Diagnosing Obama
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| Sun, 10-12-2008 - 5:57am |
These are my responses to what I believe are the most pertinent parts of the Obama plan as downloaded from his website.
THE PROBLEM
Lobbyists Write National Policies
For example, Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force of oil and gas lobbyists met secretly to
develop national energy policy.
The problem with Barack Obama: He has 47 known lobbyists on his campaign staff. Pluck the board out of your own eye first, Obama, before removing the speck from your brother's eye.
OBAMA’S RECORD
Federal Ethics Reform
Obama and Senator Feingold (D-WI) took on both parties and proposed ethics legislation that was
described as the “gold standard” for reform. It was because of their leadership that ending subsidized
corporate jet travel, mandating disclosure of lobbyists’ bundling of contributions, and enacting strong new
restrictions of lobbyist-sponsored trips became part of the final ethics bill that was signed into law. The
Washington Post wrote in an editorial, “The final package is the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from
Congress yet.”
Obama on ethics reform: Obama had very little to do with federal ethics reform. His name was rubber stamped onto the bill. The bill itself doesn't go far enough. It's essentially a bunch of smoke and mirrors the Democrats hoped to use as a campaign issue against Republicans. If this bill is truly ethics reform, why does Obama need to reform ethics any further? This is status quo for the Democrat party. Pretend to fix something while leaving enough wiggle room so it is necessary to keep electing Democrats to fix the problem over and over again.
BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN
Shine Light on Washington Lobbying
Centralize Ethics and Lobbying Information for Voters: Obama will create a centralized Internet database
of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable
format.
Require Independent Monitoring of Lobbying Laws and Ethics Rules: Obama will use the power of the
presidency to fight for an independent watchdog agency to oversee the investigation of congressional ethics
violations so that the public can be assured that ethics complaints will be investigated.
Support Campaign Finance Reform: Obama supports public financing of campaigns combined with free
television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests. Obama introduced
public financing legislation in the Illinois State Senate, and is the only 2008 candidate to have sponsored
Senator Russ Feingold’s (D-WI) tough bill to reform the presidential public financing system.
The problem with Obama's plan: This plan will do nothing more than expand government, and further burden taxpayers with another (yawn) government bureaucracy which can be used as a tool against political enemies. But isn't that what the Democrats want? It's just another way of silencing political opposition while creating more jobs for elitists.
BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN
Quality, Affordable and Portable Coverage for All
(1) Obama’s Plan to Cover Uninsured
Obama will make available a new national health plan so all Americans, including the self-employed and
small businesses, can buy affordable health coverage that is similar to the plan available to members of
Congress.
Diagnosing Obama's plan: Why not just give us the health care plan Congress has, Mr. Obama? Not one similar to it, but one the same as it. Everyone knows Congress has the best health care plan in the world. Aren't the American people worthy of the best health care money can buy? Why does Barry want to overburden the public with another government bureaucracy that will control one seventh of America's national economy when all he has to do is expand Congress' health care plan to include the general public? There would be no need for another bureaucracy, and no need for government regulation of the health care industry. The Obama plan is about government regulation, and intrusion.
BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN
Restore Fiscal Discipline to Washington
Reinstate PAYGO Rules: Obama believes that a critical step in restoring fiscal discipline is enforcing pay-asyou-
go (PAYGO) budgeting rules which require new spending commitments or tax changes to be paid for by
cuts to other programs or new revenue.
Diagnosing Obama: Obama wants to return to paygo while growing government, and creating more government programs. Obama will not be able to do this without raising taxes across the board. Bill Clinton also promised middle class tax cuts during his presidential campaign. Instead, the American people got an empty speech about how hard he tried to cut taxes, but couldn't do it. Obama is nothing but smoke and mirrors on tax cuts and paygo.
THE PROBLEM
Poverty Rising
There are nearly 37 million poor Americans. Most Americans living in poverty work, but still cannot afford
to make ends meet.
Minimum Wage is Not Enough
Even when a parent works full-time earning minimum wage and EITC and food stamps are factored into
their income, families are still $1,550 below the federal poverty line because of the flat-lined minimum wage.
Diagnosing Obama: The minimum wage is not the problem. The minimum wage is an entry level wage given to those who are inexperienced who are entering the job market for the first time. Raising the minimum wage actually increases the poverty level, raises the cost of goods and services, and causes people to lose their jobs. The real problem lies in Democrat policy toward the poor. Their policies actually give the poor reasons to stay poor and dependent on government. The Great Western Society was supposed to end poverty, as was the War on Poverty. Neither program has done anything to end poverty in our time. Obama will tow the line and keep the same old status quo intact. The Democrat party reasoning behind this is "keep the poor poor and dependent on government, and they'll vote Democrat every time." The EITC is nothing more than a government handout designed to do just that.
