President Obama’s Broken Promises

by Francisco Gonzalez ~ February 25, 2009

Bob Williams, Founder and CEO of The Evergreen Freedom Foundation gets credit for his quick summary of the campaign promises that President Obama has already broken only a month into his first term as President. Here is that summary:

President Obama is breaking campaign promises and his White House pledges faster than I can keep track of them. Of course his office is now revising the White House webpages. I am glad I printed them out on January 20th.

1. Candidate Obama promised to go through the budget line item by line item and cut waste. He obviously has not done that. The press needs to hold him accountable for breaking this pledge.

2. A common sense way to bring the federal budget under control is to make sure each budget item meets one of the enumerated powers in Article 1, Section 8 if the U.S. Constitution. If it doesn’t meet that criteria it shouldn’t be funded. PAYGO (it is also on his website) http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/fiscal/ Yet he ignored that in the $787 billion stimulus legislation.

3.The President when he speaks supports PAYGO (it is also on his website) http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/fiscal/ Yet he ignored that in the $787 billion stimulus legislation.

4. The President when he speaks supports not “burdening our children and grandchildren with excessive debt. (that also is on his website. http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/fiscal/. He ignored that pledge in his stimulus legislation.

5. The President when he speaks supports “spending that cannot withstand public scrutiny cannot be justified” (that also is on his website http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/fiscal/. He ignored that in his stimulus legislation.

6. The President when he speaks supports slashing “earmarks to no greater than the 1994 levels and ensure all spending decisions are open to the public. (that also is on his website. http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/fiscal/. Another broken promise.

7. The President when he speaks says he “will stop funding wasteful, obsolete federal government programs that make no financial sense.” (that also is on his website. http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/fiscal/. Another broken promise.

8. Candidate Obama promised more “sunlight” on legislation before he signed the legislation, i.e. the legislation would be posted online for five days before he signed it. Now that White House page has been revised. Emergency legislation is excluded from this policy and the policy isn’t in effect for non-emergency legislation because “we are working through implementation procedures and some initial issues with the congressional calendar.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog_post/update_on_sunlight_before_signing/

9. On January 21 President Obama announced tough new ethics rules. His ethics policy was removed shortly thereafter and “is currently being revised to reflect his Executive Order”. http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/ethics/