Barak Obama - 2008 Presidential Candidate

Presidential Candidate Synopsis 4

Barak Obama - Democrat

Barak Obama, the darling of the Democrats. He can call himself a Democrat, even a liberal, but what he really is . . . is a socialist. This is not what I would call even plausible as a characteristic for President of the United States. Socialists belong in other countries, not in America. He's a nice guy, he really is . . . but he's a Socialist and that says it all.

But I promised to give you his stance on the issues and I will. But first, here's a little bit of information about Obama.

Abortion: Barack Obama wrote on his blog concerning the U.S. Supreme Court's upholding of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban: "I strongly disagree with today’s Supreme Court ruling, which dramatically departs from previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women. As Justice Ginsburg emphasized in her dissenting opinion, this ruling signals an alarming willingness on the part of the conservative majority to disregard its prior rulings respecting a woman’s medical concerns and the very personal decisions between a doctor and patient. I am extremely concerned that this ruling will embolden state legislatures to enact further measures to restrict a woman's right to choose, and that the conservative Supreme Court justices will look for other opportunities to erode Roe v. Wade, which is established federal law and a matter of equal rights for women. " -- Barak Obama

Summary: Barak Obama clearly supports a woman's choice and abortion, which is the wholesale slaughter on infants. Oh, they play the game of calling an un-born baby a "fetus", dehumanizing it as much as possible. But a baby, is a baby, is a baby . . . inside or outside of the womb. Barak Obama supports the murder of unborn babies.
Budget and Economy: Barak would like to see a return to Paygo: which is to compensate for all new spending. "We were told by our President that we could fight two wars, increase our military budget by 74%, spend more on education, initiate a prescription drug plan, have tax cuts, all at the same time. We were told by Congress that they could make up for lost revenue by cutting government waste.

"The result is the most precarious budget situation we have seen in years. We now have an annual budget deficit of almost $300 billion, not counting more than $180 billion we borrow every year from the Social Security Trust Fund.

"It is not the debt that is most troubling. The bulk of the debt is a direct result of the President's tax cuts, 47.4% of which went to the top 5% income bracket.

"We can eliminate tax credits that have outlived their usefulness & close loopholes that let corporations get away without paying taxes. We can restore a law that was in place during the Clinton presidency--called Paygo--that prohibits money from leaving the treasury without some way of compensating for the lost revenue. Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.187-189 Oct 1, 2006

Summary: A typical Democrat response to fiscal troubles, tax the American people. Although Paygo sounds like a good idea, I'll have to do a little research to make sure this isn't the carrot in the hand held out to us and a bomb in the had behind the government's back.

Education: Throughout America's history, education has been the vehicle for social and economic mobility, giving hope and opportunity to millions of young people. Our schools must prepare students not only to meet the demands of the global economy, but also help students take their place as committed and engaged citizens. It must ensure that all students have a quality education regardless of race, class, or background. Barack Obama is committed to strengthening our public schools to maximize our country's greatest natural resource - the American people. Obama believes that we must equip poor and struggling districts, both rural and urban, with the support and resources they need to provide disadvantaged students with an opportunity to reach their full potential. Too often, our leaders present this issue as an either - or debate, divided between giving our schools more funding, or demanding more accountability. Obama believes that we have to do both, and has offered innovative ideas to break through the political stalemate in Washington. Source: www.barakobama.com

Summary: Obama has a solid stance on education, as long as he clearly understands that this is a States Right issue and not a federal issue. What is happening now is school's have to kowtow to the federal government in order to get federal funding. This is why there has been such a proliferation of private and charter schools cropping up all over the nation. Anyone who wants to be in charge of their child's education has to step outside the public education arena in order to accomplish it.

Energy and Oil: "Senator Obama has been a leader in the Senate in pushing for a comprehensive national energy policy and has introduced a number of bills to get us closer to the goal of energy independence. By putting aside partisan battles, he has found common ground on CAFE, renewable fuels, and clean coal." www.barakobama.com

Obama stated: "It is hard to overstate the degree to which our addiction to oil undermines our future. Without any change to energy policy, US demand for oil will jump 40% in 20 years. Over the same period, worldwide demand will jump 30%.

"A large portion of the $800 million we spend on foreign oil every day goes to some of the world's most volatile regimes. And there are the environmental consequences. Just about every scientist outside the White House believes climate change is real.

"We cannot drill our way out of the problem. Instead of subsidizing the oil industry, we should end every single tax break the industry currently receives and demand that 1% of the revenues from oil companies with over $1 billion in quarterly profits go toward financing alternative energy research and infrastructure.

"Over the last 30 years, countries like Brazil have used a mix of regulation and direct government investment to develop a biofuel industry; 70% of its new vehicles run on sugar-based ethanol. Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.167-169 Oct 1, 2006

His voting record on this matter are as follows:

Voted YES on removing oil & gas exploration subsidies. Creating Long-term Energy Alternatives for the Nation (CLEAN) Act

• Title I: Ending Subsidies for Big Oil Act--denying a deduction for income attributable to domestic production of oil, natural gas, or their related primary products.
• Title II: Royalty Relief for American Consumers Act--to incorporate specified price thresholds for royalties on oil & gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Title III: Strategic Energy Efficiency And Renewables Reserve--makes the Reserve available to accelerate the use of clean domestic renewable energy resources and alternative fuels.

