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Obama's 4 Years Of Deficient Leadership: 47 Mistakes
Posted 11/02/2012 07:11 PM ET
President Obama entered office in January 2009 amid hopes he could solve the nation's problems and bring us all together. The record shows he has... View Enlarged Image
The Record: Big media and left-leaning pundits are engaged in an effort to revise the history of Barack Obama's four years in the Oval Office. But the facts are clear: Obama is the biggest presidential failure in modern history.
Obama is unique among presidents in large part because he fails to even recognize his deficiencies and mistakes — or when he does, he learns the wrong lessons and doubles down on his policies.
Whether it's food stamp rolls that have swollen to 47 million, or the decline in household income that has left millions more with a lower standard of living, or the diminution of esteem for America around the world, Obama's time in office has been subpar.
A by-no-means-exhaustive list of President Obama's deficient results follows. In four short years, he has:
Produced an anemic recovery. Economic growth and job gains have been slower than in almost every other recovery on record. Had this rebound merely matched the post-World War II average, 8 million more people would have jobs and the GDP would be $1.2 trillion bigger. Since the recovery began, real GDP has expanded 7.2% vs. an average at this point since World War II of 15.8%. Put another way, since the start of the recovery, real GDP per person — a measure both of productivity and standard of living — has fallen an unprecedented 1.5%.
Created a large pool of unemployed. Official figures vastly underestimate the severity of joblessness on Obama's watch. Millions have given up looking for work, for example, and don't get counted as unemployed. Between January 2009 and September 2012, the number of people who aren't in the labor force shot up 8.2 million, while the number of employed rose just 787,000. Unemployment today is 7.9% — higher than when Obama entered office.
Vastly expanded the disability rolls. As job prospects diminished, millions of workers applied for federal disability benefits and more than 3.8 million were approved. Today, a record 8.3 million workers are on disability. The result is millions of workers who are likely never to return to the workforce, and billions of dollars in new Social Security and Medicare costs.
Created a food stamp nation. In less than four years, the number of people receiving food stamps has shot up by 15 million. Today, almost one in six Americans is on food stamps. The lousy economy is one reason, but the Obama administration has also pushed to get more people enrolled.
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Massively increased regulations. The federal regulatory state is one of country's few growth industries under this administration, with increases in federal spending and regulatory jobs far outpacing the private sector. A Heritage Foundation analysis found that in his first three years, President Obama imposed nearly four times as many new rules as Bush did in his first three, with a combined annual price tag of $46 billion. In a second term, Obama's agenda could add $128 billion to a regulatory burden that now weighs in at $1.8 trillion.
Hammered the middle class. Median household incomes have dropped 8%, more than during the recession that was ending when Obama took over. From his inauguration to the end of last year, real median household incomes fell 4.7% to $50,054. Only the top 20% have seen gains; every other income group lost ground.
Created business uncertainty. In an interview with the Des Moines Register, the president noted businesses are sitting on huge amounts of cash. And indeed, companies have a record $1.5 trillion in liquid assets. Obama said his policies will help unlock this cash if he gets a second term, but they are what have kept this money bottled up due to uncertainty about taxes, regulations and health costs — not to mention "you didn't build that."
In a recent poll by the National Association of Manufacturers and National Federation of Independent Business, 55% of businesses said they would not have started up in today's economy, and 69% said the current president's policies have hurt their business.
Not lived up to the promises of transparency. The Washington Post, typically a reliable ally of the president, reported that "new evidence suggests that administration officials have struggled to overturn the long-standing culture of secrecy in Washington." Benghazi and Fast and Furious stand out among many other secrets the administration is keeping to itself.
Increased the debt by 50%. When President Obama was a candidate, he promised he would halve the deficit by the end of his first term. Yet every budget since he's been in office has had a larger deficit than the year before and the debt, $10.6 trillion when took office, now exceeds $16 trillion. Rather than cut the deficit by 50%, he's increased the debt by that much. Worse, the long-term liabilities we owe are exploding — by one estimated, we now owe $76 trillion more than we'll take in over the next half century or so. We're on the path to potential insolvency, the magnitude of which the world has never seen.
Pushed ObamaCare. This is the most costly legislation ever, and surely one of the least popular, with over half of Americans saying they don't like it. It will cost as much as $1.5 trillion over the next decade, while imposing new taxes on business and robbing $714 billion from Medicare to pay for it all.
Driven up health care premiums. President Obama said he would "bend the cost-curve down." His reforms would cut the premium for the average family by $2,500 a year, he said, but ObamaCare has done the opposite — costing an extra $2,400, a bigger jump in the last four years than in the previous four under George W. Bush. Health care spending is up an average of $4,500 per individual, reports the Health Care Cost Institute.
