I began to dissect the following checklist of Obama accomplishments in Part 1 of this multi-part series. I’m pleased to say that we have reached the 5th and final part in which I address the remaining falsehoods, misrepresentations, and fantasies and dispatch them one by one.
The troubling thing for me is the knowledge that, despite the ready availability of information that blows these claims out of the water, the Obama administration will continue to trumpet them as if they are true – and millions of voters will believe him.
OUR PRESIDENT’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Got Osama Bin Laden – CHECK (answered in Part 1)
- Unemployment rate down to 8.5% – CHECK (answered in Part 1)
- 1.6 million jobs created with no GOP help – CHECK (answered in Part 2)
- 22 months of job and economic growth with no GOP help – CHECK (answered in Part 2)
- Ended war in Iraq – CHECK (answered in Part 2)
- DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell) repealed- CHECK (answered in Part 2)
- Not one tax hike in 3 years – CHECK (answered in Part 2)
- By merely being smart, dignified, calm, cool, and Black, brought out spoken and unspoken RACISM in the GOP – CHECK (answered in Part 3)
- Still carries 80+% of the black vote – CHECK (answered in Part 3)
- Same wife for 15 years with NO extra marital affairs – CHECK (answered in Part 3)
- Can flat out sing – CHECK (answered in Part 3)
- Saved the auto industry and 1.5 million jobs – CHECK (answered in Part 4)
- Assisted in ousting Ghaddafi – CHECK (answered in Part 4)
- Only active President to receive Nobel Peace Prize while in office – CHECK (answered in Part 4)
- Mortgage modification to prevent homeowners from losing their homes -CHECK
- STILL fighting for middle class families – CHECK
- Reformed affordable healthcare – CHECK
15. Mortgage modification to prevent homeowners from losing their homes – CHECK
There’s a bit of ambiguity here, but as most of you know there was a 2009 modification program and now there’s Obama’s new refinance program that was launched at the end of January. On February 1, CNN Money reported:
The Obama administration on Wednesday detailed its latest plan to help millions of homeowners refinance their mortgages to today’s historically-low rates.
The plan, which requires approval by Congress, would allow borrowers who are current on their mortgage to save an average of $3,000 a year by refinancing into loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The plan is estimated to cost between $5 billion and $10 billion. To pay for it, President Obama said he does not plan to add to the deficit. Instead, he wants to impose a fee on large banks — a move that may have a hard time making it past members of Congress, who have rejected the notion of taxing the banks in the past.
Since when has Barack Obama been concerned about adding to the deficit? He’s spent money at will for the past three years, but now he’s concerned about the deficit. Right. So, he’s going to pay for this new federal program by taxing the banks. And the banks are going to just take this lying down? Of course not, they’re going to pass the cost off to the consumer in whatever form it may take – increased ATM fees, checking account fees, etc. The banks aren’t just going to hemorrhage money for the sake of Obama and his big-hearted program.
Never forget that – regardless of the outcome – Democrats have big hearts and Obama is looking out for the little guy. He’s going to make sure that government steps in to defend the rights of the homeowner. And as we all know the well-intentioned programs of a far-reaching government always work out in the long run.
Less than a year after Obama’s 2009 loan modification program was announced, Peter Goodman at the New York Times sadly announced:
The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good.
Since President Obama announced the program in February, it has lowered mortgage payments on a trial basis for hundreds of thousands of people but has largely failed to provide permanent relief. Critics increasingly argue that the program, Making Home Affordable, has raised false hopes among people who simply cannot afford their homes.
As a result, desperate homeowners have sent payments to banks in often-futile efforts to keep their homes, which some see as wasting dollars they could have saved in preparation for moving to cheaper rental residences. Some borrowers have seen their credit tarnished while falsely assuming that loan modifications involved no negative reports to credit agencies.
Obama’s 2009 program didn’t stop people from losing their homes, but we’re to assume that his new scheme will work in the favor of homeowners. Ever notice how there’s no one in the media calling Obama on his previously failed attempts? His intentions were genuine. We can’t go back and judge failed government policy. Not only is Obama going to allow for homeowners to refinance through the government but now he’s sending out checks to foreclosed homeowners.
Banks are going to be sending checks for $1,500 to $2,000 to up to a million people who were kicked out of their houses and have claimed that “servicing abuse” occurred during the process. The payouts will be nearly instantaneous: “…we don’t read anything, it’s check the box,” says one state AG negotiator.
And while that money isn’t going to make much difference to someone who lost their house years ago, it certainly can’t hurt a struggling family–or, for that matter, Obama and his party in an election year. Furthermore, you’ll hear Obama aides say that the deal represents the biggest principal write down since the housing collapse. That’s a modest statement, since government programs aimed at encouraging principal write downs have fallen way short of their initial targets. But being able to make the claim is convenient for Obama’s re-election effort.
And isn’t that what this all boils down to? Obama takes money from you to give to somebody else so that he can ensure re-election.
16. STILL fighting for middle class families – CHECK
Talk about another ambiguous proclamation. Isn’t this the case with all presidents; regardless of whether it’s actually happening or not? Jimmy Carter was fighting for middle class families too. How did that work out? In November of 1980, middle class families sent him packing in favor of Ronald Reagan. Obama’s out to eradicate the middle class and he’s doing a bang-up job.
17. Reformed affordable healthcare – CHECK
Reform is a term used inaccurately here. There was a wholesale scrapping of the private healthcare industry in favor of socialized medicine. The transition will not be immediate, but come 2014 the process will take effect fairly quickly. If it is not repealed, Obamacare will change the landscape of the country, forever redefining the role of our Constitution and our relationship with government.
After all, if government can force you to buy health insurance, it can force you to buy anything. It’s as simple than that. This new law slaps the face of our individual rights protected under the Constitution and over 200 years of legal precedent are being trampled in favor of Obama’s vision of fairness and equality.
In the Age of Obama, we have been told that it is a right to have access to free healthcare. Some have even called it an unalienable right. Nevertheless, the right to free healthcare is a foreign concept to the Constitution and the ideas of our Founders. There are basic rights protected by the Constitution, but access to free healthcare is not among them.
Karl Marx would be applauding the president as our Founders weep.
