Tag Archives: President Obama

Benghazi-Gate

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Politics or policy? Policy or politics?

Those were the questions posed to me by MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Wednesday morning an hour before the curtain was due to go up on the hearings before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).

I said that it is always a combination of both.

Are Republicans in the U.S. House looking for an edge in the on-going battle with the Democrat-controlled Senate across the Capitol Building and the Democratic Administration down Pennsylvania Avenue? Continue reading →

Enemies Foreign and Domestic

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Every Member of Congress and commissioned officer (civilian and military) in federal service as well as every enlisted service member takes an oath that requires they promise to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

This oath is required by statute. The Presidential oath, the only oath in the Constitution, does not contain that language: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Continue reading →

The Lamest Lame Duck

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

The President did a press conference yesterday, where he made some news. None of it was good for him.

He said he still has juice in answer to a Jonathan Karl’s question that asked if the President was still relevant. If the media asks you if you still have juice, that is not good, especially if you are a second term President.

He said that he still wants to close down Gitmo. This was one of his original campaign promises. He ordered it closed four and half years ago. It is still open. What kind of juice is that? Continue reading →

The Gun Vote

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

This column is about the vote on Wednesday in the U.S. Senate on the amendment to the gun control bill which had two main sponsors: Democrat Joe Manchin (WVa) and Republican Pat Toomey (Pa).

The effect of the amendment would have been, among other things, to have increased background checks on people buying guns to include gun shows and internet sales.

I don’t want to discuss the merits of the amendment; I want to chat about why it failed in the face of overwhelming popular support. Continue reading →

‘Smoke-and-Mirrors’ Budget

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from TelemachusLeaps.com

Know who ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ is? He is the last player drafted in every NFL Draft each year. He is considered the least important player with the lowest possible chance of making an impact on an NFL roster come regular season.

How can President Barack Obama be considered ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ when it comes to managing the most important problem facing us today in America, the federal budget and its attendant deficit and debt complications?

Let us count the ways: Continue reading →

Throwing In the Towel on Obama

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Barack Obama’s second term is off to a very bad start. Even liberal commentators – at least those with any credibility – are suggesting it may be time for him to lead more and campaign less.

Obama brought a plane load (Air Force One) of relatives of victims of the horror in Newtown to lobby Senators on the eve of a procedural vote, now scheduled for tomorrow, on a gun control bill.

Politico.com reporter Reid Epstein wrote: President Barack Obama’s gone from ambitious arguments for sweeping gun control to trying to stop a filibuster. Continue reading →

Murder For Hire

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

I am a fan of the Central Intelligence Agency. More precisely, I am a fan of the officers and analysts who, along with uniformed service members and Foreign Service Officers are at the dangerous, too often deadly, pointy end of the sword in promoting American foreign policy as enunciated by the President.

Whomever the President happens to be.

A book about the CIA’s drone program will be published tomorrow and an harrowing excerpt was published over the weekend in the New York Times. Continue reading →

Resetting the Middle East

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

President Barack Obama left last night for Israel in an attempt to “reset” the Israeli-US relationship. There are those who will say that if either side has to reset the relationship, it is the Israelis. I understand that; I don’t agree with it, but I understand it.

A couple of weeks ago shiny new Secretary of State John Kerry effectively presented a check to the Egyptian government – which is now in the throes of an electoral breakdown – for $250 million. Continue reading →

“We Don’t Have a Debt Crisis.”

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from TelemachusLeaps.com

Well, if Barack Obama says it is ‘true’, that must mean it is true!

Even his own Budget Commission, Co-Chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, strongly disagree with him. Apparently they don’t know what the heck they are talking about in President Obama’s distinguished economic opinion.

If we don’t have a ‘debt crisis’ today since we have added $7 trillion in national debt in 4 years under President Obama, after adding $6 trillion in 8 years under President Bush 43, when will we have a debt crisis then, Mr. President? Continue reading →

Power of a Balanced Budget

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

In 1995, at Xerox Document University, Newt Gingrich and John Kasich convinced the revolutionary class of 1994 and reluctant old-timers to work together to produce the first balanced budget in a generation.

