Part 2: Policy and Issues
Hope.
Change.
There's Obama's platform in a nutshell for you. Apparently, that's all people need to hear. He has been preaching this rhetoric for most of his political career. The Audacity of Hope, Obama's book that gives an "insight" into his political ideas, is full of colorful imagery expressing the values of hope and change.
One problem: His political career has shown no evidence of the sort. In fact, Obama has only been apart of two laws/bills/acts that involve reform. That's right. Two. The Illinois Ethics Law and The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.
When it comes to the tough issues, Obama has been MIA. Obama voted "present" 130 times (the most by any Illinois legislator) and was absent all together on the toughest issues. This has also carried over to his federal career.
Obama has said that his increase in taxes would not hurt the American middle class. Just those rich enough to support the rest of us. Michelle Obama was quoted as saying, "The truth is, in order to get things like universal healthcare and [a] revamped education system then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so someone else can have more." Seriously? Is that the American dream? As recently as March 2008, Obama voted to raise taxable incomes if greater than $32,500 (from 25% to 28%). What is his view of the middle class?!?! He wants to return the personal income tax rates to 2000, this would be the highest increase in history. Obama wants to preserve the death tax and raise capital gains taxes from 15% to 20-28%. He also wants social security funds to be taken back by the government and not passed on to the surviving family.
In Audacity, Obama speaks highly of his vision for education reform. However, during his 12 years of public service at the state level, Obama was a defender of the status quo. The best example of this is his relationship with the Chicago Teacher's Union (CTU). With $10,500 spent per student (20% above the national average), Chicago students are among the most at-risk students in the nation while the teachers are among the highest paid. Shockingly, the teacher union has fought for a shortened school day (5 1/2 hours) and a shortened school year. Obama has supported all of the above. Why? Guess who is a major contributor to the Obama campaign? CTU.
On June 19, 2008 Obama flipped his position on public financing even though he has been a "lifelong advocate" for it. He claimed the reason was because of defense tactics toward the Republican 527 groups. He forgot to mention that the Democrat 527groups have already outraised them 2 to 1. He also claims that it is a broken system. "But in order to fix it, Barack Obama must first break it some more. He needs your contributions to help. You can donate through his website. All proceeds go toward reform" (Freddoso, 2008).
Obama has backed federal legislation that would ban citizens the right to bear arms. He consistently votes against free trade (to be fair, he did vote yes once...for the Sultanate of Oman). He wants to tax small businesses that cannot afford health care for its employees. This is the tax that is designed to cover the high costs of his proposed health care plan. In Illinois, he pushed for panel members that would control drug prices and auto insurance. He opposed, until recently, oil drilling even though the U.S. produces 40% of its own oil and any increase in output would help to decrease foreign costs. Mr. Obama claims to have passed a 1997 welfare reform bill that slashed rolls by 80%. However, at the time, he opposed welfare reform and tried to weaken it. He added himself as a co-sponsor because it had to pass federal regulations. He currently refuses to discuss welfare reform. He votes for "pet projects" (instead of New Orleans levees, bridge maintenance, etc.) and against the removal of earmarks. In fact, he was the author of 29 earmarks in spending bills that equaled 10.7 million dollars.
Obama, for some reason or another, is in love with the thought of ethanol. His energy plan is based around it. He wants to outlaw cars that cannot run on ethanol by 2010. Ethanol has contributed to high food prices, exhausting water supplies, driving up gasoline, driving up coal emissions. Ethanol, according to many energy experts, has so contribution to energy independence. America's entire 6.5 billion gallon ethanol production created the net energy of 2.2 days worth of gasoline consumption. 2.2 days worth! The federal and state governments are spending a combined 14.6 billion dollars on this energy and Obama wants to triple that!
Obama voted against the International Criminal Court during Clinton and for it during Bush. Barack Obama's church of 20 years is a supporter of legal abortion. He has a 100% rating on pro-abortion issues and has vowed to pass the Freedom of Choice Act that would cancel every state, federal, and local regulations on abortion. He voted to preserve government funding for abortions (that means you and I pay for them) and he has rallied around partial-birth abortion and against the Born Alive Act (babies that survive abortion should be given the chance to live...Obama says no). His judicial judges will treat the Constitution as a living document.
Finally, the issue of Iraq. I almost feel ashamed for posting this out of fairness because, frankly, Obama doesn't know either. Here is a timeline of Obama and Iraq (simplified, the details would make it even more confusing):
In 2002, he opposed the war
In 2004, he was with Bush's plan for Iraq, because he thought it would help Kerry
In 2006, he opposed a withdrawal date saying that it would cause chaos and more violence
In late 2006, when he started running against Hillary, he came out for an immediate withdrawal
In 2007, just in time to affect the Iowa caucuses, he released his plan for withdrawal (march 2008)
In 2007, he was against the surge
Thanks to David Freddoso for making this information available to all. Next: Part 3: Ties and Relationships
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