Hypocrisy at its Best

Here is a post from Deceiver.com that pretty much sums up Obama’s hypocrisy. But, hey, he’s charming and a democrat so that makes it all ok

During appearances last week in Arizona and New Mexico, President Obama spoke out against America racking up too much debt. If you follow the news at all, I don’t need to tell you how funny that is. If not, follow me.

Giving the commencement address at Arizona State University last Wednesday, Obama had this advice for the future of America:

…We gather here tonight in times of extraordinary difficulty, for the nation and the world. The economy remains in the midst of a historic recession, the result, in part, of greed and irresponsibility that rippled out from Wall Street and Washington, as we spent beyond our means and failed to make hard choices…

In the face of these challenges, it may be tempting to fall back on the formulas for success that have dominated these recent years. Many of you have been taught to chase after the usual brass rings: being on this “who’s who” list or that top 100 list; how much money you make and how big your corner office is; whether you have a fancy enough title or a nice enough car.

You can take that road — and it may work for some of you. But at this difficult time, let me suggest that such an approach won’t get you where you want to go; that in fact, the elevation of appearance over substance, celebrity over character, short-term gain over lasting achievement is precisely what your generation needs to help end…

We’ve become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting that it wasn’t reckless deals and get-rich-quick schemes that got us there; but hard work and smart ideas — quality products and wise investments. So we started taking shortcuts. We started living on credit, instead of building up savings.

Obama repeated this message of frugality and self-sacrifice the next day in New Mexico:
President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.

“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

Makes sense, right? Only two problems. Here’s the first one, a chart of projected yearly budget deficits from the Congressional Budget Office:


Here’s a hint: See the line for 2009? Notice how it’s 4 times as long as the line for 2008? That’s deficit spending. Money that we don’t actually have. Spending beyond our means. AKA debt. Notice how even the shortest projected line over the next 10 years is still longer than the longest line over the last 10? I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t mean the deficit will be less. And this is just an early projection. It just keeps going up and up.

Obama is going around telling everybody that his own plans are going to be a disaster. And apparently they’re all okay with it, because he’s handsome and charming and an above-average public speaker. Why, you might say it’s the elevation of appearance over substance, celebrity over character, short-term gain over lasting achievement. Where have I heard that one before?
Here’s the second problem: Obama hasn’t even practiced what he preaches in his own personal life.

A close examination of their finances shows that the Obamas were living off lines of credit along with other income for several years until 2005, when Obama’s book royalties came through and Michelle received her 260% pay raise at the University of Chicago. This was also the year Obama started serving in the U.S. Senate…

In April 1999, they purchased a Chicago condo and obtained a mortgage for $159,250. In May 1999, they took out a line of credit for $20,750. Then, in 2002, they refinanced the condo with a $210,000 mortgage, which means they took out about $50,000 in equity. Finally, in 2004, they took out another line of credit for $100,000 on top of the mortgage.

Tax returns for 2004 reveal $14,395 in mortgage deductions. If we assume an effective interest rate of 6%, then they owed about $240,000 on a home they purchased for about $159,250.
This means they spent perhaps $80,000 beyond their income from 1999 to 2004.

In other words, he lived exactly the way he’s now telling us all not to live. But he can hardly hold up his own example for us to learn from, can he? “Don’t be like me, kids, or you might just get two best-selling books and the Presidency of the United States out of it. That is, if you can keep a straight face while telling the biggest whoppers anybody’s ever heard.”