Kasich’s budget included a pro-growth tax reform agenda and some painful cuts to some entitlement programs, chiefly Medicare and Medicaid.

Republicans passed that first balanced budget, and through some luck and some unforeseen economic growth, the budget magically balanced three years later. Continue reading →

Obama the Space Invader

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

When I was a teenager, Space Invaders was one of most popular video games. The premise, for those who have recently arrived from space, was pretty simple: Shoot down incoming missiles that descended from the sky before they landed on your missile silos.

We seem to live increasingly in a space invader world.

Things keep coming down from the sky and it is getting harder and harder to shoot them down. Continue reading →

If We’ve Lost Walter…

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

America Held Hostage: Sequester Day 8

It didn’t snow in DC on Wednesday so I spent the entire afternoon watching Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) filibustering the nomination of John Brennan to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Sen. Paul’s issue wasn’t with Brennan; it was with the refusal of President Barack Obama to describe his position on using drones to kill people generally, and Americans in particular, on U.S. soil. Continue reading →

Petulance

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

America Held Hostage: Sequester Day 6

President Barack Obama has shut the White House to visitors. A notice went out yesterday saying that due to the personnel reductions required by the sequester, there will be no public tours after Friday. According to USA Today a recording on the White House tour line was as follows: “Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013, until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours …”

In case anyone was too dense to get to the “baby puppies, calves, lambs, and kittens will die” part of the announcement, this: “We very much regret having to take this action, particularly during the popular spring tour season.” Continue reading →

Obama Has Overplayed His Hand

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

This ‘Dreaded Sequester’ will apparently only cut $42B out of this year’s fiscal budget. Not $85B as previously reported and feared.

That is according to CBO. That is also less than 1 penny out of every dollar the federal government spends this year. Even Joe Scarborough says so although Mika would disagree with him, of course.

Have you had to cut back a little more than 1 penny per dollar in your spending these past 4 years? Betcha have.

1 penny. Less than 1% of the budget this year. Continue reading →

Most Conservative POTUS in American History?

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

Think about the things ‘very conservative’, ‘far right-wing’, ‘ultra-conservatives’ have wanted to achieve in Congress over the past 40 years.

We’ll give you two hints:
– Long-term, permanent lower tax rates.
– Spending cuts in many bloated federal programs.

Just try to remember the headlines in the liberal media, both electronic and in print, whenever Presidents Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43 or Speaker Newt Gingrich tried to cut taxes or spending since 1980: Continue reading →

Molly’s First State of the Union

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

It was Molly’s first State of the Union Address (she is four months old) and whatever the President said clearly didn’t agree with her. To say she was fussy would be an understatement. She moaned. She complained. She cried. And then she burped.

Okay, well maybe she had a bad case of gas. But after the listening to the President spend some more of her money, I wouldn’t blame her if she were more than a bit upset. Continue reading →

Not a Long, Nor a Long-Lasting Speech

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

“The state of the Union,” the President reported last night, “is stronger.”

He said, to prove his point, we have created more new jobs, sold more American cars, bought less foreign oil, and are sending fewer soldiers into battle.

That is like saying (on the day pitchers and catchers officially reported to Spring Training sites) that a batter going 4-for-4 has raised his batting average by .100 percentage points, without pointing out he was batting .053 and is now batting .153. Continue reading →

Obama Revealed

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Free from the burdens of a reelection campaign, presidents who win second terms reveal themselves when they come to Congress to give their fifth State of the Union address.

They can’t say the same thing that they just said in their inaugural address, because that would be really boring (not that most States of the Unions aren’t boring. They are.)

George W. Bush revealed himself to be a confident gambler who decided to bet all of his chips on Social Security reform. Bill Clinton revealed himself to Continue reading →

Future of US Finances

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

Sometimes, it is just smarter (and easier) to let people who are smarter than you explain complicated things.

Such is the case with Chuck Blahous, a long-time friend from Washington DC who is now a trustee on the Social Security and Medicare Trust Fund. We were about to plow through the CBO update on long-term economic and budget projections that came out yesterday when we saw Chuck’s summary come in our email inbox.

CBO reported that ‘deficits would fall below $1 trillion!’ for the first time in 4 years. People from the White House on down, including the President, Continue reading →