 1/21/2015  Once again for the sixth time President Barack Obama addresses the joint houses of Congress and the people of the United States. His optimism shone as brightly as this polished teeth and smirky grin, reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s happy optimism over his disastrous  6 years in office, just prior to his Alzheimer’s setting in, and the recession of 1988 caused by his 1987 increase in middle class  income taxes and the stock market crash of October 1987, that ended the great real estate bubble and bankrupted the industry. Also, shortly after Ronald Reagan’s sixth State of the Union Address were the Iran Contra Affair, and the revelation of the Negroponte death squads in South America. By the end of Ronald Reagan’s final term in office, his worsening dementia and the corruption of his administration was in full view of the American people. The condition of the country under eight years of Ronald Reagan was worse than when he won the election against Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Barack Obama’s domestic and foreign policies have been disastrous for the U.S. Everyone seems to want to brush Obama’s domestic and foreign policies under the proverbial rug. The approved financial bailouts of the auto and banking industries in the U.S and foreign countries and banks cost the U.S taxpayers over 20 trillion dollars, paid by the Federal Reserve and owed by the taxpayer, which plunged the U.S into one of the greatest recessions in our history.
The hysterical Republican reaction to Obama’s spending caused the shutdown of the Federal Government and layoff and ending of millions of federal, state and municipal jobs. The Republican held majority in Congress stripped the Federal budget of vital domestic programs, that provided lifelines to over 50 million unemployed, underemployed and disabled Americans. These were all critical programs such as Food Stamps, Medicaid, and Welfare assistance to poor pregnant women and their infants, as well as countless Non Profit agencies dependent upon Federal or State funding to serve the poor. The Republicans drastically cut Veteran benefits, yet increased military spending and increased tax cuts to the wealthiest 1% of the people, and continued to subsidize the obscene profits of the oil industry with over 100 billion dollars in tax incentives. They also allowed the banking industry to walk away from its massive billion dollar crimes they committed, which caused the destruction of the American and world banking systems.
Recent government Census and Budget Office economic reports based on the incomes of the American population show, that 400 families in the U.S own 52% of the nation’s wealth.  These reports also show that less than 20% of the U.S population financially benefited from the last six years of Obama policies. 80% of the U.S population has done worse. The massive decline in middle income families has eroded the social safety nets of the U.S society. For the first time in U.S history massive unemployment caused by the deliberate loss of manufacturing jobs and the outsourcing policies and tax cuts granted to the wealthy and corporations by the presidents and congresses over the last 20 years have nearly destroyed the American Middle Class. Full time middle income jobs with good wages and benefits are being systematically replaced by part time jobs with no benefits and low and minimum wage jobs. This has become the business plans for major American corporations who place employees last and profits first. The Republican commitment to destroy unions and their right to bargain with corporations is further devastating the middle class in America and destroying any hope of the working classes to rise above poverty , which now endangers millions of non union workers , and virtually the majority of American workers.
Obama’s recent approval rating has risen only because of the drastic drop in oil prices. Though he cannot publicly take credit for the world wide drop in oil prices, he and his administration may have manipulated the market temporarily to apply greater financial pressures on Russia and Iran, while giving the American people a substantial break in their gas prices to bolster the U.S economy.  This drop in oil price has also deflated the value of the petro dollar, to compete with the currency manipulations of the Chinese and other countries, and increase U.S industrial production and exports. Proof of this is that China’s 2014 GNP has undergone its slowest economic growth in over 20 years.
This may not sound like a bad policy, however Obama’s recent Trans Pacific Trade Policy, which he and his corporate and banking puppet masters have devised, and are aggressively trying to pass through a reluctant Congress, will destroy U.S sovereignty and outsource even more American jobs to Asian countries. Obama owes his presidency to the major corporations and banks that bought him the White House. This Trans Pacific Trade Policy is his payback to them. It gives almost total control of U.S trade to the major corporations and bankers of the WTO or World Trade Organization, which virtually controls the world now and makes Congress powerless to prosecute them, or protect the American people and small businesses from predatory trade practices of other countries, multinational corporations and banking institutions.
The creation and passage of the Affordable Healthcare Act was one of the greater fumbles and embarrassments to the Obama Administration, resulting in the loss of millions of private insurance policies of Americans and the exposure of the great lies Obama told the Congress and American people in order to pass the Affordable Health Care Act. In 2015 penalties will be given to all Americans who do not have healthcare, even if they are unable to afford healthcare. Also a tax will be levied against all Americans who have good health care policies provided to them by their employers. Another nightmare unknown but about to be presented to the American people occurs in 2017, when all Americans under Obamacare will be forced to submit to the injection of computer chip implants, which will contain their entire health records. The great goofy grin of Obama in last night’s State of the Union Address was really a mask hiding a frightening face to the American people and to the world.
Obama’s Foreign policy has been disastrous as well. In  2013 he was kicked in the teeth by VladimIr Putin after Putin humiliated him in front of  America and the world , when Obama demanded the U.S attack Syria for  using chemical weapons against the rebel forces. It was later proven by investigators that the American backed rebel forces had used chemical weapons not the Syrian government, who allowed by the influence of Putin for the inspection and removal of their chemical weapon arsenal. Russia is a strong Allie of Syria and threatened war with the U.S if they attacked. Obama could not receive any support for his attack against Syria by any of his usual European coalition partners , who feared war with Russia. Once Putin saw Obama’s weakness he invaded Crimea in March of 2014 and took over the Crimean Peninsula, then threatened to invade the entire Ukraine. The European Union and the U.S did not prevent the Russian invasion, but placed harsh economic sanctions against Russia.  As of this writing Russia still occupies the Crimea, as the U.S and European media seem to have forgotten about the entire issue.
With all of the foreign policy failures this year alone, perhaps the greatest foreign policy failure of Obama has been his incompetence and John Kerry’s incompetence in the Israeli Palestinian peace negotiations. The Israeli slaughter and wounding of over 7500 Palestinians in Gaza this year was one of the most horrific war crimes and genocides in history, yet the U.S response to it was as impotent as the U.S response to any of Israeli crimes.  Obama’s and Congress’s limp wrist reactions to ongoing Israeli crimes against Palestinians is yet another shameful, disgusting, cruel and cowardly policy of  American presidential administrations’ and congress. Now his new Cuban policy and closing of Guantanamo prison appear to be the hangers he  intends to hang his tattered foreign policy on.
Mr. Obama’s State of the Union Address last night was his worst, yet many who viewed it , according to main stream media reports, thought it was very good and an optimistic statement. I believe anyone who enjoyed Obama’s speech last night was either oblivious to the last six years of his administration, or they , like the oblivious Democrats in Congress who gave him a standing ovation have achieved the ultimate state of American denial.
L.A. Steel
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