As Obama Shreds The Constitution And Drives America To The Brink Of Bankruptcy, Where's The Outrage?
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Don Feder
04/05/2011
Where’s the outrage?
Given what Barack Obama is doing to the Constitution, the economy and our future, the American people should be up in arms (metaphorically speaking, civility-hysterics take note). Citizens should be marching on Washington with pitchforks and flaming brands in hand (also a metaphor). Every city should see demonstrations to make the most raucous Tea Party rally look like Sunday night in Pierre, S.D.
Instead, it’s a mental fog as usual. Hey, the unemployment rate is now (barely) below 9%! Wasn’t that a cold winter? Gee, I wonder what zany, drug-induced thing Charlie Sheen will do next?
So, while America burns, we fiddle with our iPhones and talk about the upcoming HBO series about vampire bootleggers and Borgias duking it out in Camelot.
Other than Tea Party activists, the public seems supremely unperturbed by Obama’s relentless assault on America. The president’s March 21-27 approval rating was 45%. At the same point in their first terms, Clinton’s approval rating was only three points higher – Reagan’s three points lower. Both were reelected, you may recall.
It’s true that since Obama occupied the White House, his party’s stock has taken a nose-dive – a net loss of 9 governorships, 7 Senate seats and 60 House seats. But there’s no guarantee that trend will continue.
The leader of the party that whines incessantly about the influence of money in politics has announced he’ll spend $1 billion to win reelection. Millions will continue to be shoveled at the Democrats’ constituencies – which is what the administration means by shovel-ready projects. The establishment media will continue to serve as the newsletter of the Campaign To Resurrect The President. The Battle of Madison was a sneak preview of the violence, intimidation and lawlessness to come.
I’d feel better if the public took more than a passing interest in the following:
• Libya – Instead of Odyssey Dawn, Obama’s Libyan intervention should have been called Operation We Don’t Need No Stinkin Constitution!
As a U.S. Senator in 2007, Obama warned, “The president does not have the power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” For Iraq and Afghanistan – which the left called illegal wars – Bush got Congressional authorization, if not exactly a declaration of war. Obama got nada. He says he consulted some (unnamed) members of Congress. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich notes that in the president’s March 29 address to the nation, he mentioned Congress just once and the UN Security Council or the Arab League 8 times. The president is just bursting with pride that he went into the conflict armed with a Security Council resolution and a thumbs-up from the human-rights champions of the Arab League.
Now we have the Obama Doctrine: The U.S. can’t use force without international authorization. Imagine the following scenario: Israel is attacked by Iran, Syria and Egypt. A future president wants to help our only real ally in the Middle East. Sorry, we can’t intervene without the permission of the U.N. Security Council. Whenever Obama establishes a precedent, be sure it will come back to haunt us.
In order to justify his action, the president proclaimed – with a straight face – that, without our air strikes, Khadafy would have massacred civilians, which would have posed a dire threat to our national security – unlike all of the massacres of civilians in Rwanda, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon – to name but a few fun spots – which apparently did not impact on our national security. Khadafy is such a beast that less than a year ago, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly elected Libya to the UN Human Rights Council.
The Colonel is such a threat to world peace that Obama wanted to give Libya military aid in 2009. And weeks before we began bombing his armored columns, his 27-year-old son Khamis got a red-carpet tour of the United States, including the Air Force Academy. Khadafy Jr. returned to Libya to command an elite unit of Dad's army.
When it comes to intervention, Obama is the Wizard of You-Can’t-Process-Him-With-A-Normal-Brain. A March 21st story in The New York Times noted that the Muslim Brotherhood (“an Islamist group once banned by the state”) is now a tacit partner with Egypt’s military government. This is exactly what Mubarak predicted when Obama pulled the rug out from under him. In Libya, multiple intelligence sources suggest that the rebellion is, at the very least, heavily influenced by Al-Qaeda. What exotic port-of-call shall we visit next, ‘O Captain, My Captain of the Titanic?
