A Year of Broken Promises

President Obama completed his first year in office this week and certainly the celebration was totally muted by a resounding roar from the voters in Massachusetts, the most liberal state, who unequivocally said "no more" to the socialist leanings of this administration. Just over a month ago, President Obama was eager to give himself a B+ for his first year. He even went so far as to leave the door open for an "A" if he got ObamaCare signed into law.

As we look back at his first year, there is an overwhelming feeling of broken promises and in my opinion an abandonment of common sense. The most obvious reflection is that he campaigned on the promise of total transparency, an end to entitlements and back room politics. Instead, we were deluged with czars like the radical socialist Sunstein and the pedophile loving Kevin Jennings. The appointment of a Treasury Secretary who admittedly failed to pay his taxes and a President who went on an apology tour of Europe telling of American arrogance.

When we look at the Obama Doctrine in dealing with terrorism we come away with the feeling that the President wanted to completely disarm our strategy by denying that terrorists are even at war with us and treating them like criminals. We were appalled by the idea that CIA agents would be open to prosecution by his attack dog, Attorney General Eric Holder. Amazingly, this week in testimony before Congress, the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of Homeland Security both testified they had no idea that the so called "Underwear Bomber" would be turned over to civil authorities.

There is no question that the President inherited an economy in distress. However, his policy has been a complete failure. His $787 billion stimulus bill promised to keep unemployment below 8% and create tens of thousands of jobs in the private sector. In contrast, basically no jobs were created and unemployment rates have gone to over 10%. Through bank bailouts, and the takeover of General Motors and Chrysler coupled with "Cash for Clunkers" the national debt has skyrocketed to catastrophic heights placing our children and grandchildren in debt for decades. It has also placed the economy of the United States near collapse as we watch China begin to replace us as the largest economy in the world, the rest of the world holds our debt, and the dollar is in jeopardy of being replaced on the world market.

Until this past week in Massachusetts, President Obama was ready to ram ObamaCare down the throats of a nation which clearly was against the policy and would force people to buy health insurance backed by fines for individuals and penalties for businesses. His liberal led Congress enticed representatives to vote yes by offering "sweetheart" deals in places like Louisiana and Nebraska and all this done behind closed doors without input from the right side of the aisle. Now, President Obama says he has heard the people speak. His State of the Union address will be filled with more promises that jobs will be created and the national debt will be brought under control. Will these be more broken promises? He failed the people in the first year and deserves an D.

I offer this thought and my opinion. President Obama is a Progressive, an anti-capitalist to his core. I do not believe he has ever liked free enterprise. I believe he wants to take down our free market economy...to be replaced by a government-controlled economy. We have an opportunity that started in Virginia, New Jersey and now Massachusetts. The future lies in the hands of the voters and the people of this great nation. At the end of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 a woman of Philadelphia came up to Benjamin Franklin and asked, "well Doctor, what have we got, a Republic or a Monarchy?" With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "a republic, if you can keep it."