Monday, May 2, 2011

HMMMMM...

So, a couple of Reagan's biggest promises when he got elected president were that he'd shrink the federal government, lower taxes and balance the budget.

He only partially kept one of those promises, he lowered taxes for the wealthiest but for the rest of us no such luck (he actually ended up raising taxes several times over the eight years of his presidency), and he grew the federal government and the deficit to the highest it had been up until that time in history!

It was Clinton, the Democrat, who shrunk the federal government during his tenure as well as eliminated the deficit entirely, giving us the greatest surplus in history.

When Bush Junior was elected he promised a smaller federal government and a more humble USA in respect to the rest of the world, but after 9/11 he changed that to the biggest growth in the federal government since World War two, a more arrogant USA and started talking about "us and them" and promising to get Osama Bin Laden, but then let him get away and let Afghanistan descend into a much worse war than it was at first by ignoring it to concentrate on Iraq which had nothing to do with 9/11 but a lot to do with his wanting to show up his father who let Saddam Hussein off the hook in the first Iraq War, and Junior promised that second Iraq War would be successful and over quickly (and even declared it over just before it became the longest and one of the most costly wars in our history) (and let's not forget Bush/Cheney turning a surplus into the biggest deficit in our nation's history up until that time as well).

But it turned out to be the Democrat. President Obama, who actually took a more humble approach to the rest of the world, but humility with strength, and ended our military involvement in Iraq and "got" Bin Laden.

And though he hasn't kept every promise he made, Obama has kept most of them, including making health care available to pretty much everyone and eliminating insurance companies being able to not cover people with "pre-existing conditions" and enacted a new G.I. Bill for veterans, whereas under Bush/Cheney veterans had it worse than they've had it under almost any administration in our history, and the active troops themselves weren't getting the support they needed either (e.g. armor and armored Humvees, etc.) and stopped the use of water boarding and other forms of torture (though the treatment of Bradley Manning has been a black mark on his administration) and saved not just the USA but the world from another Great Depression, and cut taxes for all of us not just the wealthy and is trying to cut tax breaks for oil companies and other corporations (though he's too cozy with all those Goldman Sachs alumni and should fire the head of GE from any government post and make sure they pay taxes, etc.).

Over all, Obama, like Clinton, has kept more promises than Reagan or Bush/Cheney, including their own (R's & B/C's)! And nailing Bin Laden is just the latest. Give the man his due, Obama is well on the way to being what he said he would be as president, and what Reagan and Bush Junior promised they'd be as well, and much more.

But don't expect the right to give him his props, I already heard fatmouth Rush is claiming all kinds of nonsense about Obama jeopardizing the country etc.

[PS: And I listened to Rush's supposedly giving Obama credit for getting Bin Laden and what Rush is doing is being sarcastic, making the point that the media is supposedly claiming President Obama "single-handedly" (in Rush's term) came up with the plan and executed it etc. so he, Rush, pretends to give Obama credit for that but he actually is letting his listeners know that it was Bush's plan and the military who carried it out and Obama wasn't "the only one in the room" who came up with it, though that's what Rush says, sarcastically. But in fact Obama was given many different options and he went for this one that turned out to be successful, so hurray for Obama, non-sarcastically.]

[PPS: And I'm sure more details will come out and it won't be as smooth as it was first described plus there'll be some details that will have to be explained, like how could a helicopter land inside a fortified and supposedly well-guarded compound and no one on our side get hurt at all and no account of any guards being killed, just Bin Laden, his son, two couriers,  and a woman supposedly being used as "a shield" (the scene looked in photos a little too much like the scene of Chicago Black Panther Fred Hampton's assassination by Chicago cops while he was asleep in bed) but where was the guard with a rocket grenade launcher to take out the helicopter or at least some of the "Navy Seals" that pulled off the raid, I'm proud of the competence shown by our "troops" (I'm guessing some CIA were there too)  but wonder about some of the anomalies in the story so far.]

2 comments:

JIm said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
JIm said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.