09.08.2009 original publish date
03.17.2011 repaired broken links
Obama Addresses The Kids with Controversial Speech (analysis)
original article written by Net Advisor™
The long awaited prepared speech to America’s school children was controversial before the speech was even made. What is President Obama going to say?
The speech seems a bit long for grade school kids and let’s faces it, even for many adults to read or hear it.
Obama discussed that one will need a good education for most jobs, especially professional jobs. This is generally Correct. However despite the ideology of wanting to have a better education for kids, that has proven more difficult at the K-12 level. The Administration left out some information with regard to lowering standards for some people toward military enlistment.
The U.S. Army has lowered their entry standards arguably due to the reduced numbers of people wanting to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Military.com cited that Army Secretary Noel Harvey and General Richard Cody, Vice Chief of Staff said:
“…the Army is using looser Defense Department rules that permits it to sign up more high school dropouts and people who score lower on mental-qualification tests…”
— Source: military.com
Fuzzy Obama Math
Kids, get rid of your calculators, you won’t need them. This is government math.
The President signed a $787 Billion “stimulus” (spending) bill, all on borrowed money. The main selling point is that the stimulus would be used to build roads and bridges. I’m sure perhaps that we need to repair some potholes and fix bridges. But last I checked, our economy did not collapse due the obscene amount of potholes, roads, and bridges preventing commerce from occurring. As it turns out, roads and bridges got a token 3.5% of the stimulus budget.
President Obama stated one week after the $787 Billion stimulus plan, that he would “cut the yearly deficit in half by the end of his four-year term” Source: CBS News.
Question: How do you cut the deficit in half in 4 years while you are borrowing records amount of money during that entire period?
Answer: You can’t.
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO),
the United States is on track to, “ever-expanding national debt that would exceed 82 percent of the overall economy by 2019 — double last year’s (2008) level — and threaten the nation’s financial stability.”
— Source: Washington Post
President Obama didn’t mention to the school kids that they will be receiving a $9 Trillion+ additional deficit; the largest ever in U.S. history, as the Obama Administration’s spending, doubles the deficit over the next 10 years. The only way to pay for this massive spending will be higher taxes on EVERYONE.
Government Tax Revenues Lowest Annual Drop Since The Great Depression
Americans lost money from the stock market, lost jobs, and depreciating the value of housing, state and federal tax revenues have plunged. Individual taxes are estimated to drop 18% this year (2009), down 22% from last year (2008). Corporate income taxes are expected to plunge further, down 57%. So what does the government do? Spend money it doesn’t have.
The Obama Administration assumes that the economy will grow at an optimistic rate. If the economy does not rebound in 2010 as expected by some forecasters, all of this massive deficit spending and a continued drop in tax revenues could come back to haunt the economy.
Risky Bet
Consumer credit plunged to an 18 year low, and such recent data suggests that consumers are not spending in an economy that is normally driven by consumer spending. People seem to have less money to spend, so what will drive the economy higher? The Obama Administration thinks they can spend their way to prosperity again.
Obama Still Blames Bush
Obama has repeatedly stated that he inherited a $1.3 Trillion deficit as a result of the Bush Administration’s tax cuts for the “wealthy.” Then President Bush argued that these tax cuts would stimulate the economy.
The result of the Bush tax cuts:
- created 5 million new jobs
- lowered taxes for most Americans
- the stock market rebounded off a low in October 2002, and moved higher all the way through July 2007 until the real estate market fell out of bed.
- read more on Bush tax cuts and more in an updated report here: Economic Crack. Risk to the U.S. Economy
Obama will have to accept responsibility for the $9 Trillion+ deficit he will leave to future Presidents and the country’s children, grandchildren and so on.
Welcome to the Land of Opportunity – I Mean Entitlement.
President Obama is continually seeking more centralized government control such as over banks including via TARP, mortgage industry, autos, insurance, health care, and thus arguably, wants to create more dependence on government services. In 2009, the government allocated $402 Billion in free grant money – 49% of the FY 2009 budget. Thus the government wants to be the sources of all our needs.
Transparency, Control and Freedom.
Obama’s school speech also suggests that he wants to, “make our nation more fair and more free” (Source: Whitehouse.gov).
Again at the same time the government sought to control banks, determine who is running American industry, what salary we should make, what kind cars we should buy, what health care plan we should have, and penalizes you if you make too much money. We should not question what the government does, because if you don’t support me, you’re fired!
“The Washington Times, N.Y. Post and Dallas Morning News — three newspapers that recently endorsed John McCain — have been kicked off Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s plane in the final days of his campaign.
The Obama campaign informed The Washington Times Thursday evening of its decision, which came two days after The Times editorial page endorsed Senator John McCain over Mr. Obama. The Times editorial page runs independently of the news department.”
— Source: Washington Times.com, 10-31-2008
Note this event occurred before the 2008 election. A telling tale of what kind of real transparency and independent media reporting we might see in the new Administration?
Kids, there is no freedom when the government makes decisions for you, or requires media to send in written questions before they are answered, if answered, and answers will be pre-screened and scripted.
“…the decision to preselect questioners is an odd one, especially for a White House famously pledged to openness.”
— Source: Wall Street Journal, 02-11-2009
Thus the lesson today maybe that as much as we hope for our kids to have a great future, government is working very hard to burden them with debt and a lower standard of living.
“I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot.”
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