Obama's Failed State

Obama's Failed State

By Stephen Lendman
Information Clearing House
February 14, 2013

Obama's State of the Union address didn't surprise. It reflected
rogue leadership. It was beginning-to-end demagogic boilerplate.

Defending the indefensible took center stage.

Rhetoric substituted for progressive policies. Bombast assured
business as usual.

Priorities include waging war on humanity, force-fed austerity,
ignoring public needs, institutionalizing a repressive police state
apparatus, and cracking down hard on non-believers.

Doing so assures growing despotism, lawlessness, poverty,
unemployment, homelessness, hunger, and deprivation.

Obama's address targeted Medicare.

He called "medical care for the aged….the biggest cause of the
nation's longterm debt."

He lied. Military spending, imperial wars, Wall Street bailouts,
other corporate handouts, and tax cuts for the rich and business
bear full responsibility.

Falsely blaming Medicare for Washington's malfeasance reveals
bipartisan rogue leadership. It's indicative of what's to come.

In 2009, Obama prioritized cutting healthcare costs and, "restoring
fiscal discipline." He made doing so the top, "pillars" of his agenda
saying:

"We've kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of
the road and are not in a position to kick it any further."

"We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of
the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else's."

"The big problem is Medicare. Its cost is unsustainable."

"Let's not kid ourselves and suggest that we can solve this problem
by trimming a few earmarks."

"The biggest cost drivers in our budget are entitlement programs
like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, all of which get more
and more expensive every year."

"If we want to get serious about fiscal discipline - and I do - we will
have to get serious about entitlement reform."

Medicare and Social Security aren't entitlements. They're insurance
programs.

They're funded by worker/employer payroll tax deductions. They're
contractual federal obligations to eligible recipients who qualify.

Obama did what he does best. He lied. He's a serial liar.

He supports wealth and power. He’s beholden to powerful monied
interests. They own him. He spurns popular needs. He prioritizes
letting them go begging on his watch.

He proposed massive Medicare cuts. In 2010, 2011, and last
November he urged more. He's waging class war on Americans.

He wants fundamental social benefits destroyed. He wants
ordinary people hung out to dry. He wants them on own sink
or swim.

In 2010, his Simpson-Bowles National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform (NCFRF) recommended deep Medicare
cuts, higher Medicaid co-pays, and restrictions on filing malpractice
suits.

It urged other ways to end Washington's responsibility for healthcare.
Obama's address reiterated support. Implementation assures disaster
for millions.

Healthcare for millions already is unaffordable. Implementing
Simpson-Bowles makes it more so when most needed. Illnesses
will go untreated. Pain, suffering, and early deaths will follow.

Rogue leadership assures it. Obama reflects the worst of
irresponsible lawless leaders.

His jobs proposals reveal more. His address rehashed old schemes.
His September 2011, "American Jobs Act" promised, "putting more
people back to work" with no plan to do it.

It showed contempt for ordinary households. It was same old,
same old. It concealed another thinly veiled wealth transfer
scheme.

It included a laundry list of corporate handouts.

Excluded were ways to create jobs, stimulate growth, reinvigorate
Main Street, strengthen America's middle class, and help growing
millions of impoverished, disadvantaged households most in need.

Obama's address claimed trade deals offshoring jobs to low wage
countries create them. He urge support for current ones being
negotiated.

He wants the nearly completed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
adopted. It's a trade deal from hell. It's a secretive, multi-nation
agreement.

Adoption assures unrestricted trade in goods, services, rules
of origin, trade remedies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures,
technical barriers, government procurement and competition
policies, and intellectual property (IP).

Obama want secretive provisions established with no public
oversight or knowledge of their destructive harm. TPP aims
to rewrite global IP enforcement rules. It includes numerous
other anti-populist mandates.

National sovereignty is at stake. Signatory countries must
change domestic laws, regulations, and other policies to
comply.

What's known subverts US laws. Congress is left powerless.
Supranational TPP authority overrides national sovereignty.

Investor rights are prioritized over public ones.

Obama called for replicating TPP with EU countries. He urged
establishing a Trans-Atlantic Partnership. He prioritizes corporate
empowerment over human rights and needs. He's got much more
in mind.

He supports extrajudicial killing. He's got kill list authority. It's
official US policy. Drones are his weapon of choice. He appointed
himself judge, jury and executioner.

He wants anyone he targets assassinated. US citizens are included.
Rule of law protections don't apply. Summary judgment has final say.
No one's safe anywhere. There's no place to hide.

His address made clear where he stands, saying:

"Where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue
to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest
threat to Americans."

Police states operate that way. Murder, Inc. is official policy.

He claimed he "forge(d) a durable legal and policy (enforceable)
framework." He usurped diktat authority.

Doing so subverts fundamental international, constitutional, and
US statute laws. They're null and void. His say overrides them.

Unchecked power is policy. Full-blown tyranny's a hair's breath
away. Congressional leaders are supportive.

Obama's entire address reflected rogue leadership.

He wants public schools modernized by privatizing them.

His immigration proposal mocks notions of welcoming tired,
poor, wretched masses yearning to breathe free.

His energy program prioritizes drill, drill, drill.

His cybersecurity scheme involves no-holds-barred cyberwar.

His notion of economic prosperity is greater corporate
empowerment and enriching America's privileged.

His housing program lets bankers scam ordinary people.

His minimum wage proposal falls way below the poverty line.

His Afghanistan plan is permanent occupation.

His budget-cutting program targets vitally needed domestic
programs. His entire agenda reflects rogue leadership.

He's got much more in mind. He's four more years to wage
war on humanity. Expect him to take full advantage.



Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and his new book is titled
"Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33945.htm