-- Barack Obama, Speech in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, December 5, 2007
BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN FOR UNIVERSAL
VOLUNTARY PUBLIC SERVICE
AT A GLANCE
Ask All Americans to Work Together to Meet Our Common Challenges
Obama will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and double the Peace Corps and dedicate these positions
to addressing America’s common challenges. He also will provide new service opportunities for working
Americans and retirees.
Diagnosing Obama: We all know what this means, an expansion of Obama's public service program, Public Allies. Public Allies is nothing more than a re-education boot camp that will churn out politically correct, brainwashed children and adults. The program is primarily aimed at children. Obama intends to make Public Allies mandatory for all American youth.
RENEWING AMERICAN dIPLOMACY
The Problem
The United States is trapped by the Bush-Cheney approach to diplomacy that refuses to talk to leaders we
don’t like. Not talking doesn’t make us look tough – it makes us look arrogant, it denies us opportunities
to make progress, and it makes it harder for America to rally international support for our leadership. On
challenges ranging from terrorism to disease, nuclear weapons to climate change, we cannot make progress
unless we can draw on strong international support.
Diagnosing Obama: Obama wants to weaken us by having our allies say what we can or can't do when it comes to our own national security. When he talks about the Bush-Cheney approach to diplomacy, it is code for the war on terror. Obama and the Democrats don't believe al Qaeda and terrorism is a national security issue. They believe it is a problem for law enforcement. Obama and the Democrats want us to think of terrorism as a crime similar to illegal gambling, prostitution, or drug dealing. They want you to think of Osama bin Laden dressed as a hooker while sporting a deck of playing cards and a crack pipe. That's the Obama diplomacy in a nutshell.
Barack Obama is the same recycled John Kerry smoke and mirrors in a different package. There is nothing new to his approach on any issue. Obama 2008 is John Kerry 2004 and Jimmy Carter 2 wrapped in David Axelrod's slick package. Obama is a Liberal scammer of the worst kind. His tax and spend policies will send us into a depression, and will finish bankrupting us as a nation.

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and that's a bad thing? remember, half the voters supported Kerry in 2004 - until the Swiftboat smear.
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i believe that has already been done by a conservative scammer of the worst kind - who McCain agrees with 90% of the time.
Bea
I haven't even read through the rest of your post yet b/c I just had to respond to the very first part of it.
<<The problem with Barack Obama: He has 47 known lobbyists on his campaign staff. Pluck the board out of your own eye first, Obama, before removing the speck from your brother's eye.>> I believe at last count McCain had 83 lobbyists working on his campaign!
The Anti-Lobbyist, Advised by Lobbyists
By Michael D. Shear and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 22, 2008; A01
For years, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has railed against lobbyists and the influence of "special interests" in Washington, touting on his campaign Web site his fight against "the 'revolving door' by which lawmakers and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists for the special interests they have aided."
But when McCain huddled with his closest advisers at his rustic Arizona cabin last weekend to map out his presidential campaign, virtually every one was part of the Washington lobbying culture he has long decried. His campaign manager, Rick Davis, co-founded a lobbying firm whose clients have included Verizon and SBC Telecommunications. His chief political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., is chairman of one of Washington's lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates, which has represented AT&T, Alcoa, JPMorgan and U.S. Airways.
Senior advisers Steve Schmidt and Mark McKinnon work for firms that have lobbied for Land O' Lakes, UST Public Affairs, Dell and Fannie Mae.
McCain's relationship with lobbyists became an issue this week after it was reported that his aides asked Vicki Iseman, a telecom lobbyist, to distance herself from his 2000 presidential campaign because it would threaten McCain's reputation for independence. An angry and defiant McCain denounced the stories yesterday, declaring: "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust."
Even before McCain finished his news conference, uber-lobbyist Black made the rounds of television networks to defend McCain against charges that he has been tainted by his relationship with a lobbyist. Black's current clients include General Motors, United Technologies, JPMorgan and AT&T.
Black said he is still being paid by his firm and does work for clients in his "spare time," recusing himself from lobbying McCain: "I not only do not lobby him , but if an issue comes up that I have a client on, I will tell him that and stay out of the discussion."
