Barack thinks the problem stems from pay inequity, hate crimes on the rise, efforts to continue to suppress the vote (efforts he didn’t feel were wrong in 2004 when he was given the opportunity to challenge the official electoral ballot count in Ohio, a state where thousands of African-Americans were found guilty of being black and therefore, not allowed to have their vote counted), and disparities that continue to plague the judicial system. He proposes that we strengthen enforcement, expand what is banned by law, end racial profiling/deceptive voting practices, and establish drug courts to take care of not the incarceration for marijuana problem in America but rather the disparities between the sentences for possession of powder-based cocaine and crack cocaine.
Barack does not see a problem with the PATRIOT Act, Military Commissions Act, the Protect America Act, etc. The civil rights those take away are apparently unimportant to this constitutional lawyer.
I headed back to the list of issues and decided to click on “Economy” next. I was hit with this quote:
“I believe that America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. It's created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It's led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discovery…We are all in this together. From CEOs to shareholders, from financiers to factory workers, we all have a stake in each other's success because the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers.” — Barack Obama, New York, NY, September 17, 2007
Take that you opponents of NAFTA! The free trade system can work.
The problem in this economy is simple and couldn’t be easier to solve in Barack’s opinion. All we have to do is fix stagnant wages and stop giving tax relief to the wealthy instead of the middle class. As far as problems with the Federal Reserve, trillions of dollars of debt, and funding an illegal war in Iraq go, well, those don’t matter.
Barack would like to provide the middle class with tax cuts (Forget poor and working class Americans.), fix NAFTA (Is that even possible?), bring about technology, innovation, and jobs, strengthen the ability of unions to unionize, protect ownership and crack down on mortgage fraud (This is way of saying “subprime loan scandal.”), and he would like to address predatory credit card lending and reform the bankruptcy laws despite the fact that he voted for a Bankruptcy Reform bill in 2005 that greatly empowered the credit card industry and predatory lending industry in America. He also would like to help American families nationwide.
But if the Pritzkers have anything to do with helping American families, Obama may run into some roadblocks.
I went back to the page of issues and clicked on “Ethics.” I figured this quote would really get me interested in voting for him since the other two hadn’t already:
“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not get a job in my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.” - Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, IA, November 10, 2007
He’s promoting ethics with a quote that’s a bold-faced lie about how he has conducted his campaign. Nine federal lobbyists have funded or "bundled" for Barack’s campaign. Go to WhiteHouseforSale.org and you can search for the names of the lobbyists who have been disclosed.
Corporate lobbyists have already determined important elements of Barack's campaign. Single-payer health care is off the table because lobbyists pushed the Democrats to not support that system when they were campaigning for Iowa. Also, AIPAC has pushed Obama to watch what changes he speaks about making in America’s foreign policy.
Barack sees the problem as being lobbyists write national policies, secrecy dominates government actions, and wasteful spending is out of control. His solution is to allow voters access to the records of lobbying going on in Washington (fair but that doesn’t stop it), support campaign finance reform to reform the presidential public financing system, shine the light on federal tax contracts, tax breaks, and earmarks, bring Americans back into government (with fireside chats), and free the Executive Branch from special interest influence (no need to worry about the fact that the Executive Branch will have unchecked power when the next president takes office in 2009).
Interestingly enough, Barack Obama claims he holds the moral high ground on public campaign financing. He is the only senator cosponsoring Feingold’s Presidential Funding Act, which would do much to reform the system. However, he leaves out that Feingold worked with McCain to create the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act. He also leaves out the fact that McCain has been pressing him for days hoping Barack would say he will accept public financing for the general election
What high ground Barack had is being washed away so long as he refuses to step up and tell McCain he will accept public financing.
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