Reign of the Inept

Oh, I know I've said I was sick of Obamacare, the shutdown and the rest of it, but I'm just sick of people that think Obama is all that just because he's a minority, half black, whatever.  I'm part Chinese; doesn't mean that I'm the smartest thing since sliced bread.  That's an ignorant stereotype, as is the idea that a black man, part black man, is the epitome of American success story because he managed to attend a prestigious school, do a little volunteer community service, and lie his way into political positions.  He's Rico Suave.  I get it.  I was duped in 2008 also.  Look back through my blogs if you don't believe me.  I wrote a blog before the 2008 election where I said that he and John McCain were probably the most honest, "good" politicians that we have ever seen the two parties present to the American public.  I considered either win a toss.  I saw Obama as youthful, articulate, and hopeful.  I saw McCain as experienced, also articulate, maybe a little hardened.  I'll admit I still voted for McCain.  I was a McCain supporter in all of his bids for the Presidency.  I'll admit though that I genuinely considered voting for Obama.  I finally opted for the decades of experience, although I wasn't sure that McCain could resolve the National Debt, which Obama promised to resolve.  When Obama won the Presidency, I had faith that he would take that promise to heart and try to bring it to fruition.  With the economy collapse, I thought that a real effort to reduce the National Debt might be a really good thing for the overall GNP and ultimately with growing pains would create a better national and global economy.  I was OK with that.  But let's look at Obama's reign so far and figure out really if that is what has been going on.

For one, let's deal with his primary campaign promise in 2008--the National Debt.  He's done nothing to decrease it.  Zero, zilch, nada.  Not a damn thing.  In fact, quite the opposite.  The huge stimulus package.  Obamacare.  Bottom line.  The fact is that as of March of this year, the National Debt has increased by over $6T, yes trillion, since Obama took office, and before you rant and rave about how much it increased under other Presidents, it increased by $4.9B under GW Bush.  We financed two wars during his 8 years. Obama is on track to double the National Debt by the time he leaves office--one war gone, another seriously downsized and yet we're on track to double the National Debt.  In fact, only half way into his second term and the National Debt is already both in dollar amount and percentage increased by Obama more than any other President...including the New Deal.  Now, Obama bangs on his chest about increasing the debt ceiling, and I'm wondering how so many people forgot how important it was to lower the National Debt according to him, for our children and for future generations.  Yet, no one, especially the staunch Obama supporters, are asking WTF?  Well, I am.  

Let's consider one of the huge contributors to the National Debt.  The large stimulus package added to the National Debt and did nothing to actually stimulate the economy.  The Stimulus package had the huge fiasco "Cash for Clunkers" which only allowed cars that were built in the 2000s basically.  Cars that were pre-2000s in general are of course the "worst" for pollution, value, et cetera.  The automotive dealers made a fortune.  At first, it looked like salvage yards would see huge gains also.  Except all those cars being turned in were ruined and wouldn't need those parts.  The car companies really didn't see any real benefit, as most of the plant closings are a testament of.  In fact, taxpayers--you and me folks--paid an average of $24,000 per vehicle turned in for "Cash for Clunkers" and a total of 690,000 vehicles.  For those of you that are too lazy to use a calculator, the final tally being over $16.5B, yes BILLION.  Time Magazine, Money (CNN), and other various news sources called it a failure.  Everyone has heard of, although they might not know any real details, about the $20B lost on solar energy companies.  No one ever looked into what really happened with all that money.  The general answer has been companies fail all the time, except these were companies that were not in good financial shape in the first place.  While the money invested in the car companies--GM and Chrysler--was a low risk gamble, investing in those solar companies was considered worse than high risk.  They're financials prevented them from being able to get any financing from any other source, and this is where the Obama Administration decided to put the money?  While we're on that topic, we did NOT save GM and Chrysler or Ford.  The Big Three were considered "good to great" risks with restructuring and could've gotten the money for restructuring through bankruptcy court like so many companies have done in the past.  Proof is in the pudding.  The two that did borrow government money have already repaid their debt--which since that was technically borrowed money, I'm wondering if that went back to the debt it increased?  It also included tax breaks for companies hiring people that were unemployed for 6 months or more.  At the time though, companies were downsizing and barely could take advantage of the $4000 tax credit.  That minuscule amount wasn't going to justify a full time employee making $25K with benefits which ultimately costs a company about $35K a year.  The concept alone was laughable--spend $35K for $4K.  That might work for the US Government, but the private sector just can't do that.  Speaking of laughable, the stimulus package also included government summer jobs for kids between the ages of 16 to 24, because they had an estimated 50% plus "unemployment" rate.  Did you hear about this?  Of course not, these jobs went to kids whose parents were somehow tied to the administration or to the people that were handing out those jobs.  The reason they had a 50% unemployment rate is simple; when people--hourly or salary--start losing our full time jobs we stop spending as much money for the extras--no fast food, eating out less, buying less stuff at the malls and shops.  More importantly, 16 to 24 kids that aren't gainfully employed do absolutely NOTHING to feed the economy.  Who gives a crap if they are unemployed compared to the bigger problem?  I hate band-aid mentality and that's band-aid mentality.  (Band-aid mentality is throw a band-aid on the gaping wound instead of dealing with the real problem.  Yes, it's an Alex-ism.)  The great stimulus package also included money and funding for national civil engineering projects--road improvements, bridge improvements, and other construction projects.  Sounded great.  Except...For the states to get the money, there were all kinds of bureaucratic red tape and getting the money became more of a hassle than just leaving well enough alone.  Plus, the pay rates and the construction payments were regulated by the law making it difficult for states that were suffering because of jobs lost and reduced incoming tax money to fund their "share".  In fact, most states found that they couldn't afford to pay the higher wages required because the bids came in that much higher.  I don't know what you would call it.  I'll call it a fail.  We already "knew" the stimulus package would fail on top of it.  Japan had passed a similar package in the 1990s.  It was a failure there.  Our bright light bulbs in Washington thought that since we aren't Japan it would work here.  Bwahaha.  Seriously.  Who did they think Japan modeled their economy from in the first place?  Let's suffice to say, most of us realize that this was not really a great plan.  The Great Stimulus fiasco, that's what we should call it.

