Obama's Failed State
By Stephen Lendman
2-14-13
Obama's State of the Union address didn't surprise. It reflected rogue
leadership. It was beginning-to-end demagogic boilerplate.
Defending the indefensible took center stage. Rhetoric substituted for
progressive policies. Bombast assured business as usual.
Priorities include waging war on humanity, force-fed austerity, ignoring
public needs, institutionalizing a repressive police state apparatus, and
cracking down hard on non-believers.
Doing so assures growing despotism, lawlessness, poverty, unemployment,
homelessness, hunger, and deprivation.
Obama's address targeted Medicare. He called "medical care for the aged
.the
biggest cause of the nation's longterm debt."
He lied. Military spending, imperial wars, Wall Street bailouts, other
corporate handouts, and tax cuts for the rich and business bear full
responsibility.
Falsely blaming Medicare for Washington's malfeasance reveals bipartisan
rogue leadership. It's indicative of what's to come.
In 2009, Obama prioritized cutting healthcare costs and "restoring fiscal
discipline." He made doing so the top "pillars" of his agenda, saying:
We've "kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and
are not in a position to kick it any further."
"We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard
decisions are made under my watch, not someone else's."
"The big problem is Medicare." Its cost is "unsustainable."
"Let's not kid ourselves and suggest that we can solve this problem by
trimming a few earmarks."
The "biggest cost drivers in our budget are entitlement programs like
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, all of which get more and more
expensive every year."
"If we want to get serious about fiscal discipline - and I do - we will have
to get serious about entitlement reform."
Medicare and Social Security aren't entitlements. They're insurance
programs. They're funded by worker/employer payroll tax deductions. They're
contractual federal obligations to eligible recipients who qualify.
Obama did what he does best. He lied. He's a serial liar. He supports wealth
and power. Hes beholden to powerful monied interests. They own him. He
spurns popular needs. He prioritizes letting them go begging on his watch.
He proposed massive Medicare cuts. In 2010, 2011, and last November he urged
more. He's waging class war on Americans.
He wants fundamental social benefits destroyed. He wants ordinary people
hung out to dry. He wants them on own sink or swim.
In 2010, his Simpson-Bowles National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and
Reform (NCFRF) recommended deep Medicare cuts, higher Medicaid co-pays, and
restrictions on filing malpractice suits.
It urged other ways to end Washington's responsibility for healthcare.
Obama's address reiterated support. Implementation assures disaster for
millions.
Healthcare for millions already is unaffordable. Implementing Simpson-Bowles
makes it more so when most needed. Illnesses will go untreated. Pain,
suffering, and early deaths will follow. Rogue leadership assures it. Obama
reflects the worst of irresponsible lawless leaders.
His jobs proposals reveal more. His address rehashed old schemes. His
September 2011 "American Jobs Act" promised "putting more people back to
work" with no plan to do it.
It showed contempt for ordinary households. It was same old, same old. It
concealed another thinly veiled wealth transfer scheme.
It included a laundry list of corporate handouts. Excluded were ways to
create jobs, stimulate growth, reinvigorate Main Street, strengthen
America's middle class, and help growing millions of impoverished,
disadvantaged households most in need.
Obama's address claimed trade deals offshoring jobs to low wage countries
create them. He urge support for current ones being negotiated.
He wants the nearly completed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) adopted. It's
a trade deal from hell. It's a secretive, multi-nation agreement.
Adoption assures unrestricted trade in goods, services, rules of origin,
trade remedies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers,
government procurement and competition policies, and intellectual property
(IP).
Obama want secretive provisions established with no public oversight or
knowledge of their destructive harm. TPP aims to rewrite global IP
enforcement rules. It includes numerous other anti-populist mandates.
National sovereignty is at stake. Signatory countries must change domestic
laws, regulations, and other policies to comply.
What's known subverts US laws. Congress is left powerless. Supranational TPP
authority overrides national sovereignty. Investor rights are prioritized
over public ones.
Obama called for replicating TPP with EU countries. He urged establishing a
Trans-Atlantic Partnership. He prioritizes corporate empowerment over human
rights and needs. He's got much more in mind.
He supports extrajudicial killing. He's got kill list authority. It's
official US policy. Drones are his weapon of choice. He appointed himself
judge, jury and executioner.
He wants anyone he targets assassinated. US citizens are included. Rule of
law protections don't apply. Summary judgment has final say. No one's safe
anywhere. There's no place to hide.
His address made clear where he stands, saying:
"Where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take
direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to
Americans."
Police states operate that way. Murder, Inc. is official policy. He claimed
he "forge(d) a durable legal and policy (enforceable) framework." He usurped
diktat authority.
Doing so subverts fundamental international, constitutional, and US statute
laws. They're null and void. His say overrides them. Unchecked power is
policy. Full-blown tyranny's a hair's breath away. Congressional leaders are
supportive.
Obama's entire address reflected rogue leadership. He wants public schools
modernized by privatizing them. His immigration proposal mocks notions of
welcoming tired, poor, wretched masses yearning to breathe free.
His energy program prioritizes drill, drill, drill. His cybersecurity scheme
involves no-holds-barred cyberwar. His notion of economic prosperity is
greater corporate empowerment and enriching America's privileged.
His housing program lets bankers scam ordinary people. His minimum wage
proposal falls way below the poverty line. His Afghanistan plan is permanent
occupation.
His budget-cutting program targets vitally needed domestic programs. His
entire agenda reflects rogue leadership.
He's got much more in mind. He's got four more years to wage war on
humanity. Expect him to take full advantage.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
[email protected].
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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