Left minorities worse off. ObamaCare threatens thousands of entry-level jobs, as small businesses and big restaurant chains like McDonald's, Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Denny's plan to eliminate full-time positions to avoid the new mandates. Real household incomes for both blacks (down 2%) and Hispanics (off 1.6%) have fallen, while their unemployment rates are up. Joblessness among black youth approaches 30%.
Doubled down on the housing debacle. The Dodd-Frank financial reforms have damaged the U.S. economy by wrongly blaming Wall Street for the financial crisis. It was in fact caused by federal housing policies, starting with President Clinton and leading to Obama, with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out front.
The two GSEs used a near-limitless supply of government-supported funding to push banks into lending to poor households, which couldn't pay the loans back.
This was the start of the crisis. In 2007, Fannie and Freddie held or originated roughly $7 trillion of the $13 trillion in U.S. mortgages. Today, nearly 90% of all new mortgage activity is backed by the bankrupt giants, who have already cost U.S. taxpayers $160 billion and may end up costing $500 billion. Fannie and Freddie are still unreformed and unprivatized.
Exploded spending and the deficit. Deficits have surged despite the president's pledge of a "new era of responsibility." This didn't happen because of "Bush tax cuts." No reputable study claims those cuts caused our trillion-dollar-plus deficits, which have added $5 trillion in debt in just four years. It was excessive spending.
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President Obama increased outlays to nearly 25% of GDP, a record. His plans envision roughly $47 trillion in new spending over the next decade. In the previous 10 years, just $25 trillion was spent. So spending will grow nearly 90%. Is it any wonder the U.S. has lost its AAA rating for the first time since 1917?
Watched college costs surge. The talk was about making tuition more affordable for all. Tuition at four-year public colleges grew by 72% above inflation in the past decade, to an average of $8,244 last year, according to the College Board. Total student debt today is $1 trillion — more than $24,000 per graduate. The trend hasn't slowed under the president.
Meanwhile, 50% of those who have graduated either can't find a job or are working in one that doesn't require a degree — a waste of a generation's skills, talent and training unmatched since the Great Depression.
Dragged his feet on free trade. President Bush signed off on 17 new trade pacts, but President Obama has failed to sign any new agreements on his own watch. Meanwhile, China and the European Union have respectively signed or negotiated 19 and 25, winning new markets. Some 511 trade deals have been done around the world since 2007.
Done nothing as crime has spiked. Violent crime has risen for the first time since 1993, with the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics' annual national crime victimization survey of 2012 reporting assaults up 22%, burglaries up 14%, thefts up 10% and property crimes up 11%. This may be the ultimate bitter fruit of Obamanomics: soaring crime as young people find they have no opportunities in a stagnant economy.
Showed a lack of interest in his job. The commander in chief attended fewer than half of his national security briefings, failed to attend any of his jobs council meetings since 2010 and ignored his own bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission's recommendations on the budget. But he played more rounds of golf, had more date nights and spent more on White House dinners than any president in history.
Blocked badly needed energy development. Obama has stood in the way of new sources of energy — from new pipelines to increased drilling — as gas, oil and electricity costs soared and America stood on the verge of technological revolution that would lead at last to energy independence.
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Killed the Keystone XL pipeline. If built, Keystone would transport an additional 830,000 barrels of oil per day to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast, including 100,000 barrels a day from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana. Its construction would create 20,000 jobs, and it would create hundreds of thousands more over its lifetime.
Wasted billions on "green energy" jobs. After candidate Obama promised to create 5 million green jobs, just 355 direct jobs have been created annually — at a cost of $10 billion — since he took over. A classic example: Battery maker A123 Systems, which got a $250 million grant from "stimulus" money in 2009, created just 400 jobs before folding this year — about $300,000 a job. Now, those jobs are gone.
All told, Obama has spent $86 billion on green stimulus, with nothing other than 50 bankrupt green companies to show for it — including Solyndra, First Solar and Ener1. He has also subsidized production of unsafe electric cars like the Chevy Volt, which few can afford or want to buy, and the Fisker Karma, a car built in Finland by Finnish auto workers.
Waged a war on coal. While campaigning, Obama promised that if anyone built a coal-fired power plant under his watch, "it will bankrupt them." Since he's been in office, his Environmental Protection Agency has targeted coal for added regulations. Coal mines have been shut and jobs lost, and new coal plants are being required to install equipment that hasn't been fully developed yet.
His EPA's regulatory bludgeon will kill an estimated 1.4 million jobs by 2020 and lead to a 23% jump in electric rates in states dependent on coal-fired plants due to EPA rules, fulfilling a 2008 campaign pledge to make electricity prices "necessarily skyrocket."