Ok, so let's focus on Obama for a second.  President Obama is a minority, right?  African American?  Well, let's get this on the table.  He's an American citizen.  I know Hawaii wasn't a state at the time he was born, neither was Ohio when Rutherford B. Hayes was born.  I do believe he took advantage of his father's foreign status while attending Columbia, but I've had friends that were military brats with one non-American parent.  They have had the options to take "advantage" of the system, so while I may question his true loyalties, I'm not going to argue whether he actually had the right to do so.  He wasn't really raised in the United States though, and I'm not referring to Hawaii.  He was raised for several years in Malaysia, so while he might be American, he doesn't necessarily understand being "American".  We are by nature a product of our environments, and while he might have a very unique perspective, it is not going to be the same as someone actually raised stateside--much like Californians have a very different perspective from Georgians.  So, it would be debatable whether he truly grasps what it is to be an American in the classic sense of those of us actually raised here.  I believe he and his election team understood this and it's really too bad that McCain is a "good" guy or his team might have brought this out more during the election.  But, here's actually good news.  What has he done for black people?  Nothing.  Yep.  Nada, zilch, nil.  That's right.  For all of his wife's racial charges in her youth about how unfair the minorities in this country are treated, they've done absolutely nothing for the minority, including the African American, communities.  That's actually a good thing.  Everything that he has passed affects all Americans equally and he's really done nothing to help any one community.  In fact, it's even debatable whether the ACA, also known as Obamacare, actually helps or hurts the poor.  The Black Caucus in Congress has lamented over the fact that he hasn't actually helped race relations either.  As the first minority president, many, regardless of race, thought he would help make strides to improve race relations.  In fact, some lament that because of the way he has handled some situations that he has actually deteriorated the strides made.  Honestly, good that he hasn't done anything drastic to "improve" minority circumstances--that would increase the divide.  On the other hand, he hasn't done anything to improve race relations either.  My personal opinion is still the same.  Since he wasn't raised here in the US, whether Hawaii, Cali, the Deep South or the Great Lakes, he simply doesn't understand our issues with race.  Honestly, neither do I most of the time and I was raised here.  So, while I probably think a minority president should've been able to improve race relations to the next level, I'll take status quo rather than have him make it any worse.  The real problem that I see is that even the educated minorities have a low opinion of him.  The Black Agenda Report, a far left African American news and analysis source, has been attacking his legacy already.  Their accusations include that he's done nothing for the urban landscape (true), set a precedent to bail out banks and speculators (true), enacted cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security (partially true),  lament that the ACA is in fact not "affordable" (true), has increased US military presence to over 30 African countries (true, and bet you didn't know that one), has made it so the US President can murder without announcement of cause using drones or mercenaries (true), actually has increased the possibility of public schools becoming privatized (true-ish), and they accuse him of unjust and abuse of power that originally the Black Caucus has always "fought" against.  Social Security cuts, military presence in over 30 African countries, opposition to the ACA, the questionable usage of drones and mercenaries and the abuse of power are already things that the far right have been screaming about for years.   If this trend continues, he'll become the least popular president in history. 

The Affordable Care Act...well, the thing is rolling out.  The current estimate is that it will add $109B to the National Debt.  Yes, it took a lot to find that in the Congressional Budget Report, and I suppose it doesn't sound that bad compared to the $6T Obama has already added.  Except...the report is notorious for having the most "positive" numbers regardless of which party proposal it looks at.  In fact, it's usually 30% minimum below actual costs, and in some cases has been only one-tenth of what actual costs turned out to be.  Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid estimates have been the most notorious for being way, way, way under-estimated.  So based on history, I'd guess the government has no idea how to guess accurately where any healthcare funding could possibly land.  Enough said about it.  We already paid $360M for a website that can't even keep count of how many visitors it has, and to give you perspective, that's more than it cost for the development of the Apple iPhone.  

While I understand that some people simply don't want to admit that they might have misplaced their trust and faith in Obama, I'll have to equate it to religion at this point.  I have faith there is a God, but no one has really ever came up with solid examples that cannot be countered to prove that there is absolutely no God.  Example after example after example of failures of Obama's Administration do not warrant the continued faith that some people show him.  Even the far left African Americans and the Unions are bailing on him.  I'm hugely disappointed on Woodward's accounts of him storming out of meetings like a spoiled child not getting his way.  I'm very concerned about his extensions of Presidential powers, particularly the fact he can send drone attacks without notifying Congress or who he intends to use the drones on.  I'm concerned that Obamacare really punishes the poor that can't afford healthcare and forces them into the Medicaid system.  That's twofold.  We're increasing a system that we can barely afford now (Medicaid) and pushing people into buying something that they might not be able to "afford" anyway.  I'm concerned that the government is now in the retail insurance business.  I'm concerned that Obama has caused a severe divide between the left and right that might take decades to repair.  I'm concerned that he has any family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood--I wouldn't want someone who has ties to a KKK cousin in the presidency now either.  I'm not concerned that he lied about fixing the National Debt.  I'm shocked that he has the audacity to ask to increase it.  I'm concerned that the Reign of the Inept will have lasting ramifications on the National Debt that will be worse than we already were looking at before he took office.