt, a massive shift of priorities toward entitlement that he blithely minted as “hope and change.”
PRESIDENT: Barack Obama (served 2009-2016)
LEGACY: Imposed national health care and European-style socialism, to the detriment of job creation and individual rights.
STORY: The Obama administration first campaigned on “hope and change” without specifying what change they had in mind except to “fundamentally change America.” As the months unfolded into years, a supportive Senate and Congress (until 2011) made it abundantly clear—Obama’s goal was to close the doors on numerous constitutional freedoms. Instead of moving to solve the nation’s complex problems, he divided the nation along economic lines, granting favors to supporters, financing favorite projects, and using envy to stir demand for forceful redistribution of the wealth. Instead of uniting people of all political persuasions behind common goals—a sign of wisdom and seasoned leadership—he pitted one against the other, often in violation of his executive authority, and few tried to check him.
Obama’s administration will be remembered as a government-intensive transition in U.S. history when the fruits and lessons of socialism had not yet become fully realized in America. In the aftermath of his trillion-dollar annual borrowing and spending sprees, millions of people were left suffering.
Acting out Alexander Hamilton’s grandest visions of a president with all power, Obama plunged the nation into unrecoverable debt that created a welfare class unlike any in the history of the country. It would not have been possible without the cooperation of the other branches in government. When Congress became controlled by more level headed thinkers, the damage was slowed but not stopped. A random sampling from his imperialistic presidency includes—
National Health Care: Obama’s 2010 health-care plan forced Americans to buy into government health insurance, leaving free-market providers to fade away. The nationalizing of the health insurance industry came with trillions in new costs. The resulting chain reaction is destined to regulate the entire American health-care industry into another government-run utility, destroying along the way American medicine’s highly revered initiative, efficiency, and inventiveness.Team Spokesman—Taking from the “haves” and giving to the “have-nots” is a primary pillar of socialism. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana), explained how Obama’s health care achieved exactly that—a redistribution of wealth using health care. Baucus said the bill was to be “an income shift ... a leveling to help lower-income middle income Americans. Too often ... the mal-distribution of income in America is gone up way too much, the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy, and the middle income class is left behind. Wages have not kept up with increased income of the highest-income Americans. This legislation will have the effect of addressing that mal-distribution of income in America.”649
Friends of the Regime—Unfair preference is allowed for some businesses to opt out of ObamaCare. Thousands of waivers have been issued, the bulk going to labor unions. In 2011, about 20 percent went to businesses in Nancy Pelosi’s district (she was the House leader pushing ObamaCare).650 Harry Reid’s home state (Nevada) received a blanket waiver (he led the Senate push to pass ObamaCare).651
Death Panels—The Independent Payment Advisory Board is a group of 15 people the president appointed to shrink Medicare. Their decisions are law, reversible only by a 3/5ths majority vote in the Senate. They are beholden to no one and have power to reduce Medicare checks.652
Not Interstate—Obama claimed authority to regulate national health insurance based on Article 1.8 of the Constitution that allows congressional control over interstate commerce. The flaw here is that insurance isn’t interstate—it is offered and serviced inside state boundaries. In 2012, the Supreme Court supported the Constitution, saying the personal mandate in ObamaCare was not constitutional, although it allowed it on the basis of Congress’s power to tax.
Unchangeable?—Language in the health-care bill banned future Congresses from changing or amending the bill. This violated Article 1.1 that states only Congress is authorized to make law, including the right to alter, amend, and change the health-care bill. To deny this power is to violate Article 5 which outlines the amendment process—the only means whereby Congress could be stripped of its duty.
Unable to Unify—In 2013, the U.S. Congress refused to fund the Affordable Care Act, but the Senate refused to go along, and the two philosophies hit head on. The result was a government shutdown. The Obama administration responded by inconveniencing as many people as possible. The list of actions his administration took is long and ugly, such as closing national parks and ordering staff to inconvenience people, thereby stopping tourism and hurting local businesses, preventing access to private property because government roads were used, shutting down websites upon which people depended, refusing permission to allow military chaplains to work for free, refusing permission to allow rowers onto the Potomac River, closing military commissaries, etc.
The House Republicans passed numerous bills to keep those services functioning, but the Democrat-controlled Senate refused to bring them to a vote so the pain would remain. And all the while, Obama kept telling the press he was willing to negotiate. The public wasn’t fooled, and in the end, Obama’s approval rating sank below 40 percent for the first time in his administration.