Limited oil and gas exploration. Some 94% of federal onshore lands and 97% of federal offshore lands are now off-limits. That includes areas like the Green River Formation centered around Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, estimated to contain some 3 trillion barrels of recoverable crude oil — more than any other supply source on Earth. He's also kept Alaska's North Slope from being fully explored, keeping further millions of barrels of oil off the market as energy prices soar.
Doubled gasoline prices by restricting supply. Gas prices were only $1.40 a gallon when he took office. The $2 difference in today's prices from where they were at the start of Obama's term adds $800 a year to the cost of operating a car that gets 25 miles per gallon and racks up 10,000 miles a year, a huge tax increase on the middle class, something he promised not to do.
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Restricted drilling permits. The Heritage Foundation reports that new drilling permits are down 88% from their historical average. Even shallow-water permits, supposedly unaffected by the moratorium, are down 11% from their high after a moratorium on deep-water drilling was imposed in the Gulf of Mexico.
Opposed fracking and other new technologies. These new methods of extracting energy resources have increased oil production and created thousands of jobs on private lands. The EPA has pursued studies and supported environmentalists seeking to show fracking poisons drinking water, despite evidence that this long-used process is not harmful.
Gutted our defense budget. Obama is slashing defense through direct cuts and a sequestration process agreed to as part of the Budget Control Act. Some $500 billion in defense-spending reductions are scheduled to kick in Jan. 2. These cuts come on top of the recently approved $487 billion in cuts to the Defense Department and threaten not only to jeopardize our national security but also gut our skilled defense workforce.
Scrapped or cut badly needed weapons systems. Among these are the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. The Heritage Foundation says that since President Obama took office, more than 50 major weapons programs at a value of more than $300 billion have been cut or delayed, reducing our ability to keep pace with our growing number of potential adversaries.
Given away missile defense to appease Russia. After saying he would push the "reset" button with our former enemy, the president disappointed allies Poland and the Czech Republic by canceling plans for missile defense sites on their territories. He then promised Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have "more flexibility" to further disarm after Tuesday's election.
Downsized the military. The Navy will shrink from 300 ships to 238 and lose two carrier battle groups needed to project American power and influence. Strategic bombers will fall from 153 to 101. Air Force fighters would drop by more than half, from 3,602 aircraft to 1,512 planes.
Mishandled the "Arab Spring." Obama encouraged revolts across North Africa that have now installed the Muslim Brotherhood and related extremist Islamic groups to power in places like Libya and Egypt. Just like President Carter did 33 years ago, Obama watched as a U.S. ally — Hosni Mubarak — was deposed in Egypt and replaced by extremists. Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, likewise, was replaced by extremists.
Syria, a nation on which our secretary of state lavished praise, has murdered thousands to keep Bashar Assad, a puppet of the Russians and Iranians, in power. Strangely, in 2010, when legitimate revolts broke out in Iran against the mullahs, the U.S. went silent.
Ignored the rise of China. The Middle Kingdom has just commissioned its first aircraft carrier and is rapidly building a blue water Navy. It has built its own stealth fighter, a carrier-killing ballistic missile and is threatening Japan and other neighbors over territorial claims in the East and South China Seas. China announced that its military budget in 2012 would rise 11.2% on top of a 12.7% increase last year.
Weakened ties with Israel. The president has assured he "has Israel's back." But Israel now faces very real threats of annihilation, with little clear support from its long-time ally. Fundamentalists in Egypt threaten to break the 33-year old peace treaty. Hamas in Gaza shoots hundreds of rockets at Israel's cities, while in southern Lebanon Hezbollah makes terroristic threats.
Worst of all, Iran now has enough uranium to make five nuclear bombs, and will soon do so. Yet, President Obama has repeatedly snubbed Israel and its leaders, and refuses to draw "red lines" for Iran's misbehavior.
Shrunk our nuclear arsenal. In a quest to seek a "world without nuclear weapons," the president is making the U.S. vulnerable to attack by rivals such as China and Russia, and rogue nations like Iran, North Korea and Pakistan that have nukes or may soon have them. The U.S. has about 5,000 warheads in its arsenal now, and the president's proposed reduction would take that down to 1,500 and eventually to 300. As our current arsenal ages, the commander-in-chief calls for a two-year delay in the development of a new generation of warheads.
Surrendered U.S. sovereignty. Obama pushed the Law of the Sea Treaty, which would turn over freedom of navigation, formerly guaranteed by the U.S. Navy, to an International Seabed Authority run by Third World socialists and land-locked nations that would oversee a redistribution of the ocean's resources and wealth.
