How can such a bright man say something so stupid? Free-market systems don't use public money to bail out private business failures. How does needing such a bail-out qualify as "success"?
Defense
Obama has kept the great American war machine going by adding 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan to shore up the corrupt and incompetent Karzai government. He calls it a "necessary war" to prevent al-Qaeda from regrouping there.
Yet al-Qaeda's latest attempted suicide assault on America originated in Yemen. If a war in Yemen isn't necessary, why is it necessary to escalate the one in Afghanistan?
Candidate Obama complained about Bush's privatizing of military functions in Iraq. President Obama has sharply increased the number of private contractors in Afghanistan to 104,000 at the end of 2009. This will exceed the number of military personnel even after his announced surge.
Although Obama has boldly proclaimed that America will no longer torture, his administration has refused to consider prosecution of Bush administration members who authorized torture. Torture, as well as humiliating and degrading treatment of prisoners, is a war crime according to international conventions signed by the United States.
Obama says it is better for America to "look forward" rather than look back at war crimes. What he is really saying is "look away."
Health Care
As part of his theme of openness and transparency, candidate Obama promised that negotiations over health care reform would be broadcast on C-SPAN or streaming video. He spoke scornfully of how Bush had secretly agreed to the drug lobby's demand that Medicare be prohibited from negotiating drug prices for prescription drug plans (Part D).
However, President Obama secretly agreed with the same drug lobby to oppose including in health care reform any requirement for negotiated drug prices. He kept that promise.
Both the Senate and House health insurance bills were fundamentally distorted by the goal of preserving a central role for profit-making by health insurers. There is no social benefit from the profits that go to private insurers. Their administrative and marketing costs are an immense waste.
Instead of eliminating this waste, the "reform" bills sought to subsidize it by using public money to help less affluent Americans purchase over-priced policies.
Even with a subsidy, millions of Americans would not be able to afford those policies. These people were not forgotten, however. They would receive hardship waivers, excusing them from the mandate of purchasing insurance. Out of compassion, we would let them continue to go without adequate health care.
The difference between candidate Obama and President Obama amounts to one of the greatest bait-and-switch moves in our political history. "Yes we can" became "no we can't."
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