Distorted Objectives Smoothed Over—The roll-out of the Affordable Care Act depended almost exclusively on a website at which people could sign up for health insurance help. When the deadline arrived on October 1, 2013, the website crashed, and not just once, but all day, every day, for hours at a time. It became a national joke and was part of the national news reporting, day and night. Then came news that people were losing their existing insurance plans, something Obama promised would never happen.
The Washington Free Beacon documented at least 36 times that the president promised that under Obamacare, no one would lose their existing health plan if they wanted to keep it, and, the premiums would drop in price across the board.653 Obama said in 2009, “If you’ve got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. Nobody is talking about taking that away from you.”654 As of this writing, it is estimated some 52,000,000 Americans will lose their insurance plan as a result of Obama’s Affordable Care Act.655
As millions were dropped by their insurance companies, Obama announced on November 14, 2013, that private insurance companies were compelled by the government to reinstate their lost customers for one more year. He called the free-market system “the old individual market,” and
his plan “the new marketplace,” and reminded everyone that with 40 million Americans suffering without insurance before his fix, he would not allow others to “drag us back into a broken system.” These statements are recent examples of information control as described on page 7, that the new way trumps the old and should be embraced.656
Bypassed Constitution: The president is allowed to appoint federal officers when Congress is in recess (see Article 2.2.2). Obama broke this law on January 4, 2012, when he made four recess appointments when the Senate was not in recess. In his words, “But when Congress refuses to act, and as a result, hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then I have an obligation as President to do what I can without them.”657 In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 9-0 to overturn the appointments as an unconstitutional abuse of power.
The Mind of Marx: In 2001, when Obama was a senator in the Illinois state legislature, he complained that the Warren Court failed to redistribute the wealth—to have all things in common. Obama blamed the civil rights movement for failing to create power groups that could force redistribution—that is, taking from the “haves” in violation of their property rights—in defiance of elected representation that was established to ensure an orderly America. “One of the ... tragedies of the civil rights movement,” Obama said on radio, “was ... because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.” 658
Taking From the “Haves”: Senator Obama voted for TARP on October 1, 2008, giving his approval to the federal government to buy shares in banks, among other activities, to prevent their collapse.659 Five months later Obama denied it. “I did think it might be useful to point out,” he said in an interview with the New York Times, “that it wasn’t under me that we started buying a bunch of shares of banks.”660
Violated Rights of Religion: In 2012, Obama expanded his health-care program to force church-affiliated hospitals, social services groups, and colleges to pay for their employees to have access to birth control and the morning-after abortion pill that kills a fertilized egg. Under normal circumstances, these institutions could and would refuse for religious and moral reasons. After an enormous outcry, The Obama administration had to back down. The rules were softened and free contraceptive coverage (that is, paid for by taxpayers) was offered to employees so that the institution itself was not being forced.661
Violated Property Rights: In 2010, Obama required money lenders to slash or eliminate the monthly mortgage payments of people who were struggling financially or who were unemployed. Banks would have to reduce payments to 31 percent of a borrower’s income. The reductions were to last 3-6 months.662 Similar to the New Deal bankruptcy acts that prevented foreclosures, this action unconstitutionally violated the contracts that lenders had with borrowers.
Usurped Law-making Power: Obama’s so-called czars are appointees who report to no one but the president. They are un-elected decision makers who direct agencies that make laws to regulate America. The Constitution holds the legislative branch responsible for making laws, not czars in the Executive Branch.
