“THE MOST DESERVING OF ALL TIME”
by Jeff Crouere, ©2015, blogging at Ringside Politics
(Dec. 2, 2015) — For the past ten years, we have enjoyed a holiday tradition on the Ringside Politics program, bestowing the “Turkey of the Year” award on the most deserving politician or celebrity. Previous winners have included former House Speakers John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. While all of the former winners have been very worthy recipients, this year’s honoree is the most deserving of all time. No one fits the bill of “Turkey of the Year” more than President Barack Obama.
Just a few days ago, the President was pardoning the official White House turkeys of the year. Unfortunately, we cannot pardon Barack Obama for his actions as President. He has presided over the dismantling of our country’s economy, our military and our standing in the world.
Despite the reports of a low unemployment rate and the media hype of a “recovery,” the United States is facing a crisis of confidence among its people. Just last month, the consumer confidence rating plunged to a 15 month low. Experts noted that Americans have a pessimistic attitude about the job market. Of course, it is easy to understand why that is happening. Today, there are over 94.5 million Americans not in the labor force, the highest total, 37.6%, since 1978. In addition, there are 46 million Americans receiving food stamps and 50 million people mired in poverty. These struggling families are having a hard time just paying for basic expenses.
With such a bleak economic situation, it should come as no surprise that spending for Black Friday this year was down 10%. Even with a slight increase in online spending, the overall sales total this year was down $1.2 billion from 2014.
The President’s answer is always more government action, growing the public sector at the expense of the private sector. His stimulus program just added to the national debt without the “shovel ready” jobs that were promised. Currently, the federal debt is $18.7 trillion, an increase of over $8 trillion since President Obama took office. His signature program, the Affordable Care Act, will add trillions of dollars more to the national debt, produce higher premiums and deductibles for Americans and in 10 years, 31 million people will still not have health insurance.
When he is not increasing the size of government, President Obama is expanding the scope of presidential power. Regarding the serious problem of illegal immigration, the President issued an executive action granting amnesty to 5 million undocumented aliens. Fortunately, this initiative was challenged in court by 26 states and the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court injunction against the executive action. The administration will appeal and the issue will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court. In the meantime, illegal aliens will continue to stream into the country across borders that are not secure.
While the President is not concerned about the dangers of illegal immigration, he is concerned about “climate change.” His EPA is issuing new regulations to limit the consumption of fossil fuels and force his climate change agenda on American businesses. This philosophy is reflected at the worldwide climate change conference in Paris, where President Obama has repeated his claim that it is the most serious problem facing the planet. It is not famine, disease, slavery, genocide, Islamic terrorism, poverty or a host of other problems, but the hoax of climate change that most worries our President, even though this fear has been refuted by thousands of reputable scientists.
Instead of climate change, President Obama should be fearful of Islamic terrorism, but he will not even name the threat we are facing. He uses the meaningless term “extremism” to label the killers who are targeting “infidels” worldwide. Islamic terrorism has increased greatly since President Obama took office. Our biggest enemy, the Islamic State, has not been “confined” as the President stated. Incredibly, he referred to this organization of 30,000 ruthless killers as the “JV.” Yet, the “JV” has accomplished what other Islamic terror groups never achieved; take control of a large region of territory in Iraq and Syria. In fact, the area occupied by the Islamic State today is larger than the country of Great Britain.
The President’s ineffective efforts to stop the Islamic State have been laughable. According to Michael Morell, former CIA Director, we refused to bomb their oil wells because of a concern for “environmental damage.” With this kind of ludicrous thinking, the United States would have never dropped two atomic bombs on Japan or won World War II.
Obama is a turkey is many respects, but especially in his handling of the military. Today, the United States has 273 ships, the lowest total since 1916. We have the fewest aircraft since 1947 and the smallest army since 1940. Too bad we are decreasing our military at a time of increasing threats to this nation.
The President wants to add 100,000 Syrian refugees to our country in each of the next two years. Most Americans want this program to halt, especially after the Paris attacks. Yet, the President claims that critics are worried about widows and children. In reality, all Americans should be worried that terrorists used the refugee crisis to enter Paris and kill innocent civilians and they could do the same thing in this country.
President Obama is an ideal “turkey” and justified winner of this year’s award. Sadly, he has spent a lifetime gobbling down socialist theories, so his ideas amount to nothing more than pure gobbledygook.