Freedom of BLEEP

President Obama continues to say, “[U]nder our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.” This is such deceitful statement that even some of his Democratic colleagues are beginning to call him out on it:

“If you take a look at H.R. 3200 as originally written, abortion was never mentioned. It was the amendment process that added this amendment which now makes public funding for abortion available,” says Bart Stupak (D-MI). He continued, “If your talking about 3200, technically he’s correct. But you all know about the Capps amendment. You all know it’s become part of the bill. [...] So I was disappointed when the President got up there last week and said no funding for abortion is found in the bill. That is not true.”

As clearly stated in the Capps Amendment to H.R. 3200, “The public health insurance option shall provide coverage for [...] Abortions for which public funding is allowed.” Specifically this includes abortions performed in cases or rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother.

So already the President is lying, and it gets worse. The Capps Amendment would also allow private plans purchased with federal subsidies (”affordability credits” for low-income families and workers) to cover other kinds of abortion. So now people will be able to use federal money to obtain private insurance that will pay for their abortion - even abortions where direct federal funding would be prohibited.

The Capps Amendment leaves it to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to decide which other kinds of abortions can be covered. And if you look at the track record of Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, this is bad news for pro-life supporters. As the governor of Kansas, she vetoed anti-abortion legislation in 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2008, including Senate Bill 389 which aimed to strengthen laws against late-term abortion.

After being caught in this lie, the President and his goon Robert Gibbs have upped the ante and still insist they are telling the truth! Three times in one week Gibbs has tried to deceive the American people by saying “There’s a law the precludes the use of federal funds for abortion.” Upon further questioning, he responded, “My answer is indifferent from what it was on Wednesday. There’s a fairly clear [as in not very clear?] federal law prohibiting the federal use of money for abortion.”

Meanwhile, Obama has claimed that he wasn’t talking about the House bill when he said, “under our plan no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.” Who’s plan was he talking about then? The purpose of his whole speech was to promote the Democratic health care plan, otherwise known as H.R. 3200.

The Obama Power Grab, Part V

Multiple banks have tried to pay back their bailout money (with interest) but the Obama administration is refusing to accept it. Even banks that have reported profits since the bailout and have successfully restored investor confidence are being forced to sit on piles of borrowed cash. CNN also reports, “It’s likely the Treasury will not permit bankers to return taxpayer money for many more months.”

The reason for this is clear: the government wants to control these banks, just like they control GM and Chrysler. Why? Well for one thing, the Pay for Performance Act was just passed by the house. This legislation allows the government to dictate pay for anyone working for any company that accepted TARP money (in other words, it has nothing to do with performance).

If the government can fire the CEO of GM and mandate what comes off their production lines certainly they will take unprecedented authority over the banks as well. They will be able to regulate who can receive loans, ultimately determining which businesses in the US can stay open. Chairmen have already been threatened with “adverse” consequences if they persist in trying to pay the loans back.

While it’s disturbing that the government could have this much control, it’s even more disturbing who will now be running these banks… A man who couldn’t even figure out how to pay his taxes!

The Obama Power Grab, Part IV

The Associated Press reports that “General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will step down immediately at the request of the White House.”

Perhaps Wagoner should have stepped down long ago. But the problem is that this sets a terrible precedent. Since when does the President have such authority over a publicly traded company? Why don’t the other creditors and shareholders have a say?

While the executives at GM have consistently underperformed, it’s the labor union that really drove this company into the ground. Obama even cited the lack of union concessions as a primary fault with GM’s restructuring plan. It’s the union leaders that control this! Yet the CEO was made his scapegoat, and this is only one facet of Obama’s anti-business repertoire.

Just last week, Obama and other democrats were calling for executive salary capping - of all publicly traded companies. Do they not understand the implications of this policy? The best executives will leave the US for higher paying jobs, thus strengthening foreign companies. We’ll be stuck with mediocre leftovers. Read any book on corporate philosophy and it will tell you the same thing: a great company has a great CEO behind it.

This week Barney Frank is proposing government control over all employee salaries, not just top executives. It looks like the government may soon determine our wages.

Obama’s power grab doesn’t stop there. He also wants the government to be able to seize any financial institution. This isn’t limited to banks. This isn’t limited to institutions that have received government bailout money. Any financial institution will be subject to seizure, basically at the whim of Washington officials. This could represent the largest permanent expansion of government regulatory power in the history of the US.

Every day Obama becomes less like FDR and more like Hugo Chavez.