Giving to the “Have-nots”: Making the populous dependent on the government took a sad step forward with Obama’s $787 billion stimulus bill, passed in 2009. After a year, it failed to stimulate anything except government job growth, and didn’t slow the rising rate of unemployment. His answer was to pay out more taxpayer money (borrowed) to extend unemployment welfare payments to 99 weeks. Without job improvement, the program was phased down.663
Imperial President: In 2009, Obama appointed himself chairman of the U.N. Security Council. This rotating assignment normally goes to the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Article 1.9 of the Constitution forbids the president from accepting any gift, foreign office, or title from a foreign country or a foreign potentate unless it is specifically authorized by Congress. The Founders wanted to prevent deal-making, corruption and foreign influences from affecting America’s internal affairs. Obama ignored the Constitution.664
Cash for Clunkers: Obama’s illegal grants of cash rebates to car buyers cost taxpayers $6 billion. The $4,500 rebates went to encourage people to junk their clunkers and buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. Follow-up analysis showed the program did nothing to stimulate the economy and put many people into additional debt by encouraging them to purchase cars that they otherwise would not have bought during those bad economic times of 2009. Granting funds selectively to purchase vehicles violates Articles 1.2 and 1.8.665
Takeover of Student Loans: For years, U.S. students could choose from 2,000 private lenders to obtain college loans. In 2010, Obama nationalized the process with a government takeover. The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act authorized the Department of Education to lend to students directly, bypassing private banks and lenders. The Department borrows money at 2.8 percent and lends it to students at 6.8 percent. The 4 percent “profit” will go toward Obama’s national health-care program. Resulting job losses for Americans in the private lending industry was estimated at 31,000.666
Enlarged Ruling Class: To keep the government in power, Obama enlarged its numbers, influence, and intrusion. In his first 18 months in office, he added 140,000 workers to the federal payroll.667 Obama’s 2012 budget added 15,000 more federal jobs, including 4,182 new IRS employees—more than 1,000 of those to enforce the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare).668
Ignored National Borders: Article 4.4 states the U.S. shall protect the states from invasion. In 2010, Arizona grew weary of Obama’s failure to prevent a flow of illegal immigrants from crossing into the state, so it passed SB 1070, giving local authorities the power to enforce federal responsibilities. Obama’s derelict government not only refused to take action as required by law to protect national borders, it turned around and sued Arizona. The state is burdened with the crushing influx of an estimated 400,000 illegal aliens consuming state services. The Supreme Court later found Arizona could police its own borders, but couldn’t perform the federal government’s enforcement duties.669 By 2014, the flow of illegal immigrants was out of control.
Increased Dependency: Under Obama’s watch, food-stamp recipients grew from 26 million to 47 million in 2013—that’s one in six Americans.670 The percentage of Americans receiving federal benefits grew to 47 percent, its highest level in U.S. history. Unemployment was 7.8 percent when Obama took office. Six months later it rose above 9 percent, where it hardly fluctuated for 25 of the following 27 months. The real unemployment rate including those working part time and wanting full time jobs, and those who had given up looking, skyrocketed to 16.2 percent under Obama’s watch.Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 provided free lunches for 100 percent of students in schools where at least 40 percent were on welfare, regardless if the other 60 percent qualified or not. If there were illegal children enrolled at the school, that percentage could be added to the number of welfare kids in order to achieve the qualifying 40 percent.671
Dodd-Frank Bill: Signed by Obama on July 22, 2010, this Act destroyed another aspect of Congress’s authority of “power of the purse.” Dodd-Frank created a financial partnership between big banks and the government. The government promised banks they wouldn’t ever fail, and the big banks promised to obey the government’s every word. The Act also created an agency (the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) that could reach into such transactions as real estate loans and appraisals, leases, credit, check cashing, check guarantees, gathering private reports on consumers, debt collecting, and more. The agency is funded by the Federal Reserve, and is not controlled directly or indirectly by Congress or the president. Dodd-Frank takes more freedom and economic power from the free market and consolidates it under Ruler’s Law.672
Violated constitution on Immigration
: On June 15, 2012, Obama announced the U.S. would no longer deport young illegal immigrants. This new law impacted an estimated 800,000 illegal immigrants. Article 1.8.4 puts the burden of immigration on the shoulders of Congress: “The Congress shall have power ... to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization. ...” While the president does have power to “grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States” (Article 2.2.1), this authority must apply only to certain named individuals and not a class of people. Actions impacting a class of people is, by definition, a law, and only Congress can make laws. Obama justified his actions because Congress would not comply with his demands for an amnesty program, the so-called DREAM Act. “I’ve said this time and again to Congress,” he said. “Send me the DREAM Act, put it on my desk, and I’ll sign it.”673 For lack of congressional obedience, Obama ignored and violated the Constitution to get his way. It also served to attract an untold number of Hispanic voters, legal and not, to his reelection campaign.
Fast and Furious: In 1995, U.S. Attorney Eric Holder told a crowd at the Women’s National Democratic Club that he wanted to “really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”674 His idea of a “different way” was made possible when Holder was appointed U.S. Attorney General. Overseeing a program dubbed “Fast and Furious,” some 2,000 guns were delivered to Mexican drug cartels, by way of “straw purchasers.” The stated goal was to expose illegal gun trafficking routes and suppliers. When the secret operation came to light, charges were made that Holder did this to incite gun violence, put the spotlight on the ease of drug traffickers to obtain weapons, and then generate hostility toward American citizens’ 2nd Amendment right to own a gun. The ulterior motive became clear when Holder’s anti-gun supporters spoke up in his defense. For example: “And the problem is, anybody can walk in and buy anything,” Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said. “...So, the question really becomes, what do we do about this?”675
The Naked Socialist Page 51