{"id":9482,"date":"2014-02-26T10:40:51","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T18:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=9482"},"modified":"2014-03-03T10:54:35","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T18:54:35","slug":"united-states-in-severe-decline-thanks-to-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/united-states-in-severe-decline-thanks-to-obama\/","title":{"rendered":"United States in Severe Decline Thanks to Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Obamaby Deroy Murdock –
\nThe Land of the Free is governed by an out-of-control egomaniac, neither bolstered by managerial competence nor hindered by the legislature\u2019s institutional prerogatives. In the Home of the Brave, half of Congress cheers Obama\u2019s unconstitutional behavior, while the other half grumbles and then meekly carpet-bombs his path with white flags.<\/strong><\/p>\n

America is unraveling at a stunning speed and to a staggering degree. This decline is breathtaking, and the prognosis is dim.<\/p>\n

For starters, Obama now rules by decree. Reportedly for the 27th<\/a> time, he has changed the rules of Obamacare singlehandedly, with neither congressional approval nor even ceremonial resolutions to limit his actions. Obama needs no such frivolities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the good thing about being president,\u201d Obama joked on February 10. \u201cI can do whatever I want.\u201d In an especially bitter irony, Obama uttered these despicable words while guiding French president Fran\u00e7ois Hollande through Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson \u2014 a key architect of America\u2019s foundation of limited government. <\/p>\n

That very day, Obama decreed<\/a> that the Obamacare mandate for employers with 50 to 99 workers would be postponed until 2016 (beyond an earlier extension to 2015), well past the November 2014 midterm elections. This eases the pressure on Democrats, whose campaigns would suffer if voters saw their company health plans canceled due to Obamacare\u2019s unnecessary, expensive, mandatory benefits \u2014 e.g. maternity coverage for men.<\/p>\n

So, by fiat, Obama has postponed the employer mandate. When Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) effectively tried to do this through legislation last fall, Democrats virtually lassoed and branded him.<\/p>\n

Obama believes, those who are only somewhat helpful to deadly, anti-U.S. terrorists may become Americans, while religiously oppressed homeschoolers who face prison should get the hell out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Also by decree last week, Obama decided unilaterally to soften<\/a> political-asylum rules. Refugees and other immigrants who provide terrorists \u201climited material support\u201d now can come to America. So what if someone merely clothed and fed Mohamed Atta or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? After all, garments and meals don\u2019t blow up. Welcome to America, Mustafa!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Justice Department is working hard to revoke the asylum of and deport the Romeikes<\/a>. This evangelical-Christian family was granted refuge in America to escape prosecution for homeschooling their children, which German law forbids.<\/p>\n

So, Obama believes, those who are only somewhat helpful to deadly, anti-U.S. terrorists may become Americans, while religiously oppressed homeschoolers who face prison should get the hell out.<\/p>\n

The transparent electoral motive that fuels so many of Obama\u2019s executive orders seems unprecedented. The tone is also brand new. Obama\u2019s predecessors have signed executive orders and, more or less, left it at that. But Obama pounds his chest as he does so. As he told<\/a> Congress at last month\u2019s State of the Union address: \u201cAmerica does not stand still \u2014 and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

While appalled Republicans sat on their hands, Democrats stood up and shouted like equatorial, rubber-stamp parliamentarians: \u201cHooray! We are irrelevant!\u201d<\/p>\n

Chilling.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica does not stand still \u2014 and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d ~ President Obama<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Meanwhile, as the American Enterprise Institute\u2019s Marc Thiessen wrote<\/a> in the February 10 Washington Post<\/em>, new Congressional Budget Office figures show that Obamacare will reduce U.S. incomes by $70 billion annually between 2017 and 2024. The CBO also estimated that by 2021, Obamacare\u2019s disincentives to hire and incentives not to work would slash<\/a> labor hours by the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs.<\/p>\n