Fumbled the pullout from Iraq and Afghanistan. He did this by understaffing ambitious nation-building operations, pulling out before Afghani and Iraqi troops were ready to defend themselves, and by announcing an inflexible pullout date from Afghanistan for purely political purposes, alerting our enemies. Thanks to Obama's "hearts-and-minds" strategy, which hamstrung our troops with impossible rules of engagement, the Taliban has surged instead.
Two-thirds of U.S. deaths in Afghanistan have occurred since President Obama's surge. Hundreds have come at the hands of Taliban posing as Afghan security forces. With training now suspended over growing insider attacks, the Taliban has effectively sabotaged America's exit strategy. Yet instead of hitting harder, the U.S. is negotiating the release of their leaders from Gitmo. Net result: Iran is poised to take over or influence both countries.
Lessened respect for the U.S. around the world. From the president of France remarking privately that President Obama was out of his league, to snide remarks from Chinese officials visiting the White House and commenting disapprovingly on U.S. debt, to Germany's refusal to take Obama's calls on the euro crisis and Britain's recent refusal to let U.S. ships dock at its Indian Ocean bases, it's clear the administration has lost influence around the world, even among allies and trading partners.
More seriously, America's enemies pay little heed to the U.S. as it calls for nations such as Iran to heed its nuclear treaty obligations and Iran thumbs its nose at U.S. threats of sanctions. Venezuela, Cuba and Iran have all taken American hostages with little fear of retribution.
Bailed out the auto industry and auto unions. Through the bailout, Obama rewarded the United Auto Workers union — a political ally — while wreaking havoc on 200 years of bankruptcy precedent, stiffing the bondholders, politically choosing which auto dealerships would live or die, and cheating the pension holders from the non-union Delphi workforce.
Singled out companies for politicized attacks. President Obama accomplished this just as former EPA administrator Al Armendariz prescribed — by "crucifying" companies in public to make an example of them. Among the targets have been Toyota (over safety issues), BP (over the oil spill), Fox News (over its coverage) and Rush Limbaugh (over his radio commentary).
Appointed unaccountable "czars." At one point, the president had 31 czars of this, that or the other thing (including green jobs, TARP, border and terrorism) all of them escaping congressional oversight. Through them, he has enacted major legal changes by regulatory order instead of through working with Congress.
Done nothing about Fast and Furious gunrunning. The president continues to hide Justice Department correspondence under the guise of executive privilege on the Fast and Furious gunrunning case, which armed Mexico's cartels without Mexico's knowledge to whip up domestic support for gun control in the U.S.
Politicized the Justice Department. Obama turned the Justice Department into a political creature, with Exhibit A being DOJ's failure to pursue voter intimidation recorded on film by Philadelphia's Black Panthers.
Scrapped our space program. Rather than search and explore our solar system and beyond, the president turned NASA into a kind of global diversity organization. Asked what his priorities were when appointed, Obama's new head of NASA blithely answered "Muslim outreach." Meanwhile, the U.S. has few new options for sending payloads into space, while both Russia and China build and expand on their space capabilities.
Not defended Americans abroad. This resulted in many casualties, not just in the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Libya, but in the shootings of two CIA employees in Mexico in 2012, the killing of ICE agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico in 2011, the borderland killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010 and the hostage-taking of Alan Gross in Cuba in 2009. The State Department has noted a significant upsurge in imperiled Americans around the world from Venezuela to Iran.
Rebooted rules that caused the subprime crisis. The president readopted the Clinton administration's regulatory guidelines for "flexible" underwriting. He has also ordered bank defendants to set aside millions in mortgages for minorities who, according to Justice Department documents, "would ordinarily not qualify for reasons including the lack of required credit quality, income or down payment."
Mainstreamed the radical Muslim agenda. While the White House has rolled out the red carpet for Muslim Brotherhood leaders — despite their recently revealed goal of "destroying" America "from within" — the Justice Department has defended legal cases involving Sharia doctrine.
Also at the request of Brotherhood leaders, it has bleached "jihad" and other Islamic references from counterterrorism training materials used by federal law enforcement. So sensitized has the government become that recent military exercises used "zombies" rather than our real living, breathing foes — radical Islamic fundamentalists — as opponents.
Pushed stimulus and TARP. So much spending, so little result. Based on the Keynesian fallacy that government spending boosts the economy, the massive $862 billion stimulus bill and bailouts under TARP ended up being a goody-bag for politically connected companies and public-sector unions.
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At any rate, the idea that $1 of spending by government could somehow create more than $1 of economic activity in the private sector has been debunked. With 47 million people living in poverty and an estimated 23 million either without jobs or underemployed, the failure of Obama's stimulus to stimulate anything is clear.
Quite a list, isn't it? In fact, we had to cut some things out for space considerations. No doubt, you can think of others. Suffice to say, Obama has not done his job well — and, as we say elsewhere, it's time for a change.
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