By Herman Cain
As primary elections are settled around the country, it is not too early to start remembering what people should remember in November. With all of the distractions coming out of Washington through the filter of the media, it is easy for people to forget come Election Day.
This writer will not forget. Here are some of the things this administration and Congress have done to deceive, mislead and insult the American people:
TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program): $750 billion
When the financial institutions started paying the taxpayers back with interest, the Democrats, led by Representative Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), wanted to use the interest for other purposes instead of paying down debt as specified in the legislation. This is just dishonest – to tell the public one thing and then change the law later to be able to add to the national debt instead of reducing it.
Stimulus spending bill: $862 billion
This was a deceptive bill. It was supposed to keep unemployment below 8 percent and create jobs. It did not. Instead, the administration concocted a “saved jobs” concept to help disguise the deception. Gross Domestic Product growth is still sluggish, and unemployment has remained high at 9.5 percent. Businesses are in a state of “survive” rather than a growth mode because of all the uncertainties created by the administration and Congress. Even though the stimulus bill has not worked, the administration and Congress keep spending and plan on raising taxes.
Health Care Deform legislation: $1 trillion
The president and the Democrat-controlled Congress passed this legislation against the will of the majority of the American people. Currently, an even larger majority of Americans want this legislation repealed and the president and Congress continue to ignore their wishes. And more insulting, Democrats voting for the legislation did not read it. Speaker Pelosi even said “We must pass it so we can then tell you what’s in it”.
Cap & Trade & Tax & Kill bill
No members of Congress read this bill either as it sailed through the House with only Democrats and one freshman Republican voting for it. Fortunately, the outcry by the people caused it to not go through the Senate as fast and it is still on the back burner, where it should die a quiet death. This legislation is a tax on our economy and businesses, and is based on faulty science which has been exposed. The Democrats and the president want to pass it anyway.
Annual Deficits
The largest annual deficit for President George Bush was during his last year in office ($455 billion in FY 2008). The annual deficits under President Obama’s first two years of FY 2009 and FY 2010 were $1.7 trillion and $1.6 trillion, respectively. This is why the national debt is growing so fast. President Obama said in December 2008: “Deficits don’t matter”. They do matter to the American people and the future of this country.
National Debt is nearly $14 trillion
Nearly $4 trillion has been added to the national debt since President Obama took office less than two years ago with a Democrat-controlled Congress. This is in contrast to the $4 trillion added to the national debt during eight years of the Bush administration. The Congressional Budget Office and others have warned that this is unsustainable, but the president and the Democrats continue to ignore these warnings.
Financial Deform legislation
This legislation is another unnecessary new bureaucracy created by the same two Members of Congress (Senator Dodd and Rep. Frank) who chaired Congressional Committees that allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fail. Their failure was the catalyst for the financial meltdown of 2008 and 2009. Get this! The new legislation excludes Fannie and Freddie from oversight by the newly created bureaucracy. Fannie Mae is now seeking a second bailout of $1.5 billion after 12 straight quarters of loses, and Freddie Mac is asking for $1.8 billion of additional bailout money.
Another $26.1 billion
Speaker Pelosi called Members of Congress back from August recess to pass this “emergency” jobs bill. Sixteen billion dollars went to the states that had done the worst job of managing their Medicaid program, and $10 billion were targeted to save teacher jobs. Right! One caller last week appropriately called it a “snow jobs” bill.
The political arrogance, waste of taxpayers’ money and abuse of power by this administration and Congress has been unprecedented. If people remember in November, we can make an unprecedented change of control in Congress.
It’s November or never.
