The Prestige
By
Perry Schumacher
on February 26, 2009 at 08:33 am
On October 20, 2008 during the Walden University Presidential Youth Debate, then Presidential candidate Barack Obama, was presented with this question from a Jacob S. of Tennessee. He asked, “I think an important quality in a leader is being able to admit when he or she was wrong on an issue, and adjust his or her stance accordingly in light of new information. What is the policy position you most regret taking over your years of public service and why?”
Senator Obama answered, “That’s a great question Jacob. When I think back on it I think a good example is welfare reform. When President Clinton initially signed the welfare reform bill in 1996, I was concerned that it could have disastrous results for the working poor. At the time I was working in the Illinois legislature to make sure that we were providing childcare and health care and other support services for the women who were going to be kicked off the roles after a certain time. Welfare reform worked better than a lot of people anticipated, myself included. And what it provided is that we need to have work as the center piece of social policies. Not only because we need to create good paying jobs, but because there’s an intrinsic dignity to having a job and that is why we need to jump start the job creation now. A good paying job provides a sense of purpose, a sense that you’re making a contribution no matter how small to the well being of the country as a whole. America’s very promise is that in this country opportunity is open to anyone who is willing to work for it. That’s why I’m running for president, to restore that promise for all Americans.”
Contrast his answer during the debate with what has taken place in the stimulus bill that he recently signed into law. Robert Rector of The Heritage Foundation has written the following: A major public policy success, welfare reform in the mid-1990s led to a dramatic reduction in welfare dependency and child poverty. This successful reform, however is now in jeopardy: Little-noted provisions in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate stimulus bills actually abolish this historic reform. In addition, the stimulus bills will add nearly $800 billion in new means-tested welfare spending over the next decade. This new spending amounts to around $22,500 for every poor person in the U.S. The cost of the new welfare spending amounts, on average, to over $10,000 for each family paying income tax.
Why would someone admit to a mistake in policy yet implement that very mistake? It is simple. It is all about ideology. Barack Obama has socialism in his bone marrow. When he answered Joe the plumber that he prefers to spread the wealth around we saw his soul.
Obama is Jesse Jackson in camouflage.
In reversing the successful welfare reform of 1996 Obama is showing his real stripes. His motivation as President has less to do with what is successful policy but instead reinforces his ideas on what America should be like. He is willing to accept less favorable results as long as it grows the size of government in a manner consistent with his core beliefs. The neighborhood organizer is all about the collective rather than personal liberty. He is a magician. His words are used to keep your attention and distract you from “the prestige”. His words aim to make you think he is a Washington outsider who will turn the system upside down but when this “magic trick” is over the ones who haven’t already will realize it was all a con. A con that if not stopped will bring a very liberal agenda to a middle, right country.
Perry Schumacher
Member of Government by the People
Senator Obama answered, “That’s a great question Jacob. When I think back on it I think a good example is welfare reform. When President Clinton initially signed the welfare reform bill in 1996, I was concerned that it could have disastrous results for the working poor. At the time I was working in the Illinois legislature to make sure that we were providing childcare and health care and other support services for the women who were going to be kicked off the roles after a certain time. Welfare reform worked better than a lot of people anticipated, myself included. And what it provided is that we need to have work as the center piece of social policies. Not only because we need to create good paying jobs, but because there’s an intrinsic dignity to having a job and that is why we need to jump start the job creation now. A good paying job provides a sense of purpose, a sense that you’re making a contribution no matter how small to the well being of the country as a whole. America’s very promise is that in this country opportunity is open to anyone who is willing to work for it. That’s why I’m running for president, to restore that promise for all Americans.”
Contrast his answer during the debate with what has taken place in the stimulus bill that he recently signed into law. Robert Rector of The Heritage Foundation has written the following: A major public policy success, welfare reform in the mid-1990s led to a dramatic reduction in welfare dependency and child poverty. This successful reform, however is now in jeopardy: Little-noted provisions in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate stimulus bills actually abolish this historic reform. In addition, the stimulus bills will add nearly $800 billion in new means-tested welfare spending over the next decade. This new spending amounts to around $22,500 for every poor person in the U.S. The cost of the new welfare spending amounts, on average, to over $10,000 for each family paying income tax.
Why would someone admit to a mistake in policy yet implement that very mistake? It is simple. It is all about ideology. Barack Obama has socialism in his bone marrow. When he answered Joe the plumber that he prefers to spread the wealth around we saw his soul.
Obama is Jesse Jackson in camouflage.
In reversing the successful welfare reform of 1996 Obama is showing his real stripes. His motivation as President has less to do with what is successful policy but instead reinforces his ideas on what America should be like. He is willing to accept less favorable results as long as it grows the size of government in a manner consistent with his core beliefs. The neighborhood organizer is all about the collective rather than personal liberty. He is a magician. His words are used to keep your attention and distract you from “the prestige”. His words aim to make you think he is a Washington outsider who will turn the system upside down but when this “magic trick” is over the ones who haven’t already will realize it was all a con. A con that if not stopped will bring a very liberal agenda to a middle, right country.
Perry Schumacher
Member of Government by the People