Rather than dispute these figures, key Democrats embraced them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people to have the freedom to be a writer, to be a photographer, to make music, to paint,\u201d said<\/a> House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. She added that \u201cpeople would no longer be job-locked by their [health] policies, but have the freedom to follow their passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, rather than expand economic growth and jobs, Democrats applaud<\/em> as Americans stop working \u2014 to do watercolors, draft poetry, and take naps \u2014 while exhausted taxpayers foot the bill.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The debt ceiling is now a debt sunroof.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On February 12, Boehner and McConnell helped send Obama a measure to suspend the debt limit until March 15, 2015. (The debt ceiling was not raised from $17.2 trillion to a higher level; it simply was removed. The gas pedal remains in Obama\u2019s Little Red Cor-debt, but the brakes are gone.) This passed the GOP House with Boehner and only 27 Republicans voting yes. The other 194 votes were from Democrats. When McConnell surrendered on cloture, 11 other Republican senators helped Democrats advance their dirty work. The debt ceiling is now a debt sunroof.<\/p>\n

And what did Washington\u2019s top two Republicans get for giving Obama 13 months to shop till America drops? Nothing! No repeal of Obamacare\u2019s $47 billion bailout of health insurers. No approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline. No termination of the cure-killing medical-device tax. No votes on these matters, which would have forced Democrats to choose. This could have helped Republican candidates in November.<\/p>\n

Steely resolve could stymie the unpopular and untrustworthy Obama. Sadly, Boehner, McConnell, and other GOP leaders are as firm as foil.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans are giving up because they know that winning is impossible when their leaders are determined to lose,\u201d the Senate Conservatives Fund stated. \u201cThese leaders have telegraphed weakness to the Democrats and sabotaged conservative efforts so many times that Republicans now have no leverage.\u201d The group concluded: \u201cJohn Boehner must be replaced as Speaker of the House. . . . Unless we install a new leader who will actually go on offense, Democrats will never fear us and we will never have any leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, Earth\u2019s sole superpower is sagging where it should be No. 1. America has slouched to No. 12 on the 2014 Heritage Foundation\/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom.<\/p>\n

U.S. has earned the dubious distinction of having recorded one of the longest sustained declines in economic freedom, second only to Argentina<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cNow considered only a \u2018mostly free\u2019 economy, the U.S. has earned the dubious distinction of having recorded one of the longest sustained declines in economic freedom, second only to Argentina, of any country in the [20-year] history of the Index,\u201d the report states. \u201cThe U.S. is the only country to have recorded a loss of economic freedom each of the past seven years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding graft, America has stayed stable in Transparency International\u2019s Corruption Perceptions Index. Unfortunately, and as recently as 2013, the U.S. has remained Earth\u2019s 19th most honest country.<\/p>\n

Thanks, in part, to Team Obama\u2019s surveillance of journalists from Fox News Channel and the Associated Press, America tumbled 13 spots down Reporters Without Borders\u2019 2014 World Press Freedom Index. The U.S. dropped this year from No. 33 to No. 46. Hence, 45 nations now have freer journalists than does America. RWB calls America \u201csatisfactory\u201d rather than the top-rated \u201cgood.\u201d As the report states: \u201cAmid an all-out hunt for leaks and sources, 2013 will also be the year of the Associated Press scandal, which came to light when the Department of Justice acknowledged that it had seized the news agency\u2019s phone records.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American people have been betrayed \u2014 both by Obama and the Democrats, whose lust for control intensifies daily, and by Republican leaders in Washington, whose cowardice and defeatism have turned their guts and spines into tapioca.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

America is a total mess.<\/p>\n

The Land of the Free is governed by an out-of-control egomaniac, neither bolstered by managerial competence nor hindered by the legislature\u2019s institutional prerogatives. In the Home of the Brave, half of Congress cheers Obama\u2019s unconstitutional behavior, while the other half grumbles and then meekly carpet-bombs his path with white flags.<\/p>\n

The American people have been betrayed \u2014 both by Obama and the Democrats, whose lust for control intensifies daily, and by Republican leaders in Washington, whose cowardice and defeatism have turned their guts and spines into tapioca.<\/p>\n

America, as Paul Simon sings, is slip-slidin\u2019 away. And the worst part hasn\u2019t happened yet.<\/p>\n

Excerpts from: NRO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Deroy Murdock – The Land of the Free is governed by an out-of-control egomaniac, neither bolstered by managerial competence nor hindered by the legislature\u2019s institutional prerogatives. In the Home of the Brave, half of Congress cheers Obama\u2019s unconstitutional behavior, while the other half grumbles and then meekly carpet-bombs his path with white flags. America … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[87,72,142,18,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-leftism","category-leftist-tyranny","category-politics","category-totalitarian-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}