The performance of the Obama administration has been dismal at home, in foreign affairs and in safeguarding our constitutional republic.
Domestic record:
1. The national debt has increased from $10.6 trillion to more than $16 trillion.
2. The yearly deficit has averaged $1.25 trillion, almost 40 percent of spending.
3. First ever U.S. credit downgrade.
4. The unemployment rate, above 8 percent for the entire term, dropped to 7.8 percent last week — more from people leaving the labor force than from getting jobs.
5. The broader measure of unemployment (U6) which includes those who are discouraged, have stopped looking or are working part-time is 14.7 percent.
6. The Keystone Pipeline, intended to transport crude oil from Canada to the U.S., was blocked.
7. The average price of gasoline has increased from $1.85 to $3.80 per gallon.
8. Food stamp recipients have increased from to 32 to 47 million.
9. The 10-year cost of Obamacare has increased from $0.94 trillion to $1.76 trillion.
10. Family health care premiums are up $3,000 — a $2,500 reduction was promised.
11. Median household income has fallen $4,526 to $50,678.
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Foreign policy:
In September 2009, the U.S. rescinded a missile defense pact with Poland and the Czech Republic. The agreement, strongly opposed by Russia, was intended to counter long-range missile threats from countries such as Iran or North Korea. The cancellation embarrassed and endangered our allies.
In 2008, an expansionist Russia invaded, and still occupies, part of Georgia, a former Soviet Republic. The U.S. has been excessively deferential to Putin’s Russia, where the media, opposition parties and dissidents have minimal rights and are abused daily.
Hugo Chávez created an anti-U.S. bloc, the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas), led by Venezuela, and joined by Evo Morales’ Bolivia, Rafael Correa’s Ecuador, Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua, and Fidel Castro’s Cuba. In Venezuela, Iranians are building facilities for Shahab-3 missiles, which have a 2,000 kilometer range that can reach Miami. When will the U.S. State Department have a serious talk with president-for-life Chávez?
On June 4, 2009, President Obama in outreach to the Muslim world made an apologetic “New Beginning” speech in Cairo. A few days later, protesting a stolen election, the Iranian Green Revolution began. We failed to provide moral support to a people greatly aggrieved and kindly disposed to the United States. Shamefully, the Obama administration remained mute while Iranians were brutalized.
Conversely, Arab Spring uprisings begun in 2010 were supported regardless of likely consequences. In particular, the United States was actively involved in changing leadership in Egypt and Libya. The result was the supremacist Muslim Brotherhood controlling Egypt and extremist factions unleashed in Libya.
Hence, on Sept. 11 of this year, amid widespread attacks on U.S. embassies and consulates, thousands of Egyptians attacked the U.S. embassy in Cairo, and the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were murdered in Benghazi, Libya. So much for the “New Beginning.”
Safeguarding our constitutional republic:
Perhaps most grievous has been the abnegation of responsibility and usurpation of power by the executive branch, and its assault on religious freedom. The executive branch, through the Justice Department, has abandoned its obligation to defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act against constitutional challenges.
In June 2012, the executive branch unilaterally suspended a cooperation program that allowed Arizona law enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration laws. Furthermore, in July, nine U.S. Border Patrol stations across four states were abruptly shut down.
In June 2012, the executive branch “rewrote” immigration law, a legislative responsibility, such that younger undocumented immigrants who have led generally law-abiding lives — outside of breaking U.S. immigration law — cannot be deported. (Yes, many at UNM support this. However, such changes, to be lawful, must be passed by Congress.)
On Jan. 4, President Obama made four recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Recess appointments happen all the time.
However, Congress was not in recess, rendering the appointments illegal.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, under Obamacare, ruled that Catholic hospitals, colleges and social services must provide health insurance that covers sterilization, abortifacients and contraception. In total, 43 Catholic groups brought suits in a dozen federal courts. They argued free exercise of religion protected under the First Amendment.
Closure:
President Obama’s statist domestic policy penalizes enterprise, causing scarcity and impoverishment. His foreign policy is naive and dangerous. His arbitrary and “we can’t wait” executive actions are extralegal and destructive of the civil society. America, already weakened, will be gravely harmed by four more years of this.
