Examiner
looks at Obama's speeches and campaign pledges between 2007 and 2013 to
assess the president's lies, broken promises, hypocrisy, and empty
rhetoric. In Washington, the easiest thing to do is
talk about
change, especially when you're a former "community organizer" (i.e.,
code word for frustrated socialist) with zero business experience.
Psychologists define pathological lying as "falsification entirely
disproportionate to any discernible end in view . . . and may manifest
over a period of years or even a lifetime". The individual may be aware
they are lying, or may believe they are telling the truth, being
unaware that they are living in a fantasy, according to the Journal of
American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
Here's our top 60 list of Obama's deceit, in no particular order. (All quotations are statements Obama made in recent years.)
1. Promised an open, more transparent government. In 2008,
candidate Obama said "No more secrecy. That's a commitment I'm going to
make to you as you as president. No more secrecy." (
Video)
a. Obamacare, Obama's landmark legislation from his first term, was passed in secrecy. In an infamous
2009 interview with ABC,
the president insisted several times that Obamacare "is not a tax".
However, Obama's solicitor general argued before the Supreme Court that
the healthcare act was indeed a tax, and in 2012, the nation's highest
court agreed. Transparency? In 2012, Donald Trump offered
$5 million
to a charity of Obama’s choosing in exchange for the release of the
president’s college and passport records. As of 2013, Obama has spent
over $2 million in legal fees to seal his personal and professional
records from public view.
2. “I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.”
a. (
Video)
Apparently, the campaigner-in-chief doesn't understand that communism
destroyed the Soviet Union. Pathalogical liars live in a fantasy world.
3. In a 2008 interview with interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, then-candidate Obama said “. . . you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith . . .”
a. Obama has always maintained that he is Christian. However, the
above interview showed his Freudian slip. Also, his wedding ring
allegedly bears the inscription “There is no God but Allah”.
4. In 2008, the Associated Press obtained Obama's Indonesian grade school registration which, when translated into English, identifies him as an Indonesian citizen.
a.
Article 2 Section 1
of the constitution states that “No person except a natural born
Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption
of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
5. In 2011, a team of forensic experts organized by Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio looked into Obama's submitted birth certificate.
Arpaio told Fox News his forensic team's conclusion that Obama's birth
certification is “definitely fraudulent”. After six months of
analyzing the document, Arpaio's team discovered code errors,
computer-generated marks, and manipulated seals on the document.
a. The
White House responded by releasing a different birth certificate.
6. “As president, I’m going to make it impossible for
congressman and lobbyists to slip pork barrel projects or corporate
welfare into law when no one’s looking . . . . No more secrecy.”
a. Pork barrel spending continues. In 2011 it was disclosed that the Obama administration has been conducting
secret talks with lobbyists
at coffee shops so that the meetings could not be recorded by the White
House logbook. In 2012, earmarks are expected to exceed $40 billion.
Want some examples of pork barrel spending under Obama's watch? (
Video)
- $255,000,000 to upgrade the M1 Abrams tank, which is opposed by the Pentagon.
- $120,000,000 for alternative energy research within the Air Force,
Army, and Navy. According to Sen. John McCain, the Navy has spent in
excess of $400 per gallon for approximately 20,000 gallons of
algae-based biofuel.
- $3,000,000 for "aquatic plant control".
- $3,388,000 for "national fish hatchery system operations".
- $114,770,000 for the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), which supports global democratization efforts.
- $18,000,000 to rebuild the government's recovery.gov website.
Indian IT firms could have done this project for less than $50,000.
- $10,000,000 to build a one-mile, 20-lane highway outside of Salt Lake City.
- $19,000,000 free-clam program to benefit people who have never eaten clams.
- $1,800,000 million to study why pigs smell.
- $1,900,000 million for a water taxi in Connecticut.
7. “When there’s a bill on my desk as president, you –
the public – will have five days to look at it online and find out
what’s in it before I sign it.”
a. (
Video) Not even one credible attempt at this initiative.
8. In 2009, Obama submitted his 2009 IRS tax return
which shows him using a Connecticut social security number that fails
the government’s E-verify background check. The SSN is tied to a Harrison J. Bounel.
The Social Security Administration does not recycle social security
numbers and duplicate use is a red flag for identity fraud. Bounel is
reportedly a relative of Michelle Robinson, Obama’s wife.
9. In May 2012, the president's former literary agent Acton & Dystel produced an unpublished leaflet
stating that Obama was “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and
Hawaii”. The promotional booklet was written in 1991. In the vast
majority of cases, authors write their own bio which implies that Obama
himself stated that he was “born in Kenya”.
10. Post meetings between federal agencies and lobbyists online.
a. Never happened. In 2013, it was disclosed that the Environmental
Protection Agency caved in to lobbying pressure from the American
Chemical Association and reversed itself on enhancing drinking water
safety standards.
11. “When there’s a tax bill being debated in congress, you
would know the names of the corporations that would benefit and how much
money they would get.”
a. (
Video) Never happened.
12. “We would put every corporate tax break and every pork
barrel spending on the online for every American to see, and you will
know who asked for them. And you can decide whether your
representatives are actually representing you.”
a. Not this one either. But the sheeple applauded at the time.
13. “. . . broadcasting [health care] negotiations on C-SPAN
so the American people can see what the choices are. Because what we
have to do is enlist the American people in this process.”
a. (
Video)
On the contrary, Obama encouraged congressional leaders to skip
conference committee negotiations on the healthcare reform act. C-SPAN
CEO Brian Lamb sent a letter to Obama and congressional leaders
requesting television coverage of the negotiations. His request was
denied. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs refused to answer
questions about the broken campaign pledge.
14. “I’m in this race to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over.”
a. One word: Solyndra. One taxpayer-funded loan down the drain: $500 million.
The Washington Post reported in 2012 that lobbyists are a constant presence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
15. Obama’s official Facebook page shows a doctored photo of Ann Dunham, his mother, having a right hand of an African American man.
16. In 2012, the New York Times reported that up to 70 percent of Obama’s Twitter followers are fake.
17. “They [lobbyists] will not work in my White House.”
a. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, at least 374
people in the Obama administration are known lobbyists. Several work in
the White House due to a loophole in the executive order on lobbyists
that Obama signed in 2009.
18. “Lobbyists won’t drown out your voice when I am president of the United States of America.”
a. According to the
New York Times, at least 15 “bundlers” who raised money for Obama’s campaign efforts are current or former lobbyists.
b. As a U.S. senator from Illinois, Obama issued a public apology for
reaping a $300,000 discount on his $1.65 million mansion in Illinois
from convicted lobbyist Tony Rezko.
19. “. . . having inherited a trillion dollar deficit . . .”
a. (
Video)
Obama created trillion dollar deficits, and is projected to create the
biggest budget deficits in U.S. history. In 2013, the deficit is
projected to be $977 billion. When Bush left office in 2008, the
deficit was $438 billion for the year. Obama never inherited “trillion
dollar deficits”. That’s a lie.
20. “We need to focus on what we need to move the American economy forward, not on what’s nice to have.”
a. In his first term, Obama’s signature legislation was Obamacare,
which is the single biggest tax increase in American history. Not jobs
or the economy. He blocked construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline
which would have immediately created tens of thousands of jobs.
21. “. . . as we develop a full budget . . . we’re gonna go through our books page by page . . .”
a. The U.S. senate has illegally refused to pass a budget since 2009
because Democrats, led by Harry Reid, won’t let the item go to the full
floor for a vote. (
Video) Obama can easily pressure senate Democrats to pass a budget, as federal law requires each year, but he won’t do it.
22. “ . . . we’re gonna go through our books page by page, line by line, to eliminate waste and inefficiency.”
a. Spending items and pork barrel projects still costs taxpayers
tens of billions of dollars each year on useless projects. According to
the
Citizens Against Government Waste,
the Obama administration spent $20 million on a demonstration project
to build wooden bridges, $1.2 million to study the sexual behavior of
woodchucks, $2 million to construct ancient Hawaiian canoes, $1 million
to preserve a sewer as a historical monument, and $19 million to study
the gas emissions of cow farts. Yes, cow farts.
23. “We have already identified over $2 trillion dollars in
deficit reductions that will help us cut our deficit in half by the end
of my first term.
a. Instead of cutting the government’s annual budget deficit in half, Obama has more than doubled it.
24. “The process whereby Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now (2009) . . .”
a. (
Video) Four years later, Guantanamo is still open and Obama has no intention of closing it down.
25. In 2004, then-U.S. senator Barack Obama said that there
was no (policy) difference between him and George W. Bush on the war on
terrorism.
a. When running for president, Obama repeatedly vilified George W. Bush and claimed that he was always against the war on Iraq.
26. “I’m proud of our campaign because it’s based on telling the truth.”
a. In 2012, analysis done by
Forbes
concluded that much of Obama’s negative television ads aimed at Mitt
Romney contained false claims and misleading attacks. In other words,
Obama has run a campaign full of lies in 2008 and 2012.
27. In 2009, Obama told NBC that his presidency would be a “one-term proposition” if the economy did not turn around in three years.
a. In running for a second term, Obama claimed to voters that the
economy had improved since taking office. That was clearly not the
case. The unemployment rate hovered at 8 percent and would have been
much higher of the Labor Department counted the 9 million Americans who
have left the workforce since 2011. Also, by 2012 a record 46 million
Americans have become dependent on food stamps.
28. In 2008, Obama said that “adding $4 trillion to the national debt is unpatriotic” in a campaign event in North Dakota.
a. Since taking office, Obama added $5.8 trillion to the national
debt, which represents the largest increase under one president. Not
only that, he broke the record in just one term.
29. During the 2008 presidential debates, Obama blasted George W. Bush for doubling the nation’s debt to $10 trillion.
a. As of early 2013, America’s national debt equals 104 percent of
GDP. The national debt increased by 60 percent during the first four
years of Obama’s presidency. That’s a rate higher than George W. Bush’s
eight years in office.
30. In 2006, Sen. Barack Obama said, “Washington is shifting
the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and
grandchildren. America has a debt and a failure of leadership. Americans
deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase
America’s debt limit.”
a. (
Video)
In April 2011, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Obama
"regrets" voting against raising the debt ceiling in 2006 as U.S.
senator. As president, he had flip flopped on the issue. In 2012,
Obama proposed to congress that he be given the unilateral authority to
increase the debt ceiling on the federal government. This is against
the constitution which assigns the government’s spending and borrowing
powers solely with the legislative branch.
31. As an Illinois state senator, Obama opposed gay
marriage. During both inaugurations, he also swore – with his hand on
the bible – to uphold the laws of the land.
a. (
Video)
After occupying higher political office, Obama began to support gay
marriage. More troubling, he ordered the Justice Department to refuse
to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act which was signed into law during
the presidency of Bill Clinton.
32. “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”
a.
Obama’s infamous words
on July 13, 2012 that almost cost him re-election. The White House
would later claim that Obama’s words were taken out of context. Common
sense dictates that Obama’s statement was a plain lie, so was the White
House’s claim.
33. “Any middle class family will see their incomes go up
by $3,000 because of the Recovery Act, helping them get back much of
what they lost due to this recession.”
a. Despite the $831 billion stimulus bill passed in 2009, the
median income
has dropped by more than $3,000 to $50,100 in 2012. That’s a more than
$6,000 yearly difference per U.S. household between what Obama promised
in 2008 and what he delivered by the time of his re-election.
34. In a June 2012 with the White House press corps,
Obama said that the “private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing
weaknesses in our economy is in the state and local government.”
a. Thus, Obama claimed, during the worst recovery in the
nation’s history, that the economy is “doing fine” and that the
government, at all levels, needed to grow despite America’s
unsustainable debt and spending levels. When he made the statement, the
number of Americans relying on food stamps had doubled since Obama
first took office. Even the president’s former adviser,
Steven Rattner, did not think that the private sector was “doing fine”.
35. In early July 2011,
Obama said that he'd "be turning [50-years-old] in a week". However,
his submitted birth certificate shows that he was born on August 4, or
three full weeks after the date of the press conference.
36. Obama's INS documents
at the national archives are missing for the entire week (around August
1961) in which Ann Dunham was supposed to have returned to the United
States with young Barack in tow.
37. In 2007, then-Senator Obama said he wanted to make sure no American is without access to vital medical attention.
a. Even after passage of Obamacare, health experts estimate that
in 2014 over 22 million Americans will still lack access to basic
health services.
38. In 2007, Obama said,
“If American workers are being denied their right to organize and
collectively bargain when I’m in the White House . . . I’ll walk on that
picket line with you as President of the United States of America.”
a. There have been state-level efforts in Wisconsin, Tennessee,
Michigan, Ohio, Maine, Florida and Indiana to curtail collective
bargaining rights. Obama has never appeared in a single protest rally.
39. In 2008, candidate Obama pushed for reform of the
Patriot Act. He also called for enhanced judicial oversight and a
reduction of certain warrantless searches.
a. (
Video)
During his first term, Obama resisted any reforms to the sweeping spy
law and sought to extend the Patriot Act. He also used extensive use of
drone killings that have resulted in the deaths of American citizens
overseas without granting those individuals due process, judicial or
legislative oversight.
40. In 2008, candidate Obama promised that he would end the
war in Afghanistan by July 2011. In a campaign speech, he said "you
can take that one to the bank".
a. (
Video)
At the time of his campaign speeches, most military leaders did not
believe Obama’s timeline was realistic. The president has since
targeted 2014 as his deadline for withdrawing most, not necessarily all,
U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
41. In September 2012, the Obama administration blamed the Benghazi attacks on a purported YouTube video that attacked Islam.
a. (
Video) The eight-hour ordeal, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, was a planned attack by Al Qaeda fighters.
42. In the aftermath of the Benghazi attacks, Obama claimed
that he was in constant communication with his staff and national
security apparatus. He also claimed to have issued “three directives”
to protect diplomats.
a. During congressional hearings in February 2013, defense
secretary Leon Panetta and joint chiefs chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey
admitted under oath that they only had
one phone call with the president during the Libya attacks.
43. In April 2012, Obama claimed that if the Supreme Court
overturned Obamacare, the high court’s actions would constitute
“judicial overreach”.
a. The constitution grants the judicial branch the authority to
limit the powers of the legislative and executive branches of
government. Obama was a lecturer on constitutional law at the
University of Chicago. Yet, he failed to grasp this elementary lesson
on the U.S. constitution and the separation of powers between the three
branches of government.
Judge Andrew Napolitano,
a constitutional scholar, remarked that when the president questions
whether or not the Supreme Court has the authority to invalidate the
statute, it “belies the history of the country and the president’s
education of that history.”
44. “Let me be absolutely clear: if you are a family making
less than $250,000 a year . . . you will not see your taxes go up.”
a. (
Video)
Obamacare is considered the largest tax increase in U.S. history.
Additionally, Obama has proposed multiple tax increases throughout his
first and second terms. Just sixteen days into his presidency back in
2009, he signed into law and increase in the federal excise tax on
tobacco. All smokers making less than $250,000 a year saw their taxes
go up.
45. In 2008, then-candidate Obama said “If you choose
change, you will have a nominee who doesn't take a dime from Washington
lobbyists and PACs.”
a. (
Video)
By the 2012 November elections, Obama’s Super Pacs had raised hundreds
of millions of dollars and were run by former White House staffers.
The campaign also received tens of millions of dollars from groups, such
as Solyndra, who received government bailout money or guaranteed loans.
Records show that Obama ranked second only to Chris Dodd in the entire
congress in receiving donations from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which
were responsible for the housing collapse and financial crisis of 2008.
46. Throughout the 2012 campaign, Obama pushed for ending the Bush-era tax cuts.
a. (
Video) In reality, he agreed to extend the tax cuts which contained certain tax advantages for the wealthy.
47. Cap-and-Trade. In 2007, then-senator Obama said “As
President, I will set a hard cap on all carbon emissions at a level that
scientists say is necessary to curb global warming — an 80 percent
reduction by 2050.”
a. (
Video)
After Democrats in congress suffered heavy losses in 2012, Obama
reversed himself on Cap-and-Trade. "[Cap-and-trade] was just one way of
skinning the cat; it was not the only way. It was a means, not an end."
48. In 2008, Obama promised to send people to the moon by
2020, and then Mars. One campaign material said “He endorses the goal
of sending human missions to the Moon by 2020, as a precursor in an
orderly progression to missions to more distant destinations, including
Mars.”
a. (
Video)
Obama ended NASA’s space shuttle program on August 31, 2011. America
is now dependent on Russia for trips to the International Space Station.
49. In 2008, Obama supported a federal guarantee that all employers provide seven paid sick days per year.
a. Hardly tried to get this done. Never happened once he got elected.
50. In 2008, Obama promised to introduce a comprehensive
immigration reform bill in congress by the end of his first year in
office.
a. By spring of 2013, three years later, he still hasn’t
introduced a bill in congress. In February 2013, a proposal was leaked
by an administration official to
USA Today. It discloses that Obama wants full amnesty for over 11 million illegals.
51. In a 2008 speech in Jordan, Obama said “Let me be
absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. It will be a
strong friend of Israel's under an Obama administration. So that policy
is not going to change.”
a. (
Video)
Throughout his presidency, Obama has been lambasted for alienating
Israel. His nominee for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, has
repeatedly made anti-Israel remarks in public, and considers Israel a
bigger threat to stability in the Middle East than Iran. In 2012, Obama
famously ignored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for an
urgent meeting when Netanyahu was visiting America.
52. In 2008, without his teleprompter, Obama told a crowd in Oregon that he has campaigned at all “57 states”.
a. Even grade school kids know what’s wrong with this statement.
53. In 2008, then-candidate Obama gave a radio interview in
which he spoke about his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham. “She is a
typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she
doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred in our
experiences that don't go away . . . and that's just the nature of race
in our society.”
a. (
Video)
In other words, Obama believes that a “typical white person” in
American society automatically has an adverse reaction towards other
ethnic groups.
54. In 2009, Obama said “ . . . there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died – an entire town destroyed.”
a. (
Video)
A president has a duty to understand the nature of a tragedy. The
Kansas tornado he was referring to killed 12 people, not 10,000.
55. “I am not an ideologue. I’m not”
a. (
Video) Hello, anyone home?
56. In 2009, Obama promised to end the income tax for
seniors making less than $50,000. “Will eliminate all income taxation
of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This will eliminate taxes
for 7 million seniors -- saving them an average of $1,400 a year – and
will also mean that 27 million seniors will not need to file an income
tax return at all.”
a. After taking office, Obama never proposed legislation honoring such a promise and never covered the subject again.
57. In 2008, candidate Obama promised to end all no-bid
contracts over $25,000. “Will ensure that federal contracts over
$25,000 are competitively bid.”
a. Since taking office, Obama never ordered the Office of
Management and Budget to require competitive bids for government
contracts over $25,000.
58. In an effort to secure votes from battleground states
like Florida, in 2007 then-candidate Obama said that he will double
federal spending on cancer research. “ . . .will double federal funding
for cancer research within 5 years, focusing on NIH (National
Institutes of Health) and NCI (National Cancer Institute).”
a. Obama increased the budget by just 8.3 percent in his most recent budget (2012).
59. During the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four
Americans, Obama claimed that he was in constant communication with his
national security team. On November 4, David Axelrod,
Obama's senior adviser, appeared on Fox News Sunday and he told Chris
Wallace, "When word of the attack campaign, the president was meeting
with his top national security folks."
a. Not true. In February 2013, Leon Panetta told a congressional
hearing that the president only had one phone call with his secretary of
defense and military advisers while the eight-hour attack took place.
White House staffers also attributed the consulate attack to a YouTube
video when intelligence officials knew it was a terrorist plot organized
by Al Qaeda. An
unreleased CBS video shows Obama admitting that the attack was planned by Muslim radicals but the footage was never aired on national television.
60. In 2012, Obama was secretly taped telling Russian
president Dmitry Medvedev, "This is my last election . . . After my
election, I'll have more flexibility." Obama was talking about U.S.
missile defense.
a. (
Video) Self explanatory.
_________________
Pathological lying
has several causes including a dysfunctional family; sexual or physical
abuse in childhood; impulse control disorders; accommodating or
suggestible personality traits; personality disorders such as
sociopathic or narcissistic behaviors; substance abuse or substance
abuse in family.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “the prospect of power can make
individuals . . . resort to lying to maintain power or control over
others. When they lose power, they may resort to more lying. When they
gain power and success from lying, it is thus reinforced. The lie
becomes a useful tool for this person in denigrating others to boost
their own reputation . . . . They may create realities to . . . create a
successful image for others.
For more on Barack Obama’s
broken campaign promises, see Politifact.com.
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