• Energy – And what better time to try to kill domestic energy production than with the Middle East in turmoil?
Gas inching toward $4.00 a-gallon? No problem. In 2008, Steven Chu, now Obama’s Secretary of Energy (I wish I was kidding) told The Wall Street Journal, “Somehow, we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” while the future president admitted, “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” – a great way to cut down on energy consumption by greedy, polluting Americans.
Since he couldn’t get his beloved cap-and-tax, Obama is driving up the cost of energy by driving down domestic production.
A year ago, he re-imposed a ban on most off-shore drilling. (America has an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 400 trillion cubic feet of gas offshore.) In 2009, the Energy Information Administration predicted a 9% increase in U.S. oil production in 2011. Instead, thanks to the demented environmentalist in the White House, EIA is now forecasting a 13% decrease this year, or the loss of around 220,000 barrels a day.
During his recent visit to Brazil, Obama praised that nation for its new off-shore finds and pledged that the U.S. would be a “major customer” for Brazil’s major “stable new sources of energy” – sources that America will never develop as long as Omaba is president.
• Comin’ In On A Mega Deficit And a Prayer – As of April 4 (at 7:26:59 P.M. GMT), the National Debt stood at $14.286 trillion. Since September 28, 2007, the debt has increased by an average of $4.11 billion per day. In just two years and two months, Obama has increased the National Debt by around 25%.
We’ve had only three deficits of over $1 trillion – all of them under the Barack Hussein who declared jihad on the U.S. Treasury. Under the course currently charted by the president, the administration projects that by the end of 2021, the National Debt will reach $26.3 trillion, or 90% of GDP.
But, not to worry, with a 2012 budget of $3.7 trillion, Obama is promising deep cuts in spending – which will materialize about the time his birth certificate is found.
As Himself explained in July 2010, “We now have to, in a gradual way, reduce spending – but do so in a way that doesn’t hurt people.” Whenever the left talks about cutting spending (spending less money we don’t have), it’s always based on conditions that will never exist.
Want to cut entitlement spending? That hurts the poor. Get rid of subsidies for Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio? That hurts the abortion lobby and those who think the mainstream media is too “conservative.” Less spending on infrastructure and economic stimulus? You’re killing job-creation. Whatever cuts are proposed, Obama will tell you it hurts people. At the same time, no one is hurt by monetizing the debt – accompanied by soaring prices, loss of value of investments (including retirement accounts), the drying up of private capital, and looming economic collapse – not much.
• ObamaCare, Unpopular, Unconstitutional – And We Can’t Afford It! – ObamaCare is now one-year old.
The enabling legislation was written behind closed doors. It passed Congress on a straight party-line vote. In the House and Senate, not a single Republican voted for it – not even Republicans who consider voting with their party sacrilegious.
Opinion polls show a growing majority of Americans want it repealed – 62% in a late March Rasmussen survey.
Two federal judges have found it unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge C. Roger Vinson wrote that, “Never before has Congress required that everyone buy a product from a private company (essentially for life) just for being alive and residing in the United States.” Vinson noted, if Congress has the power “to compel an otherwise passive individual into a transaction … it is not hyperbolic to suggest that Congress could do almost anything it wanted.” To date, 30 states are challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare.
The administration hasn’t appealed either decision. It’s afraid a higher court might confirm. Instead, it just ignores the rulings, pretending they never happened. This from the folks who insist that the federal judiciary has the absolute authority to decide what is and isn’t constitutional. Did I mention the cost – $950 billion, initially? ObamaCare – price, almost a trillion at the outset. Socializing one-tenth of the economy and giving bureaucrats the power of life and death? Priceless.
Do you see a pattern emerging – unconstitutional wars, unconstitutional programs, destruction of domestic energy production, nationalization of health care, soaring spending, galloping deficits and an economy teetering on the brink. And that’s after only two years and two months.
