Corruption starts at the top.
The best thing President Obama ever did for his financial security was run for public office. A man of relatively moderate means who was able to afford his home in a wealthy Chicago neighborhood only because he got “help” from his good friend and convicted felon Tony Rezko, is now a multi-multi-millionaire who will easily make more than $100 million after he leaves office. That’s one bit of wealth he won’t be spreading around.
Sitting on a pile of cash with no real personal expenses while living in luxury on our dime, Barack Obama didn’t burn a single calorie to help his brother, George, in his time of need. Author Dinesh D’Souza, who met George while making the documentary “2016: Obama’s America,” sent him $1000 to ensure medical treatment for George’s son.
You’d think a man who spends the money of others so freely might peel off a couple of days’ pay to save the life of his nephew, especially when he has so much. But you’d be wrong.
Study after study has shown conservatives to be far more charitable than liberals … with their own money, that is. No one will out-give a liberal when it comes to someone else’s money, even if that person isn’t born yet. But when it comes to their own money, liberals such as President Obama can’t be bothered even to help their own family.
The battle over sequester – a slight decrease in the rate of increase in annual government spending – exemplifies how Democrats act like a child hearing the word “no” for their first time.
The government must implement – at most -- $44 billion in “cuts” this year. Half comes from the Pentagon. As for the rest, the president seems to want to deliberately implement them in the most visible, painful way possible –a liberal temper tantrum that rivals anything you’ve ever seen a 5-year-old do in a toy aisle.
Cancelling White House tours was just the tip of the iceberg. Our government spends $10 billion per day, every day. The sequester asks it to cut what amounts to the change found in government couch cushions every day, and all Hell is breaking loose.
Rather than cancel expensive and unnecessary junkets and conferences, meat inspectors are being furloughed. Instead of cutting back on office supplies and unneeded new uniforms, 149 control towers at small airports are being closed.
But these attempts by Democrats to enflame the American public have failed miserably. No one has noticed the “horrors” of sequestration because they pale in comparison to the real horrors of the Obama economy. The median income of American families has dropped by more than $5,000 under President Obama. That means fewer people can afford to go through the mythical longer TSA lines at airports to catch flights not at all delayed by the non-existent air traffic controller-shortage, so they can fly to Washington and not visit the closed White House.
No matter how horrible Democrats try to make the sequester, with so many Americans out of work and so many more worrying about joining them, the prospect of a government bureaucrat having to take an unpaid day off every couple of weeks rings about as hollow as a waif supermodel complaining she feels fat.
Enter Democrat Congresswoman and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Schultz decided to try a different tact – she tried to personalize it. This week she claimed, as my friend Mike Flynn put it, that the “prices of meals in House restaurants are getting so high that aides are being ‘priced out’ of a good meal.”
Unfortunately for Schultz, all Congressional salaries are publicly available. Flynn pointed out, “Wasserman Schultz's top aide earns around $160k a year. She pays two additional aides around $120k a year. She has five additional aides who earn between $60-100k a year.”
Having worked in the Senate, I can attest most staffers are not paid that much, or near that much. But why do any have to be paid that much? It is, after all, public service. If Schultz’s staff is at risk of being featured in a TV ad covered in flies as a voiceover asks you to sponsor a congressional staffer, maybe one of her overpaid aides could pony up a little for the cause. Or better yet, maybe instead of flat-screen TVs for the office, she could use some of her budget to buy jars of peanut butter and some bread.
But when the objective is obscuring reality, common sense need not apply. Luckily the American people see through this and all the other tricks liberals have tried thus far.
In fact, since the sequester took effect on Mar. 1t, our government has racked up more than $90 billion in new debt; more than double the “cuts” of $44 billion this year. The horror.
And that’s the Achilles Heel of the Democrats – simple math.
This week it was revealed Vice-President Joe Biden spent more than $1 million on two nights in hotels, one in Paris, one in London, and President Obama promised $200 million in new aid to Jordan. Neither Biden’s trip nor Obama’s promise was necessary, and in a time of hardship at home both are in bad taste.
But these stories will continue, and more tales of faux hardship will pass through the lips of high-ranking Democrats who know better. If they ever start to stick with anyone you know because they can’t imagine “leaders” continually lying, remind them of this universal truth: Yes, the cream rises to the top, but anyone who has ever used a toilet knows that occasionally some other things float too.
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