In August of 2008, during the Saddleback Forum at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, Pastor Rick Warren asked Barack Obama a sobering question. Warren asked at what stage of pregnancy does a baby get human rights? Obama responded by saying the answer to that question was “above my pay grade.” Just one month into Obama’s Presidency and we have already witnessed one scandal after another. It appears the entire job of President of the United States is above Barack Obama’s pay grade.

First, there were four cabinet positions that Obama chose to fill with candidates with tax problems. Timothy Geithner, Obama’s choice to run the Treasury Department, was found to have not paid $35,000 in federal taxes from 2001 to 2004. It’s kind of insane to put a guy who cheats on his taxes in charge of the Treasury Department. Yet, Obama got his way and now a man who thinks he is above our tax laws is going to somehow enforce those same laws.

There were other Obama cabinet appointees who ran into problems when it was exposed that they had tax issues. They include former Senator Tom Daschle, who owed $128,000 in back taxes and Nancy Killefer, both of whom withdrew their nominations.

Then there was Congresswoman Hilda Solis’ husband. Solis’ husband was found to not have paid taxes as well. Now, Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has been found to have tax problems of his own. While a Member of Congress, he was a roommate of Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), but did not pay rent for five years. According to our tax laws, the money Emanuel did not pay as rent counts as imputed income. The IRS considers the rent Emanuel did not pay to be a gift or compensation. This money should have been reported as such, but Rahm did not report it.

During the 2008 campaign, Joe Biden said it was patriotic to pay taxes. I guess all the Democrats mentioned above have no sense of patriotism.

How about New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson? He had to withdraw his name from consideration as Obama’s commerce secretary when it was made public that a federal investigation was underway to find out how his political donors landed a lucrative state transportation contract. All of this occurred within the first few weeks of the Obama administration.

Think back to election night in November. Barack Obama held a huge rally in Chicago’s Grant Park. The total bill for Obama’s rally was $1,737,712, but the city of Chicago has yet to receive the money from Obama. The irony is Chicago is facing a $50.5 million budget shortfall leading to many layoffs. Where is the money Obama owes the city of Chicago?

When Obama let Congressional Democrats craft his so-called stimulus bill, the Wall Street Journal summed up the stimulus bill’s contents well on February 6, 2009 in an article called, “The Stimulus Tragedy,” which said, “A major cut in the corporate tax favored by Republicans could have been added to Democratic public works spending for a quick political triumph that might have done at least some economic good. Instead, Mr. Obama chose to let House Democrats write the bill, and they did what comes naturally: They cleaned out their intellectual cupboards and wrote a bill that is 90% social policy, and 10% economic policy.”

How is that possible? Obama was supposed to be an agent of change. The answer is easy, really: Obama and the Democrats don’t care about the details. They care only about grabbing more power for their party, which explains why they have championed a central planning model of economics (National Socialism) and are not backing down.

Consider Senator Frank Lautenberg, a member of the Democratic Socialists for America, who was illegally placed on the 2002 New Jersey ballot by the Democrat Governor of that state, only to have the Democrat dominated New Jersey Supreme Court approve it. Lautenberg said that no one would read the 1,100-page “stimulus” bill. It appears that was the plan all along. Obama actually promised that all legislation that he supported would be published on line for five days before signing it. That has yet to happen.

Obama took to the road to sell this sham of a stimulus. He held town hall meetings and tried to explain why the bill had to be passed. Along the way, he was caught in a lie. While holding a town hall meeting in East Peoria, Il., Obama said that Caterpillar CEO, Jim Owens told him, "… that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off." The media asked Owens about Obama’s statement and whether he will be able to rehire his laid-off workers. Owens said, "I think realistically no. The truth is we're going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again."

Senate Republicans tried to use some of the stimulus money to allow banks to finance home loans at 4% fixed for thirty years. Senate Democrats refused. So the stimulus bill was never about improving the economy. It was about funding liberal causes that will give Obama and his Democrat friends more control of our lives.

Economist John Lott put it this way: "With 90 million tax filers who actually pay taxes, the $787 billion means the average taxpayer will pay over $8,700. By itself, adding $8,700 to the average tax bill should get everyone's attention. But recently Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion bloated spending bill that he calls a stimulus bill.” Continued...