President Obama, Delayer In Chief

Campaigning ain't governing, is it?

The saying is: “Go big or go home” but, in Washington, it is: “If you can’t go big, delay.”  And President Obama has been doing a lot of delaying lately.  First he delayed his climate bill, Cap and Trade, then he delayed a key economic report, and then he delayed his review of Gitmo by six months (remember, he pledged to close it by January 22, 2010?

Supporters of President Obama would probably say that guy is just too ambitious and Washington just doesn’t like change.  Of course, it could be that the Republicans are causing the delays but, really, with a majority in the House and the Senate it is his own party and his “ambitious” plans.

How quickly things he had hoped for change in 6 months.

Cap and Trade is shelved until at least September but probably until November.  Healthcare is bogging down because of how damn expensive it will be.  Consider this little tidbit about heathcare reform from more than 40 years ago:

You don’t need an accounting degree or clairvoyant powers. The administrative costs and spillover spending effects will be astronomical. Look at existing federal programs.

In 1966, the Office of Management and Budget put the total taxpayer costs for Medicare at $64 million. In 2011, Medicare costs are expected to balloon to nearly $500 billion.

Medicaid cost $770 million in 1966. By 2011, that program will cost taxpayers an estimated $264 billion.

The Virginia-based Council for Affordable Health Insurance estimated that the administrative expenses of both programs last decade were 66% higher than those of private sector health insurance companies.

Investor’s Business Daily also brings up this fact mentioned by the Congressional Budget Office:

“We have not yet estimated the administrative costs to the federal government of implementing the specified policies, nor have we accounted for all of the proposal’s likely effects on spending for other federal programs.”

Whoa.  Already the Democrats’ plan is estimated to cost (a lowball number obviously) $1.5 trillion over 10 years.  To put this number in perspective, the “stimulus” Obama signed into law will cost this country $1.24 trillion including interest.

Cap and Trade is not looking too good because even Democrats are realizing how expensive it will be.  This is the exact same fate that Bill Clinton’s BTU tax met when it was passed by the House early in his first term.  Healthcare, like Clinton’s attempt, is also starting to meet the same end.

Obama's ideas are not really working out.

But what about Gitmo?  Obama and his Liberal supporters declared jihad on closing this saying what a “stain” it was on America’s image.  Whoops:

President Obama on Monday extended by six months a review of some 240 terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – now just halfway finished – putting in jeopardy his campaign promise to close the U.S. military detention facility by January.

Military lawyers at the U.S. Navy Base at Guantanamo Bay are prepared to go to trial with 66 suspected terrorists now held in extrajudicial detention on this U.S. Navy base, but Mr. Obama’s executive order two days after taking office has tied their hands, suspending all proceedings pending a review that nearly seven months later is just half finished.

Obama made a big stink about Gitmo and about something called “indefinite detention” accusing the Bush administration of tearing up the Constitution.  Now that Obama actually has to do something his tune has quietly changed:

The Obama administration is quietly considering issuing an executive order that would revive the president’s authority to jail terrorism suspects indefinitely without charge or trial, which could apply to as many as 90 Guantanamo Bay detainees.

If Obama is considering doing what he critisized Bush for doing then, I guess, he’s a hypocrite or he was foolish to babble on and talk down this country without knowing what the issues were.  Either way it makes him look very badly indeed.

But as much stink as he made about the Gitmo inmates he avoided discussing “man created disasterists” held in overseas facilities:

The Obama administration has appealed a ruling from a district court judge that some detainees at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan are entitled to challenge the reasons for their detentions.

If overturned (and not subsequently over-overturned), the Obama administration would be able to capture and detain prisoners at Bagram for the duration of the conflict against Afghanistan — a legal “black hole” outside the purview of American courts.

So Obama managed to cram the stimulus into law because, doing the very same things he accused the Bush administration of doing (that whole “fear” thing) but everything else is going nowhere.  The parallels between Clinton’s failed attempts at taxing emissions and “reforming” healthcare mirror what Obama is trying to do.  Funny, when the Democrats get elected to president they just go where they know… which is to the place where the taxes are large and the red tape is long.

It is not wrong for President Obama to follow his party’s philosophy and try to “reform” healthcare, pass a climate bill, or close Gitmo… what is wrong is how much he put down the people who disagreed with him and how he tarnished the image of this country with hyperbole that has no chance of seeing the light of day.

Latest news is that Obamakare has been delayed until the Fall.  Hopefully it won’t be revived and will instead stay in a coma.

Related posts:

Obama: ATM In Chief?
Democrats Give the Land of Lincoln Gitmo Detainees
Obama the Hypocrite
Obama’s Strategery
Cheney, Obama, and Dueling Debates
Obama Backs Another Bush Idea (After Condemning It)