Obama's policy proposals are numerous and expensive. They will cost as much - if not more - than anything the "Non-Paul Republicans" are proposing. Further loss of freedom is virtually guaranteed. by Alex Wallenwein
(libertarian)
Sunday, January 6, 2008
He wants your change - but that’s not all. He wants your large bills, too.
His platform, according to his own web site, consists of the following mind-numbing laundry list of federal government goodies. Much of it is reproduced verbatim. Parenthetical comments are my own subjective and totally biased opinions; the words "taxpayer-funded" or "taxpayer money" are 100% objective and are added for clarification):
He wants all of these:
• Continue the empire abroad. No peace for America. • Force private health insurers to provide the same services as his public plan, thereby eliminating their ability to tailor plans offered and premiums charged to individuals. • Require federally mandated employer contributions to the cost of the federal healthcare plan; • Taxpayer-funded mandatory health care coverage of children; • Taxpayer-funded expansion of Medicare and SCHIP; • Taxpayer-funded federal reimbursement of employer health plans for catastrophic illness expenditures; • Taxpayer-funded federal bonuses for doctors and hospitals meeting federally set performance thresholds; • Create a vicious inflation-minimum wage spiral by indexing minimum wage raises to inflation while inflating to finance his expensive programs; • Pre-filled tax returns - by the IRS itself, no less! • Taxpayer-funded worker retraining • Double taxpayer-provided funding for "basic research" • Long-term taxpayer-funded investments in education, training, and workforce development • Taxpayer-funded subsidiies for fuel-efficiency of domestically built automobiles • Taxpayer-funded job retraining programs mandating green technologies training; • Taxpayer-funded extension of broadband system to cover every community; • Ban the permanent replacement of striking workers by federal mandate; • Increase the "earned income tax credit" - a form of direct government welfare; • Create a federal definition of mortgage fraud (not a federal issue) and use federal taxpayer money to fund local law enforcement efforts to control mortgage fraud; • Double federal taxpayer-funding for local after-school programs; • Expand Family medical Leave Act to cover companies with only 25 employees (instead of the current 50); and to cover more "purposes" for which employers must fund employees’ leaves of absence; • Create a $1.5 billion fund of taxpayer money to "assist" states in paying for extended family leave policies; • Increase federal incentives for workplace telecommuting; • Double foreign assistance to $50 billion; • Establish federal standards for "comparative effectiveness, depriving doctors of their ability to use their best medical judgment tailored to individual patients’ needs; • $50 billion for digitizing all patients’ records. "Obama will protect your privacy." • "Fight AIDS world wide" - taxpayer-funded foreign aid and subsidies to foreign nations affected by AIDS; • Keep troops in Iraq on taxpayer money "if" Al-Queda establishes bases in Iraq - illusory promise of "immediate withdrawal"; • Spend $1 billion of taxpayer money for transitional jobs and career pathway programs; • Double the taxpayer funded federal Jobs Access and Reverse Commute program; • Create a taxpayer funded "Affordable Housing Trust Fund". • "Fully fund" (?!) the Community Block Grant Development Program; • Provide early childhood education, youth violence prevention efforts and after-school activities, to an entire neighborhood from birth to college in 20 "Promise Neighborhoods"’ • Provide additional (taxpayer) resources to the federal Community Development Financial Institution Fund, the Small Business Administration and other federal agencies; • "Invest" taxpayer funds in rural small businesses (?!); • Expand ‘Americorps’ from 75,000 to 250,000 "slots", using taxpayer money; • Double the size of the Peace Corps; using taxpayer money; • "Set a goal" (mandate?) that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year (!!) He will develop national guidelines for service- learning and will give schools better tools both to develop programs and to document student experience(!); • Create an energy-focused youth jobs program to provide disadvantaged youth with "service opportunities" (forced labor?) weatherizing buildings and getting practical experience in fast-growing career fields; • Expand the "YouthBuild" program, • Require 100 hours of community service in college!! • Create a Social Investment Fund Network to use federal taxpayer seed money to leverage private sector funding to improve local innovation, test the impact of new ideas and expand successful programs to scale; • Create a taxpayer-funded agency within the Corporation for National and Community Service dedicated to building the capacity and effectiveness of the nonprofit sector. • Requiring employers who do not currently offer a retirement plan to enroll their employees in a direct-deposit IRA account. (Employees "may" opt-out; how nice); • Creating a generous (taxpayer-funded) "savings match" for low and middle-income Americans; • Increase taxpayer funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program; • "Clarify" the public interest obligations (?) of broadcasters who occupy the nation’s spectrum; ("Equal time" legislation??) • Increase the Federal Trade Commission’s taxpayer funded enforcement budget and will step up international cooperation to track down cyber-criminals so that U.S. law enforcement can better prevent and punish spam, spyware, telemarketing and phishing intrusions into the privacy of American homes and computers. (And who protects us from the government once it has this capability?); • Appoint the nation’s first (‘Live Free or Die Hard’-style) Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure the safety of information networks and the use of "best-in-class technologies and share best practices." • Invest $150 billion of taxpayer money over the next ten years to enable American engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial-scale renewable energy, and begin the transition to a new digital electricity grid. This investment will transform the economy and create millions of new jobs. Obama will:
$ Double taxpayer funded federal science and research funding for clean energy projects, relying on the resources and ability of our national laboratories, universities and land grant colleges. $ Invest taxpayer funds in the development of the next generation of biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol (shown to cause more pollution than gasoline) $ Increase the taxpayer funded resources devoted to the commercialization and deployment of low-carbon coal technologies. $ Create a taxpayer funded Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund, an annual $10 billion investment for five years, to ensure that promising technologies move beyond the lab and are commercialized in the U.S. $ Use innovative taxpayer funded measures to dramatically improve the energy efficiency and stability of our economy and improve our national energy intensity (?) 50 percent by 2030. $ Invest taxpayer funds in a digital smart energy grid.
His foreign policy is as imperialist as Bush’s, except that Obama puts a nicer spin on it, something even Bush was successful at pulling off while he was still campaigning. But, we all know what happens to campaign promises... unless they come from Ron Paul.
For example, Obama believes that the US has a right to invade Pakistan to dictate to the Pakistanis how they should deal with their "terrorist problem". At the same time he wants Pakistan to have "fair and free elections".
Guess what? When Pakistan has free elections, they will elect an Islamist-extremist government. Is it all just a pretext to create a situation there that will almost certainly require him to invade Pakistan, eventually? Hard to say at this point - but possible.
A similar situation is going on with his Iraq "immediate withdrawal" proposal. Well, the truth is it all hinges on whether "Al-Queda" ends up establishing bases in Iraq. If they do, he will go back in. (Wanna bet that they will?)
So much for "real change", Mr. Obama.
All of the above costs tons of money, of course. Maintaining a foreign empire of current proportions (he actually intends to expand its troop numbers) while having all of the other goodies he dangles in front of his constituents will bankrupt America as quickly as anything the "Non-Paul Republicans" are proposing.
Bottom line: If you want somebody who brings real change, elect Ron Paul. If you want someone who takes your change away from you and gives it to others - let Obama join the muggers’ gallery in the hallways of the White House.
Alex Wallenwein
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