#SOTU: An “Imperial President”
To state it mildly, many things in last night’s State of the Union speech weren’t exactly, well, true. Of course lying seems to be a prerequisite for most politicians, especially after another Democrat president desperately tried to define what the word “is” is…
Obamacare: Obama claimed “more than three million Americans under age 26 have gained coverage under their parents’ plans. More than nine million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage.” This is simply not true.
A Washington Post report cited that “only 11 percent of those who signed up for health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges were previously uninsured” and that the sign-ups are actually “closer to 3 million than the over 9 million” the president claimed. But even that number isn’t exact because “no one seems to know if those 3 million have actually enrolled in coverage by paying for it.” And from the Daily Caller: “Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics estimates that perhaps fewer than 10 percent of the reported 3.9 million Medicaid sign-ups could be attributed to Obamacare.”
Foreign Policy: Regarding Iran, perhaps the most disturbing statement of the evening was when Obama said the following:
[L]et me be clear: If this Congress sends me a new sanctions bill now that threatens to derail these talks, I will veto it. For the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed. If Iran’s leaders do not seize this opportunity, then I will be the first to call for more sanctions, and stand ready to exercise all options to make sure Iran does not build a nuclear weapon. But if Iran’s leaders do seize the chance, then Iran could take an important step to rejoin the community of nations, and we will have resolved one of the leading security challenges of our time without the risks of war.
Unfortunately the president is assuming Iran’s leaders are rational, reasonable people who do not want to annihilate anyone who doesn’t have their same religious beliefs. And according to Breitbart, Obama also lied when he stated that Iran has not “begun to eliminate its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium.”
Breitbart’s Joel Pollak writes,
Under the six-month deal–the full text of which has not yet been made available, but whose details were released in general form–Iran will convert its existing highly-enriched uranium to an unusable form. What that means is that it will oxidize the highly-enriched uranium–a reversible process. None of that material will be destroyed or exported outside the country. Nothing, in short, is being “eliminated”–but preserved.Under the six-month deal–the full text of which has not yet been made available, but whose details were released in general form–Iran will convert its existing highly-enriched uranium to an unusable form. What that means is that it will oxidize the highly-enriched uranium–a reversible process. None of that material will be destroyed or exported outside the country. Nothing, in short, is being “eliminated”–but preserved.
Executive Orders: To be fair, Mr. Obama hasn’t enacted any more or less EO’s than any other president (so far). But it’s the way he does it–wielding his powers like a weapon and tiptoeing around the edges of the Constitution–that should give pause to all Americans. Basically Obama restated what he said Wednesday at a Maryland Costco:
Some of my ideas, I’ll need Congress, but Americans can’t just stand still if Congress isn’t doing anything. I’m not going to stand still either. Wherever I can take steps to expand opportunities for more families, I’m going to do it, with or without Congress.
Climate Change/Global Warming/Weather/Whatever: This part of Obama’s speech is apparently not worth mentioning because according to Barack, “the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact.” This he said on the coldest SOTU address in history. Of course, if Obama thinks of “climate change” as WEATHER, as most conservatives do, he would be correct.
Income Inequality (aka Redistribution of Wealth): “Those at the top have never done better,” Obama said. “But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled.” To summarize, I think Friedrich August von Hayek said it best: “A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.”
2nd Amendment: Last year’s SOTU was delivered soon after the Sandy Hook shooting, with the president mentioning “guns” seven times. In contrast, this year he mentioned it only once, but made it clear that he would use his Executive powers in every way possible:
Citizenship means standing up for the lives that gun violence steals from us each day. I have seen the courage of parents, students, pastors, and police officers all over this country who say ‘we are not afraid,’ and I intend to keep trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theaters, shopping malls, or schools like Sandy Hook.
The following is former Senator Jim DeMint’s wrap-up of the SOTU:
January 29, 2014 at 7:54am
Fellow Americans,
You will hear much this week about the state of our union,but we know one thing already — our union will be much weaker and even more divided if the President attempts to rule the country by itself.
President Obama warned that he has a pen and a phone— and that’s all he needs to rule from Washington. The White House said he “doesn’t think the American people would want him to limit himself” to what Congress is doing.
The President is not an innocent bystander. It is his War on Congress, which is really a war on the people’s representative government,that got us into this mess in the first place.
Rather than bringing the country together as he promised, the President divided the nation by passing wasteful stimulus spending and government controlled health care with strictly partisan votes. The president got his way and helped his special interest supporters, but Americans got stuck with the bill as our economy stagnated and as our health care system became more expensive and complicated.
This President has acted like the playground bully who, when he can’t have everything he wants, decides to take his ball and go home.
This is not the way our government is supposed to work.
The President has the sworn duty under our Constitution to“take care that the laws be faithfully executed” — not to unilaterally ignore, amend or rewrite them on his own.
President Obama and his apologists insist that ruling through executive action is the only option because we live in an exceptionally partisan age.
Tell that to Ronald Reagan, who worked with a Congress led by liberal Democrats, or Bill Clinton, who found ways to work with a Congress that had impeached him.
Instead of his forcing through controversial policies that the majority of Americans oppose, we should move forward on ideas that unite America. School choice, welfare reform and debt reduction are areas most Americans agree on.
And on issues on where we disagree, individual states can enact solutions tailored for their citizens. Not every problem demands a response from the U.S. government. Instead of having Washington control programs and purse strings, we should allow the states to develop their own approaches.
I ask President Obama not to divide us further by acting like an imperial president.
The state of our union will be much stronger and more united if he works with the elected representatives of the people, instead of threatening them.
— Jim DeMint
