Obama's Selective State Of The Union Amnesia
In the State of the Union, President Barack Obama engaged a series of lofty goals and challenges for the American people, and for Congress. He railed on education, military preparedness and spending. It was all vaguely familiar. He has said just the opposite over the past four years. It's easy to explain; President Obama lied has selective amnesia.
President Obama's speech was better suited for a campaign stop than a State of the Union speech. Instead of addressing the real issues the nation faces, President Obama pushed platitudes and rhetoric. In addressing the debt and the deficit (two very, very different things) Obama stated: (emphasis mine)
"Tonight I'll lay out additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago. Let me repeat: Nothing I'm proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. It is not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Anyone who pays attention - at all! - to Obama's record and rhetoric knows that this does not match up to his history. Obama's first four years were dedicated to bigger government. His own words about "You didn't build that" were about government being the driver of a "better" society. His own outlandish spending has added $6 Trillion the debt, with deficits of over $1 Trillion each year he has been in office thus far.
Obama also referred to his "Fix-It First" plan, saying:
"Ask any CEO where they'd rather locate and hire, a country with deteriorating roads and bridges or one with high-speed rail and Internet, high-tech schools, self- healing power grids...Tonight, I propose a "Fix-It First'' program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country."
Is that déjà vu you're experiencing? Yes, it is. "Fix-It First" used to have another name - "Shovel-Ready Jobs." It was shovel-ready jobs that were supposed to seriously reduce the unemployment rate. Why else spend all that money? Yet, even President Obama noted that those jobs were not as shovel-ready as he expected. Should America believe him now because he gave the same idea a new name?
The most glaring case of amnesia came as he talked about protecting Americans overseas:
"As long as I'm commander-in-chief, we will do whatever we must to protect those who serve their country abroad, and we will maintain the best military the world has ever known."
Some one should check that Mr. Obama hasn't taken a fall like Hillary. How can he say this with a straight face? As Guy Benson of TownHall.com put it, it's simply "astounding:"
"Just six months ago, our diplomats in Benghazi were attacked and murdered by terrorists on 9/11. The battle at two US compounds lasted nearly eight hours, during which time no resources were deployed to rescue our besieged personnel. The attack came on the heels of multiple requests for increased security in Libya (and Benghazi specifically), which were inexplicably denied. We still do not know why they were rebuffed, nor do we know what the president was doing during the prolonged battle. We do know that he wasn't actively engaged in his Commander-in-chief duties while these Americans' lives were in grave danger, and they died. Given the slaughter at the consulate and the administration's subsequent stonewalling, this passage in the speech was actually insulting."
Then came a retake on one of his favorite phrases, which I pointed out on Twitter: (emphasis mine)
"To hit the rest of our deficit reduction target, we should do what leaders in both parties have already suggested and save hundreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and the well-connected."
The "well-off and the well-connected" is the new "millionaires and billionaires." The implication - again! - is that they are unfairly advantaged because they know the right people. Class warfare is here to stay in Term the Second.
He's already won re-election, he's giving his fourth State of the Union address, and he's still campaigning. Valerie! Eric! Michelle! Tell him its over already! Almost a month after the Inauguration, President Obama is still trying to win by dividing Americans and trashing the GOP.
Don't look for the mainstream media to further expose this selective déjà vu. They will focus on what's really important; Sen. Marco Rubio's sip of water. Seems they are in perpetual campaign mode as well. Selective amnesia strikes again!
