TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Actions Speak So Much Louder Than Words

ADVERTISEMENT

By DONALD J. MYERS

A Mind of My Own

Published: March 14, 2009

It has now been seven weeks since President Barack Obama has been sworn in as our president. Prior to the inauguration, there was much discussion about how the president would lead. Some insisted that he would lead from the center and yet his major supporters totally expected him to lead from the left. Unless I am totally uninformed, it is now obvious from what position he is leading.
Almost immediately, he ordered the closing of Gitmo to be completed within a year, and then he set up an organization to determine what we would do with the current detainees. Wouldn't it have been wiser to determine what to do with the detainees before announcing that the base will be closed? There is no doubt that the decision was made to assuage the supporters from the far left who are totally against this war on terrorism.
Card check is a proposed law that would eliminate the secret ballots of employees to vote for a union in their business. Vice President Joe Biden met with the union representatives during their convention in Miami without the media present. I wonder what he had to say to these people, especially since the president has received so much support from unions? This particular bill is on fact track to be passed.
Cap and Trade is another bill that is working its way through the congress with the full support of the administration. In effect, this bill will allow the government to place a limit on industries that produce carbon dioxide such as all energy corporations. If they produce more carbons, then they may purchase exemptions from other entities at a price. Guess what? The price of all energy will rise dramatically and we will be paying more. This is another hidden tax. Environmentalists support the administration, and this is for them.
The pentagon is not above attack either. The "Don't ask don't tell" is under attack with the administration hoping that openly gay personnel will be allowed in the military. Initial polls of military personnel show that a large percent of personnel will not reenlist if this is done.
Another big supporter of the administration is the gay lobby and this is for them. The argument for this is that public opinion has changed since this policy was implemented in the 90s.
The relaxing of research using embryonic stem cells has also been approved by executive order which is a support for the abortion lobby- another big supporter of the administration.
On Wednesday, President Obama signed the $410 billion omnibus bill that has over 9,000 earmarks and allows the government to operate until the end of this fiscal year. It also increases spending by 8.5 percent. Gee, I thought that we were in difficult times and everyone had to tighten their belts. Of course that did not include the government.
Another aspect of the stimulus bill is that it ended a special education program in Washington, D.C. that provided $7,500 per student for 1,200 students to attend private schools for poor families who earned $22,000 per year.
Considering the fact that the regular cost per student in D.C. is $13, 000 per student and it is one of the worst systems in the country, I think it was a bargain.
Obviously this was for the benefit of the teachers unions who are against any type of competition from the private sector.
President Obama is proposing an increase of taxes on capital gains and dividends along with the top five percent of wage earners.
This is a tax on entrepreneurs who invest in new or improved businesses. The last thing that we need is more taxes.
We were promised that lobbyists would not be allowed in the administration — NOT.
We were told that earmarks would be eliminated — NOT.
We were told bills would not be signed for five days so that the people could read them on the Internet and debate — NOT.
We were told that the administration would be transparent — NOT.
There is no doubt in my mind that we are being led from the extreme left and it is not working.

Donald J. Myers, a retired colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, is a regular columnist for Hernando Today. He lives in Spring Hill and can be contacted at dmyersusmc@aol.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT