Obama's Town Hall Speech in Costa Mesa, CA

I just came in from a run and turned on the TV while I enjoyed a whey protein shake . . . and the smiling face of the POTUS greeted me on MSNBC. Given this opportunity, let's talk about what he has to say!*

• The POTUS says that health care is crushing our families and is the fastest growing part of our State and Federal budgets. Why might that be?

Because the Democratic Party is committed to putting more than 50% of the electorate on the dole, so as to assure an unbreakable electoral majority for years to come. Most of our increasing health care costs come from lifestyle choices (smoking and poor dietary habits) and increased demand for highly expensive, life-extending medications and treatments that are a LUXURY.

If the health care system is to be fixed, there needs to be strict limits placed on what types of benefits will be paid for by the taxpayer and to whom those benefits will go.

• President Obama also claims that no family making less than $250k per year will see a tax increase. Really?

So, when you tax a corporation or a small business owner, do they merrily pay those taxes, or do they pass on those costs in the form of a higher selling price for their goods? When the Democrats "soak the rich" . . . the rich turn around and pass on the soaking to their customers. The rich and corporations don't PAY their own taxes . . . THEIR CUSTOMERS pay the taxes. That's you and I.

• President Obama also defended the Spendulus package as having "almost universal consensus" on the need for stimulus spending.
  

While, from a Keynesian economic perspective this may be true, it fails to address the way the Spendulus package was built. I recently conducted a quick analysis of the Spendulus plan using the White House's own data sheets. Infrastructure spending was SUPPOSED TO COMPRISE the largest part of any stimulus, even according to liberal [socialist] economists like the Nobel Prize-winning Paul Krugman of Princeton.

How much of the Spendulus is actually going to the job-creating construction or maintenance of physical infrastructure?

7%.

Just 7% of the $787 billion Spendulus is going to upgrade or repair America's creaking, aging, cracking, eroding infrastructure. The largest part of the rest of it is going to grow government programs and increase transfer payments (taking from those who have earned and giving to those who have not earned).

• He also justified irresponsible spending by blaming those in government who came before him.

I fail to see how Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) wasn't part of the problem before President Obama took office. He stated that he wants to get "people back on their feet" and create jobs, but how will increases in transfer payments stimulate job creation?

• "We have to have comprehensive immigration reform."

The POTUS just called for closing the border, cracking down on employers who employ illegals, and for verification of the status of those who apply for employment. He also called for "significant fines" and a requirement to learn English for those who have illegally penetrated American borders and who wish to stay.

Wow! I am really impressed. The lack of clapping from this otherwise pro-Obama crowd in California told me all that I needed to know. My real concern is that this is just another empty "campaign promise" that will be forgotten, or more likely, actively rejected by the Congress.


* I obviously caught this most of the way through, so I am only addressing the parts of the speech that I personally saw.