Broken Promises and Too Much Spending

Barack Obama has been in office for 73 days now and yet he still seems to be in campaign mode. The only difference now is that our economy, our jobs and our country are now actually being led by inexperience and broken promises. Since taking office, Barack Obama has broken more promises than I can even count. Among the lies are his promise not to hire former lobbyists on his staff. He currently has more than a dozen former lobbyists working for him. Barack Obama stated he would allow any legislation to be posted online for 5 days so the public could debate the merits of a bill before signing it into law. The Stimulus Bill wasn't even read by a single Congressman, let alone the public. After it passed the house, it took Obama 17 hours to sign the bill. President Obama promised to use the line veto on any earmarks included in legislation that reached his desk. When the stimulus bill was signed it included over 8,500 earmarks. President Obama promised to bring the troops home from Iraq within 16 months (May 20 2010) of taking office. He has since revised his timetable to Dec 31st of 2011, the same timetable agreed to by both President Bush and the Iraqi government. The list goes on and on. I'm beginning to think that Barack Obama was just saying these things to get elected.
Since taking office, President Obama's appointees to major cabinet positions has been less than stellar. At least 8 of his appointees have been proven to have cheated on past income tax filings. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner even described Turbo Tax as "too confusing". Tim Geithner is the man that was chosen to run the US Treasury and is confused by filing taxes? That's amazing to me.
Obama's spending proposals for the next 2 fiscal years is the most radical in the history of the United States. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Committee stated Obama's budget will have negative consequences short term and little to no impact long term. They stated that Obama would be "better off doing nothing". Barack Obama's budget will double the national debt while, according to the CBO, essentially do nothing to help our economy. The Chinese, who ponied up the money for the Stimulus Bill, have recently voiced concerns over our ability to repay the money. According to the experts and our lenders it looks as if there is a disaster down the road and Obama is steering us right into the heart of it. Barack Obama will add more money to the national debt than every president from Washington to Bush. Another lovely consequence of all this spending will be the massive inflation it brings. But have no fear, the man in charge can't understand his own tax return.
President Obama also promised no taxes for 95% of all Americans. This is obviously impossible since more than 5% of the country pays no income tax to begin with. However, for arguments sake, lets give the president the benefit of the doubt. Recently cigarette taxes were increased by $1 per pack. A study in the Wall Street Journal recently showed that out of all of the smokers in the US, 1 in 4 live on a household income of less than $30,000 per year. Therefore, the new cigarette tax disproportionately affects low income families. The President's budget includes a cap and trade tax which will result in a higher cost of living for all households, low income included. Cap and trade basically limits the amount to carbon emissions that companies can have. This is supposed to force them into using renewable energy. However, 99% of companies don't have access to renewable energy sources and will therefore just pay higher taxes. They will certainly not just eat this higher cost of doing business but will rather pass the cost onto the customer. As a result of Obama's cap and trade tax on carbon emissions, the average electric bill per household will increase by $100 per month. $100 per month is a huge amount and will have very negative consequences for low income families. Cap and trade also has a negative affect on the employees of companies who exceed their emissions limit. These companies will begin laying people off and when companies lay off, they lay off the lowest wage earners first. Obama seems to have a personal vendetta against corporate America. It appears he wants to tax every successful company in the country into bankruptcy. The President is raising every single tax that can have an adverse effect on a company's bottom line from payroll taxes to income tax. This will certainly result in layoffs (again affecting low income workers) and/or higher prices for consumers which will hurt low income families the most. Any way you look at it, this budget is a disaster waiting to happen.
President Obama rode the recession, while preaching hope and change, all the way to the White House. The themes of Obama's speeches made for a feel good moment but they lack any major impact when it comes to actual policy making. I'm afraid that Obama's inexperience is beginning to show and that parlayed with his political leanings is a bad combination. It feels as if our domestic policy is being based on a political science class straight from Columbia University. Inexperience plus recession plus spending like a sailor on shore leave equals more economic disaster for the US. President Obama is raising taxes on the people who create jobs in this country. He is nationalizing our banking and healthcare systems. He is bailing out companies like AIG who gave him tons of money for his campaign. The American people are starting to come around and understand that maybe this guy isn't who we thought he was. The American people are beginning to realize that you can't spend your way to prosperity. They are slowly learning that you can't tax yourself out of a recession. Now Barack Obama needs to start thinking about who he works for.