Proponents support voting YES because: This legislation seeks to end the unwarranted tax breaks & subsidies which have been lavished on Big Oil over the last several years, at a time of record prices at the gas pump and record oil industry profits. Big Oil is hitting the American taxpayer not once, not twice, but three times. They are hitting them at the pump, they are hitting them through the Tax Code, and they are hitting them with royalty holidays put into oil in 1995 and again in 2005.

It is time to vote for the integrity of America's resources, to vote for the end of corporate welfare, to vote for a new era in the management of our public energy resources.

Opponents support voting NO because: I am wearing this red shirt today, because this shirt is the color of the bill that we are debating, communist red. It is a taking. It will go to court, and it should be decided in court.

This bill will increase the competitive edge of foreign oil imported to this country. If the problem is foreign oil, why increase taxes and make it harder to produce American oil and gas? That makes no sense. We should insert taxes on all foreign oil imported. That would raise your money for renewable resources. But what we are doing here today is taxing our domestic oil. We are raising dollars supposedly for renewable resources, yet we are still burning fossil fuels.

Voted YES on disallowing an oil leasing program in Alaska's ANWR. Voted to remove the establishment of an oil and gas leasing program in the Alaskan Coastal Plain. The original bill allows for an oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Voting YES on this amendment would remove that section, hence barring leasing in ANWR.

Voted YES on banning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Voted to adopt an amendment that would strike a provision in the concurrent resolution that recognizes revenue from oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The amendment says: "To ensure that legislation that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, other federal lands, and the Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling receives full consideration and debate in the Senate under regular order, rather than being fast-tracked under reconciliation procedures; to ensure that receipts from such drilling destined for the federal treasury are fairly shared with local jurisdictions; and does not occur unless prohibitions against the export of Alaskan oil are enacted."

Summary: Obama voted to restrict drilling for oil in the United States, specifically in Alaska. He wants to find alternative energy sources and is working hard to do that. In the meantime, he is cutting off his nose to spite his face in allowing the U.S. to remain heavily dependent on foreign oil, from which we must we must free ourselves.

Illegal Immigration: Barack Obama believes the immigration issue has been exploited by politicians to divide the nation rather than find real solutions. This divisiveness has allowed the illegal immigration problem to worsen, with borders that are less secure than ever and an economy that depends on millions of workers living in the shadows.

"We want to have a situation in which those who are already here, are playing by the rules, are willing to pay a fine and go through a rigorous process should have a pathway to legalization. Most Americans will support that if they have some sense that the border is also being secured. What they don't want is a situation in which there is a pathway to legalization and you've got another several hundred thousand of folks coming in every year. That is a central position we should be able to arrive at." Source: 2007 Dem. debate at Saint Anselm College Jun 3, 2007

Obama voted to continue extending state-funded welfare benefits and Medicaid to legal immigrants.

Voted YES on comprehensive immigration reform, which establishes specified benchmarks which must be met before the guest worker and legalization programs may be initiated:

• operational control of the border with Mexico;
• Border Patrol increases;
• order barriers, including vehicle barriers, fencing, radar, and aerial vehicles;
• detention capacity for illegal aliens apprehended crossing the US-Mexico border;
• workplace enforcement, including an electronic employment verification system; and
• Z-visa alien processing.

Proponents recommend voting YES because: If we do not legislate now, we will not legislate later this year when our calendar is crowded with Iraq and appropriations bills. We are then in an election year, and it will be pushed over to 2009. Circumstances will not be better then, they will be worse.

A vote against cloture is a vote to kill the bill. A Senator may vote for cloture and then express himself in opposition to the bill by voting against the bill.

Opponents recommend voting NO because: If this bill becomes law, we will see only a 13% reduction in illegal immigration into America, and in the next 20 years we will have another 8.7 million illegals in our country. How can that be reformed? I submit this would be a disaster.

The Congressional telephone systems have shut down because of the mass phone calls Congress is receiving. A decent respect for the views of the American people says let's stop here now. Let's go back to the drawing board and come up with a bill that will work.

The American people get it, and they do have common sense and wisdom on this issue. They know repeating the fundamental mistakes of the 1986 bill, joining a big amnesty with inadequate enforcement, will cause the problem to grow and not diminish. They know promising enforcement after 30 years of broken promises isn't good enough. They know the so-called trigger is a joke because if the trigger is never pulled, the Z visas, the amnesty happens forever.

Voted NO on declaring English as the official language of the US government.

Proponents recommend voting YES because: Right now, the polling shows that 91% of the people in America want English as an official language, and 76% of Hispanics believe English should be an official language.

