The lead story in the Dec. 14, 2009 edition of the Washington Post began: “The Senate cleared for Obama’s signature on Sunday a $447 billion omnibus spending bill that contains thousands of pork projects and double-digit increases for several Cabinet agencies.” The total cost of the Senate bill was $1.1 trillion.
According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, there were 5,200 pork barrel projects in the Senate bill. Pork projects are designed to permit a legislator to build a bridge to nowhere as happened in Alaska at taxpayer expense.
Between the passage of Obama’s stimulus bill in 2009 and September 2010, millions of private sector jobs were lost, but 416,000 new government jobs were created. The administration’s own Recovery Act database revealed that four of every five jobs “created or saved” were in government.
The same week the Post ran Dennis Cauchon’s lead story on Page 1 of USA Today. “Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14 percent to 19 percent of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months.
When the Obama administration took hold, the Department of Defense had 1,868 civilian employees earning $150,000. By December 2009, Defense had 10,000 employees earning $150,000 or more, according to the database. In 2008, the Department of Transportation had 1 person earning $170,000. By 2010, Transportation had 1,690 employees earning in excess of $170,000 per year, the database revealed.
Federal employees earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private sector workers holding comparable positions made $61,051. The federal monetary advantage grew from $30,415 in 2000 to $61,998 in 2009.
In 2011, 21 of Obama’s staff members were paid the maximum allowable salary of $172,000 a year, and a third of all White House employees were paid at least $100,000.
Author Jonathan Alter’s previously mentioned appraisal of Obama as an out-of-control spender is incontestable. In 2009, he took office with the national debt at $10 trillion. In 2013, it is approaching $17 trillion. At the present spending rate Obama will leave office in 2016 with the national debt at $22.4 trillion. Over 4.5 years he has increased the national debt an average of $1.55 trillion per year.
Another fantasy is Obamacare; he claims he will bring 47 million people into a government single payer plan at a considerable saving for every participant. His plan is already having a negative impact on health plan subscribers. In April, a self-employed vendor told me his family health plan premium increased 11.5 percent from $1,400 to $1,561 per month, increasing his yearly premium to $18,732.
In attempting to influence the majority of those citizens satisfied with their health coverage, Obama fudged reality. He said his bill would not force Americans to change their coverage. Obama told the American Medical Association in June 2009, “If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep it.”
The disclosure of that deception came from his Department of Health and Human Services. In 2010, HHS revealed that the government’s mid-range estimate was that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans would be invalid under Obamacare’s rules.
Obamacare will force millions of Americans to change their coverage. Consequently, I believe that insurance companies due to a decline in membership will necessarily increase the premiums of their remaining subscribers.
President Obama is constantly slandering “the rich” for their too-low income tax liability, a baseless charge he uses to develop his socialist agenda. The basis of his radical theory is to create a division within American society that fosters an attitude of us against them — the unaccomplished against the successful.
To disprove his unfounded charge, following is a breakdown of taxes paid in 2007 according to the American Tax Foundation. Top 1 percent 44.42 percent, top 10 percent 71.22 percent, top 25 percent 86.59 percent, top 50 percent 97.11 percent, bottom 50 percent 2.89 percent.
Stephen Moore, Wall Street Journal columnist, compared Obama’s America of 2013 with the nation during President Nixon’s administration: “Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). In 1964, there were 15 million employed in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting government salaries.”
Joseph J. Ryan, Levittown, is a U.S. Marine Corps retiree.
Original Publication URL: http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/opinion/guest/divide-and-conquer-turning-us-against-them/article_1c1ed745-476f-5626-a3ba-702cfb73f4e1.html
Discussion
Sign Up for Updates
