20 Questions for the Obama Regime

BY TROY SENIK

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As the headlines remind us daily, the Obama Administration is quickly moving towards its halfway mark. Thus, it’s now time to subject the White House to a midterm examination. Here are 20 questions for the panjandrums of Pennsylvania Avenue:

1. The stimulus program was sold to the American people partially on the promise that it would keep the national unemployment rate below 8%. Yet in each of the 17 months since the bill was passed, unemployment has been over 8%. If such basic empirical claims are repeatedly disproved, how can they provide a basis for national economic policy?

2. At $877 billion, the stimulus was the largest spending bill in U.S. history. The administration claims that the package was a success because every dollar the federal government pumps into the economy generates more than a dollar of economic activity. If that is true, why place any limit on government spending? Why not appropriate 50% of GDP if the net result is always a return greater than 100%?

3. The administration claims that (A) the stimulus was a success and (B) more stimulus is required. How are these two propositions reconcilable?

4. Prior to becoming the chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, Christina Romer wrote in a scholarly paper that a tax increase of 1% of GDP would reduce overall GDP by 3%. With President Obama seemingly prepared to let at least some of the Bush tax cuts expire – and to entertain the notion of a national value-added tax – is it Romer’s scholarly credentials or Obama’s understanding of economics that is deficient?

5. Attorney General Eric Holder has pointedly refused to cite radical Islam as the proximate cause for terrorism aimed at the United States. What does he believe Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan meant when he shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is the greatest”) as he killed or wounded 43 at the Texas military installation?

6. During his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, President Obama said, “we do not have to think that human nature is perfect for us to still believe that the human condition can be perfected.” What meaning does a phrase like “human nature” have if it refers to a condition that can be transcended?

7. During the 2009 uprising against the Iranian government, the president refused to even rhetorically intervene, lest the United States be seen as “meddling.” Today, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still the President of Iran and the country is closer than ever before to a nuclear weapon. What worse scenario did the president’s forbearance prevent?

8. At an April 28 speech in Quincy, Illinois, President Obama said, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money." What is the maximum amount of money an American citizen should be allowed to earn?

9. In a May discussion about human rights violations, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner reportedly used Arizona’s new immigration law to illustrate to Chinese officials that the U.S. is also derelict in its protection of individual freedoms. Which provision of the law does he believe most closely approximates the murder of 3,000 protesters in Tiananmen Square?

10. President Obama repeatedly promoted his plans for health care reform by promising that Americans who liked their health insurance could keep it. Since 62% of Americans receive their health care coverage through an employer – meaning it is the employer who will decide the relative merits of ObamaCare’s costs and benefits – how can this promise be effectuated?

11. During his Oval Office address on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama said of the Minerals Management Service, ““Over the last decade, this agency has become emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility - a philosophy that says corporations should be allowed to play by their own rules and police themselves.” Which public officials have voiced support for this philosophy?

12. Amidst the fractious disunity of the President’s team in Afghanistan, he has replaced General Stanley McChrystal with General David Petraeus – a man whose view of war policy is little different from McChrystal’s. How does the president propose to achieve the “unity of effort” he has spoken of while keeping in place a heterogeneous group of principals?

13. If programs like “Cash for Clunkers” and the homebuyers tax credit provided durable economic growth for the automobile and housing industries, why weren’t they made permanent?

14. The expansion of entitlements and spending that the Obama Administration is pursuing in the United States closely mirrors the policies of social democracies of Europe. Which European nations does the president believe boast superior economic performance when compared to the United States?

15. Obama agreed to remove missile defense from Poland and the Czech Republic to soothe Russian anxieties. Why would a peaceful nation fear a purely defensive weapons system?

16. The president contends that “green jobs” will be good for the environment and the economy. How can the government increase overall economic productivity by subsidizing inefficient forms of energy and taxing efficient ones?

17. President Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case for allowing undue electoral influence by special interests. What example, foreign or domestic, does he cite to prove the virtue of allowing the government to regulate what can be said about the government?

18. After the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day – an attempt that was only stopped by the vigilance of fellow passengers – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said, “the system worked”. In what instance, where “the system” is defined as “the government,” can that judgment be said to be true?

19. The president’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick – a self-appointed rationing enthusiast – to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was justified on the grounds that congressional Republicans were “going to stall the nomination as long as they could.” No Republican had any plans to prevent confirmation hearings. Does the President feel that opposition, rather than obstruction, meets the threshold for circumventing the constitutional appointment process? If so, what purpose does the process serve?

20. Is America better off than it was two years ago?