Government by Crisis: Using the BP oil spill as a political tool

President Obama's campaign pledge to not raise taxes on anyone who makes less than $250,000 per year seems like a long distant memory.  One of his first acts as President was signing a tax increase on tobacco that isn't in the least bit dependent upon anyone's income, and which affects lower income Americans for more than those with higher disposable income.

When challenged on the issue, President Obama's response had more to do with run-of-the-mill political word games, than it did with "Change".

Then along came health care "reform", which by necessity has the hidden consequences of higher costs for a vast majority of Americans, including those making far less than $250,000.  Obama and his political apologists simply explained this away by calling increased taxation something other than a "tax", and then ignoring further criticism until the mainstream media lost interest and turned their attention elsewhere.

Now Obama and his cohorts in Washington, rather than focusing upon the actual disaster of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, are using the issue as a tool in which to campaign for higher energy taxes, which will necessarily increase taxes on everyone who uses energy, regardless of income level.

When the nation needs a leader, right now, today, to head the government's effort to help with what may eventually become the worst oil spill in world history, predictably, President Obama goes into campaign mode to rally support for future economic "Change". Can someone please tell Barack Obama that he won the Presidency, and now it's time for the partisan political "stump speeches" to end?

If calling for tax increases is at the very core of President Obama's long term plan, fine, we can debate that issue later, when the dire situation in the gulf is under control.  Right now, politicizing a worldwide catastrophe is simply not good for the nation.

We desperately need to see Presidential leadership on the issue. Rather than name-calling, finger-pointing, and the shifting of blame to everyone from contractors, to past Presidents, to Republicans in general. We need swift action, and a President who at least appears to care about the issue at hand.  We need Obama to stand up and be Presidential, and that means calling the nation together, and inviting both sides of the aisle to work together to solve the current problem, not merely lay out his plan, and then invite the "other side of the aisle" to either love it or leave it.

What we are currently getting from President Obama is the usual political opportunism, and Obama's penchant for using the day's events to descend into the usual partisan bickering, which is the furthest thing from Obama's promise of "Hope and Change".  What does he "Hope" to accomplish by bashing Republicans over an issue that neither party could foresee, other than to promote the very gridlock he promised to end during his campaign?  It would almost seen that Obama's goal is to continue the very "politics as usual" he rallied against in order to garner votes during the campaign.

Sounds pretty shallow to me.  I suppose that's to be expected from a President who was elected on the basis of prepared speeches he read off of teleprompters, rather than on the basis of any widely known core beliefs.

Obama's prepared Pittsburgh speech:





Excerpt:  Obama strikes hyper-partisan tone: