President Asterisk

Barack Obama did a lot of bragging last night in his SOTU.  Unfortunately, every one of his bullet points needs an asterisk – a big asterisk:  

·   On the Economy, Obama touted a host of positive economic results that have shown improvement since he became President.  *Unfortunately, what he will not mention is that he, or more accurately his philosophy, was to blame for the financial crisis that he supposedly “inherited”.  He did not inherit that mess, he caused it!  Redistribution of wealth, in this case redistribution of mortgage credit, was at the heart of the Affordable Housing Initiative that was begun in the 1990s by Democrats under Bill Clinton, and reached it’s apex in 2007 while Democrats, including Senator Barack Hussein Obama, ran congress.  No member of congress took more campaign money at a faster clip from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than Senator Obama.  Fannie and Freddie were ground zero in the subprime crisis, and Barack Obama was the subprime king.  This aspect of his past has been completely expunged from the historical record.  This is the mother of all asterisks. 

·   Two other big asterisks in the rosy economic picture:  Interest rates and debt.  *No president in American history has had an easier Federal Reserve policy, and no president was ever been given carte blanche to spend, borrow, and print money like Barack Hussein Obama.  Obama has borrowed, printed, and spent  $11 trillion appropriated from future generations - an unprecedented amount ($3.5 trillion from QE I, II, III, and $7.5 trillion in new borrowing).  If $11 trillion were distributed directly to the people, every family could be given $140,000 in cash!  And no president has had a 0% Fed funds rate for his entire presidency.  Not even close. 

·   There was a lot of bragging about helping the middle class.  Claims were made about rising wages.  None of it is true.  *Median wages have been falling since Obama became president, which is why polls show Americans still perceive we are in a recession. 

·   One of the biggest reasons for recent economic optimism is the decline in the cost of energy.  The asterisk:  *none of this is due to Obama, Democrats, or federal  policies.  It all came from private initiatives and state laws that permit fracking, horizontal drilling, and steam extraction. 

·   Obama wants more government intervention in childcare, education, and of course, healthcare.  The asterisk:  *the more government gets involved in childcare, the more kids grow up without families and end-up in a life of crime and dependency.  Government intervention in education and healthcare is precisely why both these areas got to crisis levels of inflation and mismanagement.  More government will lead to more of the same. 

·   Obama bragged about ending the war in Afghanistan. Afghanistan asterisk:  *actually, Bush had essentially decided that our goals were achieved in Afghanistan and he had already drawn down our forces.  Obama surged troops back into Afghanistan and nearly tripled our casualty rates (Bush = 630, vs Obama = 1726)!  Nothing more was gained from these additional deaths.  You probably didn’t know these numbers, right?

·   Obama bragged about a victory over terrorism (though he cannot get himself to admit that Islam has anything to do with it!).  The asterisk:  *really?  Anyone paying attention knows this is complete bullshit.  ISIS, Iraq, Libya, France, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria???  Hello… 

I could go on but what’s the point.  Obama still has about half the country mesmerized by his propaganda, which is aided and abetted by the pop media, pop culture, and pop academia.