Everything I said at the 2008 convention about then-candidate Obama still stands today, and in fact the predictions made about the very unqualified and inexperienced Community Organizer’s plans to “fundamentally transform” our country are unfortunately coming true.She is right. What Governor Palin predicted in her speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention has unfortunately come to fruition. In September of 2010, Stacy Drake and I put together a post highlighting the prescience of just a three minute portion of her speech. Stacy put together the following video with that segment of the speech:
Nearly, two years have passed since we put together that post, and President Obama has fundamentally transformed our country even further. I've re-visited that portion of Governor Palin's speech below to indicate what Governor Palin predicted that has actually come to pass over the past more than three and a half years. The text of her speech is in italics; President Obama's "achievements" are in bold:
This is a
man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never
use the word “victory” except when he’s talking about his own campaign
·
When
President Obama has gave a major speech on the war strategy in
Afghanistan at West Point
in December 2009 without mentioning the word “victory” once.
·
In 2011, when he talked about
ending US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, he mentioned the word
victory only once in each speech—to reference the killing of Osama bin Laden
during his administration which has been a key talking point of his campaign.
But when
the cloud of rhetoric has passed … when the roar of the crowd fades away … when
the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to
some studio lot — what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually
seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the
planet? The answer is to make government bigger:
·
The Obama
administration has taken far greater regulatory and inhibitory control over:
o
Under
President Obama, government spending has been 24% of GDP, which is higher than
the last 40 year average of 20.7%.
o
The
number of federal employees has increased 6.2%.
take more
of your money … give you more orders from Washington … and to reduce the
strength of America in a dangerous world:
·
The
ineptness of the Department of Homeland Security and the corruption of
Department of Justice has left the border insecure, border control personnel
dead, and American guns in the hands of Mexican drug cartels under “Fast
and Furious”.
·
During
the Obama administration our debt
has increased 50%, with
about third of that debt held by foreign countries.
·
Under looming budget sequestration, the
Defense budget would be cut by $500
billion over the next decade.
America needs more energy … our
opponent is against producing it.
·
President Obama has doubled
down on a jobs killing drilling moratorium in the Gulf in
spite of court rejection.
·
While
development on private lands has increased, even the LATimes concedes this is due to “decisions energy companies made during the
Bush administration to develop key reservoirs”.
·
He
opposed legislation to increase energy
development in Alaska.
Victory in Iraq is finally in sight … he wants to forfeit.
Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay … he
wants to meet them without preconditions.
Al-Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on
America. He’s worried that
someone won’t read them their rights?
·
Both the Christmas day bomber in 2009 and Time
Square bomber in 2010 while both thankfully unsuccessful, had ties to
al-Qaeda, and both men were read Miranda Rights.
Government is too big … he wants
to grow it.
Congress
spends too much … he promises more.
·
In February 2009, President Obama signed a nearly trillion
dollar stimulus bill.
·
An
additional $17
billion stimulus bill in March 2010.
·
In July,
President Obama signed a $105
billion transportation bill.
·
Continuing
in the footsteps of President Bush, all three years of the Obama administration
to date have included more than a trillion
dollar deficits.
Taxes are too high … he wants to
raise them. His tax increases are the fine print in his economic plan, and let
me be specific.
The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise
income taxes … raise payroll taxes … raise investment income taxes … raise the
death tax … raise business taxes … and increase the tax burden on the American
people by hundreds of billions of dollars.
·
President
Obama has raised taxes or instituted new taxes 21 times
since taking office, namely through cigarette tax hikes and Obamacare.
·
Additionally,
his budgets, which haven’t gotten Congressional support, have called for tax
increases:
o
In FY
2010, nearly a trillion
in tax increases over a ten year period.
o
In
FY2011, as Governor Palin predicted, Obama proposed to increase the death
tax and investment taxes.
o
In
FY 2012, President Obama proposed $1.5 trillion in tax increases over the
next decade and 43 tax hikes.
o
InFY 2013, President Obama proposed $1.8 trillion in tax increases over the
next decade.
·
Obamacare
includes 18 new
tax hikes, and 75% of the “mandate” tax will fall on families
earning less than $120,000, meaning President Obama broke his promise to not
increase taxes on those making less than $250,000.
My sister
Heather and her husband have just built a service station that’s now opened for
business — like millions of others who run small businesses.
How are they going to be any
better off if taxes go up? Or maybe you’re trying to keep your job at a plant
in Michigan or Ohio … or create jobs with clean coal from Pennsylvania or West
Virginia … or keep a small farm in the family right here in Minnesota. How are
you going to be better off if our opponent adds a massive tax burden to the
American economy?
Those two questions were rhetorical questions in her speech, but they are questions that were facing today as well. She may have asked "how are you going to be better off", but today, the question has expanded to include what are we going to do about it? Governor Palin gave us her answer in the aforementioned RNC statement:
I support Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in their efforts to replace President Obama at the ballot box, and I intend to focus on grassroots efforts to rally Independents and the GOP base to elect Senate and House members so a wise Congress is ready to work with our new President to get our country back on the right path. This is imperative.Let's get to work, grassroots!
Crossposted here and here.
