Saturday Broadcast: Busting The Oba-Myth

On his website and in his radio broadcast today Barack Obama claims to be ready for a fight and issues what amounts to a defense of his big spending budget. But does his defense really hold up? Let's look at the very few items he chose to highlight. One can reasonably assume they would be among his stronger points.

"I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy.  Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington.  I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families.

One has to wonder why he would select such a relatively small portion (for now) of a multi-trillion dollar budget to highlight and not even tell the whole story. Via the AP What he leaves out is that the measure is broadly seen as only one step on a path that could cost up to a trillion dollars. And he has made no effort to explain from where that additional money might come.

Via US News you'll find that while there is some support for the measure, it may also drive Seniors who don't need pricey drugs out of some programs, leaving behind the poor and most ill to face rising costs. Ultimately they'll likely opt out of private options altogether, ending up on the single government run system Obama actually wants. It's also suggested this "change" of Obama's will create an administrative nightmare. Does that sound like government any different from what we've come to know and not be thrilled about? It sounds like the same old same old to me

Ultimately, as with most things Obama, it steers a course toward a single government administered program while doing nothing to speak to the incredible costs taxpayers will have to carry to get there and sustain it.

Obama wants to squeeze Medicaid and Medicare spending — including slimmer payments to private insurance plans — to help create a 10-year, $634 billion fund billed as a "down payment" on health care reform.

Obama's budget proposal released Thursday acknowledges that even more money will be needed to achieve health coverage for all, but doesn't say where it would come from.

Experts say that goal could cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years.

Next Obama highlights student loans.

I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable.

That above from Obama is a joke designed to make it appear as though government is acting on the taxpayer's behalf. The "subsidies" he cites are payments for the administration of programs. As an aside, we owe a special thanks for an allegedly economy-minded administration that managed to tank still one more stock at a not so good time with his plan.

In a major shift that severely undercut shares in top student lender Sallie Mae, Obama's budget outline called for moving most student lending into the direct-loan program run by the U.S. Education Department.

Do you really believe this defense of Obama's approach offered via the LA Times?

Obama's budget plan asserts that in some areas, government can do a better job than private enterprise and do it for less. For instance, he argues, Washington can provide loans to college students just as efficiently and at lower cost than the private lenders who dominate the field.

The government cannot administer programs for nothing and Obama does nothing to account for those increased costs. On top of that it's his intention to open up lending to a far broader field at lower cost. Isn't that precisely what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were charged to do? Look where that has gotten us. In the end, Obama's approach will cost taxpayers more as he'll be offering up money to anyone and everyone. And instead of a private business with a motivator to manage these programs effectively to produce profit, they will be managed by government hacks who simply go to the well, our pockets and pocketbooks, when they've burned up, wasted and or abused whatever amount they already took.

Obama's dream is simply a theoretical vision that has never worked in practice and has always resulted in poorer services, increased costs and significantly less efficiency. But that's okay, he's from the government and he's here to help us! It isn't like we've never heard that one before!

I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries. 

Yes, tax breaks to pursue new resources government regulation has made it all but impossible to pursue. If his chief concern here is energy, why doesn't he mention the nuclear kind? That's the most turn-key of a different approach. And as recent reports have shown, this isn't the end of lobbyists, it's simply out with the old and in with a new more green variety ultimately still chasing our tax dollars and lining politican's pockets in the end.

These other forms of energy need to be pursued - no argument there. But by doing so at the expense of what we presently enjoy without some new alternative coming on line ... maybe years down the road, it will only leave us in a lurch and drive up costs in the interim. Where's the good judgment in that while the world economy is melting down?

I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak.  My message to them is this

"So am I."

More mindless demagogy. Obama has his own special interests as do most all politician's. And his budget has little to do with economics and much to do with Leftist political reform. His rhetoric is simply meant to distract and divide the public so he can pull the wool over their eyes before they realize what they are going to get in the end. We'll be getting what everyone always gets from government, way too little for way too much.

It's fine that Obama fancies himself ready for a fight. The message he has to hear loud and clear from the American people is, So are we, Obama! So are we!

Comments

[William Teach]

Change we can all go bankrupt on.

As far as not sitting well with lobbyists, what about the ones sitting in Obama's administration?

[James Yanke/Reaganite Republican]

Well, limousine liberals and mainstream media "elites", you had your fun... and probably almost broke your arm patting yourself on the back after you got The One elected by convincing the plebes that he was some super-human-being that could actually help the country... instead of the arrogant, inexperienced, scheming Bolshevik that he actually is.

Now you are getting just what you deserve... as Barack Obama is going to tax the crap out of you. And you can forget writing off your local taxes on your overpriced eastcoast/leftcoast home... you'll be paying more on that, too.

Here's the kicker: you'll be sending a lot of that money to people in red states... to people who you can't stand.

New Yorkers, Californians, residents of the Northeast and the D.C. Corridor, you elected Obama... step-up and pay those absurd taxes without complaining. You wanted bigger government.. so try this on for size. Those of us who live in places with more rational state tax structures will welcome you when you want to move here... well, not really, lol.

So head-out tommorrow and jump in your Prius, with your "Change" bumper-sticker on the back... and get to work... Obama needs your money.

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com

[SacTownMan]

"As far as not sitting well with lobbyists, what about the ones sitting in Obama's administration?"

I'm more worried about all of the Chicago slime machine hacks and tax cheats he surrounds himself with!

Oh and don't worry there God King we are all "ginning up" to fight you from ruining this country in your quest for immortality.

Xerxes is far worse than Jimmy ever was, he and his sorry socialist friends WILL be banished from power starting in 2010, you can count on it!

I just pray to god that our country survives till then, otherwise you will see rioting in the streets that will make Tiananmin Square look like a walk in the park.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989

[rover]

Thus far the only impression I have gotten from Mr. O is one of complete incompetence. Same impression registered when he chose Biden as a mate.

He is a one man wrecking ball bent on destroying us from within. Having some less than understandable success. Is it possible all of congress is incompetent? Or do they just have an agenda against everything I have come to know in the last 60 years?

God save us from this egomaniac and his cohorts.

[MarkJ]

Traditionally, governments are very good at killing people and breaking things. Unfortunately for us, Obama thinks it'll be swell if he takes this same approach with our economy.

[gus]

In 2009 Exxon Mobil is on pace to pay FORTY BILLION DOLLARS TO THE UNITED STATES.
That is more money that the bottom 50% of tax payers or dead beats.

How much is enough???

[gus]

We've allowed an unhappy man whose Daddy didn't love him, to CON his way into the Presidency. Men like Obama and Clinton, both of whom were abandoned by their FATHERS, crave power and acceptance. They will use rhetoric and manipulation of anyone they can in order to get what they want. I'm not kidding. Hitler's Daddy didn't love him either.
These types of men lack the masculine coping skills that most men have. They CRAVE CONTROL and POWER. Nothing else satisfies the EMPTY HOLE in their gut. Obama went so far as to write about about his fathers dreams.
HIS FATHER WAS A COMPLETE FUCK UP.

[JB]

And I thought Obama billed himself as the great unifier? Hmmm... yes in the manner of Khan, Lenin, Stalin, Mao.

[WBestPresidentEver]

Obama and his country makeover agenda is going down along with him
If there is anything left of AMERICA when he gets done he will be replaced in 2012. I have no doubt about it.
His cool talking and lies will not work anymore. People now have his number and the ones that voted for him because they drank the Kool Aid are regreting that hey voted this imposter in office.
Obama is toast in 2012.

[Afterimage]

Wow, nice way to take a serious conversation and drag it down to the pig hole you guys live in, pitiful.