So, where’s the outrage? Are Americans like the proverbial lobsters left so long in water whose temperature has been gradually raised that they don’t even know when they’re being boiled?
Instead of shutting down the government, could we just shut down the White House?
Instead, it’s a mental fog as usual. Hey, the unemployment rate is now (barely) below 9%! Wasn’t that a cold winter? Gee, I wonder what zany, drug-induced thing Charlie Sheen will do next?
So, while America burns, we fiddle with our iPhones and talk about the upcoming HBO series about vampire bootleggers and Borgias duking it out in Camelot.
Other than Tea Party activists, the public seems supremely unperturbed by Obama’s relentless assault on America. The president’s March 21-27 approval rating was 45%. At the same point in their first terms, Clinton’s approval rating was only three points higher – Reagan’s three points lower. Both were reelected, you may recall.
It’s true that since Obama occupied the White House, his party’s stock has taken a nose-dive – a net loss of 9 governorships, 7 Senate seats and 60 House seats. But there’s no guarantee that trend will continue.
The leader of the party that whines incessantly about the influence of money in politics has announced he’ll spend $1 billion to win reelection. Millions will continue to be shoveled at the Democrats’ constituencies – which is what the administration means by shovel-ready projects. The establishment media will continue to serve as the newsletter of the Campaign To Resurrect The President. The Battle of Madison was a sneak preview of the violence, intimidation and lawlessness to come.
I’d feel better if the public took more than a passing interest in the following:
• Libya – Instead of Odyssey Dawn, Obama’s Libyan intervention should have been called Operation We Don’t Need No Stinkin Constitution!
As a U.S. Senator in 2007, Obama warned, “The president does not have the power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” For Iraq and Afghanistan – which the left called illegal wars – Bush got Congressional authorization, if not exactly a declaration of war. Obama got nada. He says he consulted some (unnamed) members of Congress. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich notes that in the president’s March 29 address to the nation, he mentioned Congress just once and the UN Security Council or the Arab League 8 times. The president is just bursting with pride that he went into the conflict armed with a Security Council resolution and a thumbs-up from the human-rights champions of the Arab League.
Now we have the Obama Doctrine: The U.S. can’t use force without international authorization. Imagine the following scenario: Israel is attacked by Iran, Syria and Egypt. A future president wants to help our only real ally in the Middle East. Sorry, we can’t intervene without the permission of the U.N. Security Council. Whenever Obama establishes a precedent, be sure it will come back to haunt us.
In order to justify his action, the president proclaimed – with a straight face – that, without our air strikes, Khadafy would have massacred civilians, which would have posed a dire threat to our national security – unlike all of the massacres of civilians in Rwanda, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon – to name but a few fun spots – which apparently did not impact on our national security. Khadafy is such a beast that less than a year ago, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly elected Libya to the UN Human Rights Council.
The Colonel is such a threat to world peace that Obama wanted to give Libya military aid in 2009. And weeks before we began bombing his armored columns, his 27-year-old son Khamis got a red-carpet tour of the United States, including the Air Force Academy. Khadafy Jr. returned to Libya to command an elite unit of Dad's army.
When it comes to intervention, Obama is the Wizard of You-Can’t-Process-Him-With-A-Normal-Brain. A March 21st story in The New York Times noted that the Muslim Brotherhood (“an Islamist group once banned by the state”) is now a tacit partner with Egypt’s military government. This is exactly what Mubarak predicted when Obama pulled the rug out from under him. In Libya, multiple intelligence sources suggest that the rebellion is, at the very least, heavily influenced by Al-Qaeda. What exotic port-of-call shall we visit next, ‘O Captain, My Captain of the Titanic?
• Energy – And what better time to try to kill domestic energy production than with the Middle East in turmoil?
