Obama has kept his campaign promises!! yay......

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First, does anyone not understand that if you make a bad promise, that keeping the bad promise is not a great and wonderful thing? Hitler promised to 'deal with the Jews'. Should we be praising him for keeping his campaign promise? So when Obama makes a bunch of bad promises that will ruin our country, don't be surprised when the right-wing doesn't sing the praises of the destroyer-in-chief. With that as a preface, PolitiFact web site has a bunch of claimed Obama campaign promises kept. 10 pages worth. I intend to go through them as quickly as possible, and see what is good, bad and ugly. Now I haven't yet read all of the campaign promises kept, so it's possible I may be surprised by some of the "good" things done. We shall see... --------------------------------------------------------- [b]1. Close the "doughnut hole" in Medicare prescription drug plan 2. Expand the Senior Corps volunteer program (paid volunteers) 3. Give tax credits to those who need help to pay health premiums 4. Expand eligibility for Medicaid 5. Increase funding to expand community based prevention programs 6. Expand housing vouchers program for homeless veterans 7. Fully fund the Veterans Administration 8. Expand eligibility for State Children's Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP) 9. Implement and fund proven health intervention programs 10. Create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to invest in peer-reviewed manufacturing processes 11. Expand funding to train primary care providers and public health practitioners 12. Reinstate executive order to hire an additional 100,000 federal employees with disabilities within five years. 13. Expand Veterans Centers in rural areas 14. Increase the Veterans Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals 15. Expand the Veterans Administration's number of "centers of excellence" in specialty care 16. Fully fund the Violence Against Women Act 17. Launch a supportive services-housing program for veterans to prevent homelessness 18. Create a rapid response fund for emerging democracies 19. Restore funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne/JAG) program 20. Launch an international Add Value to Agriculture Initiative (AVTA) 21. Expand the Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers 22. Increase funding for local emergency planning 23. Provide $30 billion over 10 years to Israel 24. Create a military families advisory board 25. Initiate a grant and training program for law enforcement to deter cyber crime 26. Expand federal bioforensics program for tracking biological weapons[/b] A few days ago on a financial radio program, a lady called in saying she was about to lose her home to foreclosure. The radio host questioned the lady on her income, and expenses, and figured she should be earning enough to pay for her house. After she insisted that she was broke, he continued questioning her until she admitted that she was paying for an apartment for her son who was going to college, because he didn't want to live at home or at the dorms. The host obviously stunned, repeated to her that she was losing her house and all she owned... but paying her son's rent. Her only answer was "but I promised him!". All of these above are spending increases. Hello....? Spending increases when we have a $1.3 Trillion dollar deficit, our debt is now larger than how much the entire country makes in a year, and some creditors like China have down graded our bonds, meaning they are worried we won't pay up. We are heading towards a national default, and we don't have the money for this stuff. "ARE YOU AGAINST VETERANS GETTING BLAW BLAW?!?!" No... I'm against us flushing the entire country down the drain because we are too stupid to figure out we DO NOT have the money for every luxury program we want. "BUT BLAW BLAW IS NOT A LUXURY!" Yes... actually it is. If you can't afford it, and it's a program that gives free stuff to people who did not earn it... that's a luxury we can't afford. Now when we pay off all our debts, and have a trillion dollars in the bank... then we can start some luxury give-away programs. Until then you are merely demanding we destroy our country for something we can't afford. Any promise that increases our spending, when we're broke, is a negative, not a positive, regardless of what the spending is for. Stop with the rationalizations. Saying it's for a good cause is directly equal to say "We're going to lose our entire country because we need this 'good cause' program!". No sorry, you are being an irresponsible idiot like that lady on the radio. [b]1. Extend child tax credits and marriage-penalty fixes 2. Extend the Bush tax cuts for lower incomes 3. Extend and index the 2007 Alternative Minimum Tax patch[/b] Wait wait wait... I thought Bush only cut taxes for the wealthy 1%! Are you saying that Bush cut taxes on the lower and middle income people too?!? File this under "Thanks Bush!" [b]1. Increase minority access to capital 2. Expand loan programs for small businesses[/b] Hello? Didn't we just have an economic crash because government pushed people to make bad loans, and your solution is to push people to make more bad loans? Here's a thought, cut taxes on business and everyone (including minorities), so business has more money to expand, and minorities have more money to buy things with. Eliminate the higher subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans So after jacking up spending on every other aspect of Medicare, you'll cut a few dollars off. Yay Obama... save $2 dollars to spend $2 billion. File this under 'BS'. [b]1. Direct military leaders to end war in Iraq 2. Begin removing combat brigades from Iraq 3. End the "Stop-loss" program of forcing troops to stay in service beyond their expected commitments[/b] Oh you mean after Bush fairly well finished up in Iraq, you are going to um... finish up Iraq! File that under "Thanks Bush!" Create an international tax haven watch list Oh brilliant. Lets spend tax money to make a tax haven watch list, which of course will require more taxes, which causes more people to move their money to tax havens. File that under "Idiocy". Require economic justification for tax changes Meaningless. You can get a government economist to make up an economic justification for anything. Just look at the stimulus. [b]1. Implement "Women Owned Business" contracting program 2. Set goals and timetables for implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act (affirmative action) 3. Create a best practices list for private businesses in accommodating workers with disabilities[/b] So instead of spending our tax dollars on the most qualified, we are spending them based on breasts and hips, or having a disability? Brilliant. And we wonder why government is routinely incompetent. Launch educational initiative for employers on tax benefits of hiring employees with disabilities Why have only government be incompetent? Let's make the private sector incompetent too! Then wonder why the economy is in the tank. Change standards for determining broadband access Pointless and a waste of time. Create a consumer-friendly credit card rating system Which is useless. How many people know the rating of their card, or care? Establish a credit card bill of rights Which caused credit card companies to raise interest rates on everyone, because they could no longer raise interest rates on only those that failed to make on time payments. Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions Review: Companies do not have one penny that doesn't come from higher premiums, or lower pay outs. Where do you think the money is going to come from, to cover people who refuse to pay for insurance until they are sick, and cancel after they get treated? Hello???? WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM?? YOU!!!!!! YOU ARE GOING TO PAY THE HIGHER PREMIUMS TO PAY FOR THIS! File that under "shooting our own foot". Require large employers to contribute to a national health plan Which means they have less money to create products and jobs. Then we're shocked we have sluggish GDP and high unemployment. Clue phone? Require children to have health insurance coverage Lie much? He accomplished that? Are you seriously suggesting there is not a single child anywhere in America without insurance coverage? Require health plans to disclose how much of the premium goes to patient care Who cares? So what if it's 10% or 90%? If my insurance is great, but I have no illness, then 100% of my premium is profit.... well duh... I'm not using it. *IF* I do get sick, that will change. More importantly, your other policies will jack my premiums up higher, regardless of the percentage. File that under "Gee thanks...". Establish an independent health institute to provide accurate and objective information Which serves no purpose other than to limit health care. In non-competitive markets, force insurers to pay out a reasonable share of their premiums for patient care In a free-market, there is no such thing as a non-competitive market. Further, forcing insurance companies to pay out more, will only force them to charge more in premiums. Brilliantly idiotic. Assure that the Veterans Administration budget is prepared as 'must-pass' legislation So the VA budget is 'must-pass' but the entire Federal Budget is not passed at all. File that under "BS". Appoint a special adviser to the president on violence against women If you need a special adviser on so limited a topic as violence against women, then you are truly incompetent. No permanent bases in Iraq Yes, because we certainly wouldn't want to extend support and stability to our new ally. [b]Send