President Obama ran on hope and change when he asked America to make him the president. He promised many things to those who would cast their votes . . . he would cut the deficit in half; he would lower energy prices and make America less dependent on foreign energy sources; he would lower taxes for the middle class; he would bring peace to the world in general, and to the Middle East specifically; he would lower the average cost of healthcare by $2500; he would lower unemployment; he would eliminate racism; he would lift up blacks and other minorities from poverty and second-class status; he would bring equality to women’s salaries; he would end the “republican wars”; he would shut down Guantanamo Bay.
In fact, candidate Obama had a laundry list of promises for each category of voters, with which he purchased their votes.
Now, nearly 4 years later, the president stands before disillusioned audiences and tells them how he has delivered (for the most part) on all of his promises.
In fact, Obama has double the deficits instead of cutting them in half (projected to be $ 1 trillion for each of the next 4 years), has increased the national debt by nearly $6 trillion, doubled the price of gasoline, raised taxes, watched as the Middle East has burned and America’s embassies have been pummeled and burned, refused additional security begged for by our ambassador in Benghazi (who was raped and murdered in a terrorist attack), has sat by while Iran has developed nuclear weapons, has thrown our ally Israel under the bus on every issue, has raised the average cost of healthcare by $2500 (a $5,000 difference), has significantly elevated unemployment rates (especially among minorities and women), has polarized the races (with class warfare rhetoric), has divided every category of Americans, has put millions of Blacks, Hispanics and women into the unemployed and poverty categories, and has continued the wars and kept Gitmo open for business. In fact, those who track such matters document that over two-thirds of Obama’s promises have gone unfulfilled.
Despite the fact that Obama was swept into office with majorities in the House and Senate, affording him carte blanche opportunities to do things his own way, with every failure he has merely blamed the George Bush presidency for his results.
Shortly after taking office Obama told America that if only we would approve a $900 billion (yes, nearly a trillion dollars) stimulus spending package, in addition to the nearly $4 trillion annual operating budget, he would bring the unemployment rate down to 5.2%. Did he get his stimulus package? Yes. Did he get follow-up stimulus packages? Yes. What have the unemployment rates been since then? The average has been 9% (which does not include those who have given up looking for work or have accepted burger flipping jobs until the economy improves), with the official rate being above 8% for over 43 months in a row.
You may recall President Obama’s famous interview with Matt Lauer on “Today” on February 1, 2009 (we’ve inserted the video below), just after taking office as he asked the congress for his first economic stimulus package.
Lauer: At some point will you say ‘Wait a minute. We’ve spent this amount of money; we’re not seeing the results. We’ve got to change course dramatically.’
Obama: Look, I’m at the start of my administration. One nice thing I find about the situation I find myself in is that I will be held accountable. I’ve got four years. A year from now people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress, but there’s still going to be some pain out there. If I don’t have this done in three years then there’s going to be a one term proposition.
Indeed, the president and his handlers keep telling us what a great president he has been. They keep drawing our attention away from the realities of the past 4 years, and blaming others for the failures of Obama’s leftist policies. We challenge the Obama administration to point to any leftist regime that has ever enjoyed economic or any other kind of success. It’s come time for everyone to admit that the Obama experiment has failed. It’s time to get back to the principles on which this country was founded–the principles of personal and economic liberty that unfetters American energy and genius. That is what Mitt Romney is proposing.
PUBLIUS
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