Does anyone remember President Obama’s campaign promises? Are we so adorn with the new President that we have forgotten how “Change” was defined during the campaign?
It’s true that many of our politicians have broken campaign promises, but none have done it with such arrogance and impunity like this Administration.
The trail of broken promises began with Obama’s appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. All through the campaign he touted how differently his foreign policy views were from Hillary’s. When asked why he would appoint someone with such differing views, his response to the reporter was essentially that everyone knows that campaign promises mean nothing and you must be “having fun with me”.
A few months later, Obama flipped on Cuba. For years he expounded his support of lifting the embargo, but then once elected, made an about face. With no explanation. His response when questioned about it was that at the time he was "running for Senate" at a time that "seems just eons ago", as if everyone should know that previous campaign promises mean nothing.
President Obama insisted during the election that "I actually would like to see a relatively light touch when it comes to the government." If this is a light touch then I would hate to see his “heavy handed” government.
Candidate Obama promised that for seniors making less than $50,000 a year he would eliminate all income taxation resulting in an average savings of $1400 per year. These cuts were not part of the stimulus. When questioned why this tax cut was not followed through, the White House issued no response.
Does anyone remember the promise of allowing five days for public comment on the White House website before signing bills. Well, apparently the Administration didn’t remember either because the first bill President Obama signed was only two days between passage and signing without posting to the web.
Obama stated during the campaign that "No political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration." This statement was the cornerstone of Obama’s theme of limiting the influence of special interest groups. Obama signed an executive order in an attempt to keep his promise, but as any good lawyer would do, they created a loop hole. All you have to do is get a waiver and then your in. Let’s just say the Administration has used this loop hole liberally.
Obama promised to help the small businesses out by giving them a $3000 tax credit for every new full-time employee they hired. Like the senior tax exemption this tax credit was also not in the stimulus bill.
The Change.gov website stated that "Obama and Biden are calling for legislation that would allow withdrawals of 15% up to $10,000 from retirement accounts without penalty (although subject to the normal taxes). This would apply to withdrawals in 2008 (including retroactively) and 2009." These penalty free withdrawals were not in the stimulus package, nor has any legislation been proposed in attempt to make good on this promise. Tax day has come an gone.
Other promises like closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, enact windfall profits tax on oil companies, repealing the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy and many others are either stalled and on the verge of collapse or long forgotten as just “campaign rhetoric”.
Our country once respected and revered democracy by at least expecting an explanation, even if weak, for promises left unfulfilled. Have we become so numb from “Reality TV”, scorched-earth campaigns and flip-flop politicians that we no longer feel the need to hold our elected officials to the highest standards that made this country great?
It is a sad state of our society when we cannot count on our public officials to follow through and accomplish the actions they set forth in the agenda they espoused in their run for public office. Historically, Americans have held campaign promises in very high regard, even sacred. When did we loose the “your word is your bond” expectation and begin letting our elected representatives say whatever they want to get elected? Why do we not hold them accountable?
In a republican democracy we use these pledges of future actions as a metric to determine who is best suited to represent us and carry out the policies that we hold dear. If we live with the idea that politicians all talk out both sides of their mouths and will say anything to get elected, then we are party to the destruction of democracy as we know it. Destruction of the great experiment as our fore fathers dreamed it.