Gas inching toward $4.00 a-gallon? No problem. In 2008, Steven Chu, now Obama’s Secretary of Energy (I wish I was kidding) told The Wall Street Journal, “Somehow, we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” while the future president admitted, “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” – a great way to cut down on energy consumption by greedy, polluting Americans.
Since he couldn’t get his beloved cap-and-tax, Obama is driving up the cost of energy by driving down domestic production.
A year ago, he re-imposed a ban on most off-shore drilling. (America has an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 400 trillion cubic feet of gas offshore.) In 2009, the Energy Information Administration predicted a 9% increase in U.S. oil production in 2011. Instead, thanks to the demented environmentalist in the White House, EIA is now forecasting a 13% decrease this year, or the loss of around 220,000 barrels a day.
During his recent visit to Brazil, Obama praised that nation for its new off-shore finds and pledged that the U.S. would be a “major customer” for Brazil’s major “stable new sources of energy” – sources that America will never develop as long as Omaba is president.
• Comin’ In On A Mega Deficit And a Prayer – As of April 4 (at 7:26:59 P.M. GMT), the National Debt stood at $14.286 trillion. Since September 28, 2007, the debt has increased by an average of $4.11 billion per day. In just two years and two months, Obama has increased the National Debt by around 25%.
We’ve had only three deficits of over $1 trillion – all of them under the Barack Hussein who declared jihad on the U.S. Treasury. Under the course currently charted by the president, the administration projects that by the end of 2021, the National Debt will reach $26.3 trillion, or 90% of GDP.
But, not to worry, with a 2012 budget of $3.7 trillion, Obama is promising deep cuts in spending – which will materialize about the time his birth certificate is found.
As Himself explained in July 2010, “We now have to, in a gradual way, reduce spending – but do so in a way that doesn’t hurt people.” Whenever the left talks about cutting spending (spending less money we don’t have), it’s always based on conditions that will never exist.
Want to cut entitlement spending? That hurts the poor. Get rid of subsidies for Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio? That hurts the abortion lobby and those who think the mainstream media is too “conservative.” Less spending on infrastructure and economic stimulus? You’re killing job-creation. Whatever cuts are proposed, Obama will tell you it hurts people. At the same time, no one is hurt by monetizing the debt – accompanied by soaring prices, loss of value of investments (including retirement accounts), the drying up of private capital, and looming economic collapse – not much.
• ObamaCare, Unpopular, Unconstitutional – And We Can’t Afford It! – ObamaCare is now one-year old.
The enabling legislation was written behind closed doors. It passed Congress on a straight party-line vote. In the House and Senate, not a single Republican voted for it – not even Republicans who consider voting with their party sacrilegious.
Opinion polls show a growing majority of Americans want it repealed – 62% in a late March Rasmussen survey.
Two federal judges have found it unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge C. Roger Vinson wrote that, “Never before has Congress required that everyone buy a product from a private company (essentially for life) just for being alive and residing in the United States.” Vinson noted, if Congress has the power “to compel an otherwise passive individual into a transaction … it is not hyperbolic to suggest that Congress could do almost anything it wanted.” To date, 30 states are challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare.
The administration hasn’t appealed either decision. It’s afraid a higher court might confirm. Instead, it just ignores the rulings, pretending they never happened. This from the folks who insist that the federal judiciary has the absolute authority to decide what is and isn’t constitutional. Did I mention the cost – $950 billion, initially? ObamaCare – price, almost a trillion at the outset. Socializing one-tenth of the economy and giving bureaucrats the power of life and death? Priceless.
Do you see a pattern emerging – unconstitutional wars, unconstitutional programs, destruction of domestic energy production, nationalization of health care, soaring spending, galloping deficits and an economy teetering on the brink. And that’s after only two years and two months.
So, where’s the outrage? Are Americans like the proverbial lobsters left so long in water whose temperature has been gradually raised that they don’t even know when they’re being boiled?
Instead of shutting down the government, could we just shut down the White House?
My note:
