POTUS's poor record

From Eric Nagler, Commerce Township:

In responding to my letter regarding Barack Obama’s record for the past 3.5 years, Hannah Provence Donigan (“Defending POTUS,” Mail Bag, May 16) has one thing right: She certainly is living on another planet. Back here on Earth, let us examine her points one by one:

• The Affordable Care Act. It has increased, not decreased, costs for many Americans. And countless employers are abandoning, or will abandon, coverage for their employees (See Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, which has just abandoned its health coverage for students). By the way, would this be the same act that is likely to be declared unconstitutional? As for “better health care,” I think Ms. Donigan is confusing health coverage with health care. If adding more people (involuntarily) to Medicaid coverage is so wonderful, I suggest she check with the millions of people now covered who cannot get in to see a doctor. And Obama is still not talking about any of this.

• Obama’s helping small businesses to grow. How? By burdening them with even more rules and regulations? He believes that only government spending can make the economy grow, not individual people exercising their inherent rights in a free and open market place. The “stimulus” has been a complete failure, and he has aptly demonstrated his abhorrence of private industry jobs by his refusal to endorse the Keystone XL pipeline. That says it all. Oh, wait, there are always those “green” jobs to be gotten. Just look at how well it worked out for Solyndra.

• Wall Street abuses. She sounds like a jealous 99-percenter who begrudges those awful successful folks who’ve made money and are now using it to grow their business and… hire more people!

• Fair tax rates. Ah, the president’s favorite word (That would be “fair,” but “tax” is not far behind). Those “fair” rates are driving businesses to relocate overseas so that they can still make a “fair” profit. With a tax rate of 35 percent, why wouldn’t they? And remember: Obama wants to raise the capital gains tax, despite the proven evidence that doing so will lower tax revenue. Why? Because it’s “fair.” But that word escapes Mr. Obama’s vocabulary when he grants exemptions to hundreds of companies adversely affected by the Affordable Care Act while others must continue to suffer. Such hypocrisy!

• Education/Training. We have 48 federal programs now for this purpose, and most of them are complete failures. But a 49th, as some Democrats want, will surely be “the one.”

• Divisiveness and denigration. Does that refer to the president’s belittling of the Supreme Court justices, or perhaps to his pitting of one segment of society against another, and maybe even his illicit investigation and public smearing of private citizens who have contributed to Romney’s campaign?

• Republican-controlled Congress. If memory serves, during the first two years of this administration, Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, and now Republicans control the House while Democrats control the Senate. But why let facts get in the way of a good argument?

• Iraq/Bin Laden. Heroes don’t brag. Period.

• The mantra of “no new taxes”. Thank God there’s some sanity left in Washington. But not to worry! When taxes go up on Jan. 1, 2013, further stifling an already stagnant economy, Ms. Donigan will surely be delighted to send all that extra cash she has lying around to the feds. But why wait? I suggest she return to Earth, sit down, and cut a big check to Uncle Sam. That will surely make her homecoming memorable. Or better yet, why not move to France, where the new president is proposing a top tax rate of 75 percent. And please, Ms. Donigan, let us know when you’ve done so. Now that would be “fair.”