An acquaintance of my brother, with whom he politically
differs, recently wrote the following:
"Watch it Sarge,
a lot of people, including me, think Obama has done a lousy job. Reduced the
deficit? Our country is at least 17 trillion in debt. How about border security
and foreign affairs! What about the IRS and NSA issues? He's incompetent in my
opinion. Do you remember what the gasoline price was when he took office? $1.86
a gallon. What happened? Obama has taken more vacations and played more golf
(on the taxpayers money) than all the other Presidents combined! He's a joke!"
Sometimes it's better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought
a fool, than to open one's mouth and prove it.
Let's deconstruct this puerile rant and do something different: state
facts, not biased junk e-mail mythology.
1. Reduced the deficit? First, the writer seems not to
understand the difference between deficit and national debt. The first year in
office, President Obama was working with Bush 43's budget, passed by Congress,
and not in any fashion related to him or his policies. The deficit that year
was 9.9%. Why am I not outraged? It's simple, the economy had tanked in 2008-09
and God himself could not have paid the bills without deficit. While it is true
that the massive TARP spending was under Bush's watch, blaming him would, from
my standpoint, be just as ludicrous as blaming, him for bad weather. Now, as to
the current deficit (not the debt, stupid, that's total amount owed, not the
annual shortfall): For fiscal year 2013, the last complete year the deficit was
4.1% (for the math challenged, that's less than half of the bush budget for
2009) a decrease from the previous year of 37%. This is the first sub-$1 trillion and sub-5
percent of GDP deficit since the 2008 fiscal year, which ended the very month
that Lehman Brothers fell and a deep crisis set in. So, the deficit is markedly
lower, not higher.
2. Border security
and Foreign affairs? Taking the first (question, allegation, noun??)
"foreign affairs." For the
record, President Obama hasn't attacked Gaza, shot down a plane, participated
in terrorism or attacked an embassy, so I'm left to guess what the hell you
mean. I'm going to pick one at random....Benghazi? leaving all the posturing of the right aside
for a moment, just know this: the late ambassador was offered additional
security not once , but twice, by General Carter Ham, Commander of US Africa
Command, in the weeks just prior to the attack on the embassy. He rejected the
offers. He wasn't ordered to, he just did. You will hear all sorts of
allegations leveled at then SecState Clinton because of the likelihood of her
candidacy. Nowhere in all the public witch
trial did you hear the administration blame the ambassador for refusing more
security. Why? Because as Clinton stated and was beat up for it, "what
does it matter now?"
2a. Border security. My blog of two days ago has several
pages on this, but the short version is that the current flood of illegal
attempts is unique because it is children and that they are not principally
Mexican. The facts: prior to the Clinton administration attempts to enter
illegally, if the person was apprehended at the border, resulted in a pat on
the butt and a turn around. This resulted in numerous repeat offenders, many of
whom tried until they succeeded. Clinton ordered the current process of apprehending,
processing and returning without possibility of ever obtaining legal
citizenship. Yes it takes longer, yes it is currently straining the system, but
what has slipped through the huge cracks in the truth, is the fact that more
than twice as many were apprehended during the Reagan years (on average) and
allowed to return, than are being apprehended today and being processed for
deportation. Additionally, the number of illegals added to the population
annually is also about half of the Reagan numbers. Suck it, Rick Perry.
3. The IRS and NSA. off the bat, Congress knew - both houses
have intelligence committees, so the NSA thing, which of course arose out of
Homeland Security, remember, 9/11/2001. These are Bush initiatives. Of course,
I know, you think the Pres. leaked it! As
regards the IRS, no one has yet even suggested the Obama White House "sic'd"
the IRS on anyone, unlike in 1972 when Richard Nixon is on tape telling H.R. Haldeman
to use the IRS to harass persons on his enemies list. The director of the IRS
has wide scope in who is audited, but... no smoking calculator here!
4. "He's incompetent in my opinion"... noted, but
considering how wrong you've been so far, what is your opinion worth?
5. The price of gasoline: Out of the gate - the President
has zero to do with the price of gasoline in a free market economy; not a
little, not a smidgen - zero! It frightens me for the future of the republic
that any high school graduate could even think otherwise. Just because you're
so easy, I'll play show and tell. in July 2008 (remember who was president?) gasoline nationally averaged $4.10 per gallon.
In fact, (remember "facts?") the price of regular gasoline was above
the $3.00 mark from April 2006, to November 2008. When Barack Obama was
inaugurated, the price of gas, nationwide was just over $2.50 per gallon. You
have a poor memory. Because I like you, and I think you have potential, I'm
gonna school ya on gas. Out of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline
selling at $3.27 per gallon, 18.4 cents is federal tax, and that number is
unchanged since 1996! State taxes are another matter, and fluctuate by
about 50 cents per gallon. So stop blaming the President.... stop it!
6. Obama has played
more golf than any president in history
This isn't even close to being true. Now, there's no
question that he plays on a regular basis: 104 rounds from January 2009 through
Aug. 4 of this year, the last time he played, according to Mark Knoller, the
longtime White House correspondent for CBS Radio. That puts him about in the
middle when compared with other duffers-in-chief. It's less than Bill Clinton,
and a lot less than Dwight Eisenhower, who played more than 800 rounds over eight
years — four times as often as Obama plays. Woodrow Wilson played 1200
times and there was a war going on! And
why is it an outrage if the president, who heads one of three branches of
government, golfs 104 times in three-and-a-half-years, but the head of another
branch of government, the Speaker of the House, plays four times as much? You
heard correctly: John Boehner once told Golf Digest that he plays upwards of
100 rounds a year. Seems like a double standard, no? Not only does Boehner play
more, he has a complimentary membership at Burning Tree, a good old boys club
where he and lobbyists can escape the pressure of, oh you know, being honest
and open? Of course this multi thousand dollar perk is paid for by the RNC!
Think he'd let ya caddy for him?
7. Vacations: You allege that President Obama has taken too much vacation time. I assume you believe
he takes more than most recent Presidents?
This isn't even remotely accurate either, but first, some context from
Nancy Reagan: "Presidents don't get vacations — they just get a change of
scenery. The job goes with you." The responsibilities, the pressure, the
officer with the "nuclear football" — it's all with a
commander-in-chief at all times. No exceptions.
But how much time away from the White House has President
Obama spent, and how does this compare with predecessors?
POTUS Tracker, compiled by The Washington Post, shows that
from January 2009 to October 31, 2012, Obama spent all or part of 72 vacation
days in a variety of places, mostly Hawaii in the winter and Martha's Vineyard
in the summer. That's about 10 weeks away in three-and-a-half years, hardly
extravagant. Through May 18, according to data from CBS's Knoller, he also
visited Camp David 22 times, spending all of part of 54 days there.
But what about their predecessors: In 1798, President John Adams left the capital
for seven months to care for his ailing wife Abigail; his enemies said he
practically relinquished his office. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison routinely
went away for three- and four-month stretches. Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, was blasted for spending about 25 percent of
his time away from the White House.
In this century, Dwight
Eisenhower took long summer breaks in Denver and spent almost every single
weekend at Camp David. John F. Kennedy
rarely spent a weekend in the White House, staying at family homes in Palm
Beach, Hyannis Port, and the Virginia countryside. Lyndon
Johnson spent 484 days in five and a half years at his Texas ranch. Ronald
Reagan was away for 436 days, usually at Rancho del Cielo (his mountaintop
retreat in California) or Camp David. Bill Clinton, who didn't own a vacation
home, loved to party with his elite friends in Martha's Vineyard and the
Hamptons.
George W. Bush
spent 32 months at his ranch (490 days) or Camp David (487 days) — an average
of four
months away every year. Make
sure you get that - Dubya vacationed 1/3 of his time in the job. The truth is, time off doesn't mean goofing
off. President Bush, for example, met with a variety of foreign leaders at his
ranch. President Obama held a G-8 summit at Camp David. Modern Presidents never
really unplug. But if anyone deserves a vacation, it is the person who serves
in the world's most stressful and demanding job.
So. let's recap. How did you do? Well, Sparky, (and don't
call me "Sarge", because I'm a master Chief petty Officer") if I
were mean spirited, I'd say that you don't
know shit. But since I'm a nice person deep inside (very deep) suffice it to
say that there seem to be gaps in your knowledge. Big wide gaps, which appear
to have been filled with spam e-mails, Faux News drivel and hatred. It makes me
sad.
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