A common career path for political operatives is a lucrative job at a Washington lobbying firm that allows them to continue campaign work, and McCain is hardly the first candidate to draw on that talent pool. The campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has been aided by lobbyists Harold Ickes and Mark Penn, who heads Burson Marsteller Worldwide. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been advised by former senator Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), who is not a registered lobbyist but advises clients about Washington.
In McCain's case, the fact that lobbyists are essentially running his presidential campaign -- most of them as volunteers -- seems to some people to be at odds with his anti-lobbying rhetoric. "He has a closer relationship with lobbyists than he lets on," said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "The problem for McCain being so closely associated with lobbyists is that he's the candidate most closely associated with attacking lobbyists."
Davis did not respond to requests for an interview. Black, acting as a campaign spokesman, said that Davis is being paid neither by his firm nor by the McCain campaign, and has not been a registered lobbyist for three years.
Schmidt and McKinnon said they remain with their firms, but are not lobbyists and have recused themselves from the issues of their clients in the McCain campaign. "I've never discussed a client issue with the candidate or his staff," McKinnon said in an e-mail.
Campaign finance experts said employees of a company are allowed to volunteer for a campaign as long as they do so on their own time, or continue to perform the functions for which their employers are paying them.
McCain's reliance on lobbyists for key jobs -- both in the Senate and in his presidential campaign -- extends beyond his inner circle. McCain recently hired Mark Buse to be his Senate chief of staff. Buse led the Commerce Committee staff in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and was until last fall a lobbyist for ML Strategies, representing eBay, Goldman Sachs Group, Cablevision, Tenneco and Novartis Pharmaceuticals.
McCain's top fundraising official is former congressman Tom Loeffler (R-Tex.), who heads a lobbying law firm called the Loeffler Group. He has counseled the Saudis as well as Southwest Airlines, AT&T, Toyota and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Public Citizen, a group that monitors campaign fundraising, has found that McCain has more bundlers -- people who gather checks from networks of friends and associates -- from the lobbying community than any other presidential candidate from either party.
By the group's current count, McCain has at least 59 federal lobbyists raising money for his campaign, compared with 33 working for Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani and 19 working for Democrat Clinton.
"The potential harm is that should Senator McCain become elected, those people will have a very close relationship with the McCain White House," Sloan said. " would be very helpful for their clients, and that would give them a leg up on everybody else."
Of all the lobbyists involved in the McCain campaign, the most prominent is Black, who has made a lucrative career of shuttling back and forth between presidential politics and big-time Washington lobbying. He has worked for the campaigns of former congressman Jack Kemp (N.Y.), former president George H.W. Bush and former senators Phil Gramm (Tex.) and Robert J. Dole (Kan.), all Republicans.
"I've spent a fair amount of my life as a lobbyist, but I've spent a majority of my adult life running Republican political campaigns," Black, 60, said.
His relationship with McCain, for whom he is a senior adviser, goes back more than two decades, from the time McCain first came to Washington. They got to know each other well during Gramm's 1996 presidential run; Gramm, now an investment banker, is a major supporter and adviser to McCain.
But even as Black provides a private voice and a public face for McCain, he also leads his lobbying firm, which offers corporate interests and foreign governments the promise of access to the most powerful lawmakers. Some of those companies have interests before the Senate and, in particular, the Commerce Committee, of which McCain is a member.
Black said he does a lot of his work by telephone from McCain's Straight Talk Express bus.
He said, however, the combination now requires that he work on weekends, which means 80- or even 90-hour weeks. If McCain were to ask him to step up his commitment to the campaign during the general-election battle, Black said he would take a leave or a reduced salary from BKSH and devote himself to electing McCain president.
McCain has long sought to defend his associations with lobbyists, stressing that friendships with them do not influence his independent judgment when it comes to legislative action. In comments to reporters yesterday, he acknowledged those friendships.
"I have many friends who represent various interests, ranging from the firemen to the police to senior citizens to various interests, particularly before my committee," McCain said. "The question is . . . do they have excess or unwarranted influence? And certainly no one ever has in my conduct of my public life and conduct of my legislative agenda."
Staff writer Glenn Kessler, research editor Alice Crites and washingtonpost.com staff writer Chris Cillizza contributed to this report.
Chrissy
mom to Aidan 8/21/03
Grayson Blaine 12/30/07
I see you got this "information" from a message board on a McCain site (http://community.mccainspace.com/kickapps/service/displayDiscussionThreads.kickAction?w=136736&as=41158&d=137602).
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YOU;
Actually, it might have been her/his own post from another site (the person's name was 11kestrels).
LOL!
All I have to say is
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