Opponents recommend voting NO because: I believe the American people understand in order to succeed in our society, immigrants need to learn English. But the amendment would do a number of things that are problematical. The first is that it is contrary to the provisions of law that exist in many States. For example, in New Mexico, you have in their State Constitution, a provision that says that many of the documents within that State have to be provided in both English and Spanish. The same thing is true for the State of Hawaii. I believe this is a States rights issue, and those constitutions of those States ought to be respected. I do not believe it is a matter we ought to be imposing here from Washington DC.

Also, this amendment would undo an executive order conceived by President Bill Clinton and implemented by President George Bush. Both recognized it is important that people who have limited English proficiency receive the kinds of services so they can understand what is going on in terms of the interface between the Government and themselves.

Summary: Barak Obama is in full support of amnesty, which has been tried twice before in the United States in an effort to stem the tide of illegal immigration. It didn't work then, obviously, and it won't work now. He voted against the majority of the American people wants in this instance.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms: Obama has a near-perfect record of anti-2nd Amendment sentiment and voting. He said, "I believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities, and that our leaders must say so in the face of the gun manfuacturer's lobby. But I also believe that when a gangbanger shoots indiscriminately into a crowd because he feels someone disrespected him, we have a problem of morality. Not only do we need to punish that man for his crime, but we need to acknowledge that there's a hole in his heart, one that government programs alone may not be able to repair. Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.215 Oct 1, 2006

He voted "No" on prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers. This was a bill to prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammunition for damages, injunctive or other relief resulting from the misuse of their products by others.

Had he voted YES, it would:

• Exempt lawsuits brought against individuals who knowingly transfer a firearm that will be used to commit a violent or drug-trafficking crime
• Exempt lawsuits against actions that result in death, physical injury or property damage due solely to a product defect
• Call for the dismissal of all qualified civil liability actions pending on the date of enactment by the court in which the action was brought
• Prohibit the manufacture, import, sale or delivery of armor piercing ammunition, and sets a minimum prison term of 15 years for violations
• Require all licensed importers, manufacturers and dealers who engage in the transfer of handguns to provide secure gun storage or safety devices

Summary: Barak Obama is adamantly opposed to the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Tax Reform: "There's no doubt that the tax system has been skewed. And the Bush tax cuts--people didn't need them, and they weren't even asking for them, and that's why they need to be less, so that we can pay for universal health care and other initiatives.

"But I think this goes to a broader question, and that is, are we willing to make the investments in genuine equal opportunity in this country? People aren't looking for charity. We talk about welfare and we talk about poverty, but what people really want is fairness. They want people paying their fair share of taxes. They want that money allocated fairly."

and --

"We have to stop pretending that all cuts are equivalent or that all tax increases are the same. Ending corporate subsidies is one thing; reducing health-care benefits to poor children is something else. At a time when ordinary families are feeling hit from all sides, the impulse to keep their taxes as low as possible is honorable. What is less honorable is the willingness of the rich to ride this anti-tax sentiment for their own purposes.

Nowhere has this confusion been more evident than in the debate surrounding the proposed repeal of the estate tax. As currently structured, a husband and wife can pass on $4 million without paying any estate tax. In 2009, this figure goes up to $7 million. The tax thus affects only the wealthiest one-third of 1% in 2009. Repealing the estate tax would cost $1 trillion, and it would be hard to find a tax cut that was less responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans or the long-term interests of the country."

Summary: Nice to know Barak Obama knows what is going on in the minds of the American people. Ha! We needed those tax cuts, as did my family and friends. We didn't ask for it because Clinton was president and it NEVER would have happened. The economy is stronger than it has been, employment rates are up and I know Alvin and I breathe a sigh of relief when we walk out of our accountant's office because of changes in tax cuts and law.

War on Terror: "Before the war in Iraq ever started, Senator Obama said that it was wrong in its conception. In 2002, then Illinois State Senator Obama said Saddam Hussein posed no imminent threat to the United States and that invasion would lead to an occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. Since then, Senator Obama has laid out a plan on the way forward in Iraq that has largely been affirmed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group led by James Baker and Lee Hamilton.

"Five years after 9/11, our country is still unprepared for a terrorist attack. From improving security for our transit systems and chemical plants, to increasing cargo screening in our airports and seaports, the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission have been underfunded and ignored. The 9/11 Commission gave the government five F's and 12 D's on the implementation of its recommendations. Senator Obama is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and has supported efforts to base homeland security spending on risk rather than pork-barrel politics. He has also introduced legislation to strengthen chemical plant and drinking water security and to enhance disaster preparedness."

Summary: I really don't know what to say here. I remember Laura Bush saying that President Bush did not take the decision to go into Iraq lightly. She mentioned nights of the President walking the lawns of the White House in an attempt to make the right decision. I remember looking at all the facts laid before us, and knowing there were a host of facts we were not privy to, and agreeing with the decision to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. As the months waned on, as I learned more about Saddam Hussein and his sons the more frightened I became at what could have been. Yes, some of the intelligence reports were wrong . . . that's the nature of the intelligence game. Obama is placing blame where it should not be. He is against the War in Iraq. He is right about increasing security here at home.

And that is my brief summary of Barak Obama. I culled quotes from his websites, his book, and congressional reports but you can learn more about him at www.barakobama.com.