Unasked questions
Larry Elder
Sunday, February 15, 2009
COMMENTARY:
President Barack Obama last week conducted his first prime-time press
conference. After blaming the “failed theories of the last eight years” for
today's economic crisis, he pushed for massive, unprecedented government
spending.
Lefty radio talk show host Ed Schultz - who once called Republican
presidential candidate John McCain a “warmonger” - sat in the front row,
appropriately next to “reporter”
Helen Thomas. Miss Thomas used to attack then-President
Bush with her statements masquerading as questions. In her question to Mr.
Obama, she referred to our Islamofascist enemies as “so-called terrorists” -
which failed to elicit even a raised eyebrow from the president.
What, no Rush Limbaugh?
Mr. Obama even took a question from a “reporter” for the hyper-liberal Web
site The Huffington Post. And, unlike Mr. Bush, the Obama administration
preselected the reporters to be called upon and notified them in advance. Why
did the others even bother showing up? If Mr. Bush pulled something like this,
they would call it “the discredited doctrine of pre-emption.”
We offer seven questions left on the cutting room floor —
(1) Mr. President, tonight you criticized those who argue that Franklin D.
Roosevelt's policies failed. I would like to read a passage from the diary of
Henry Morgenthau, FDR's treasury secretary: “We have tried spending money. We
are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. I want to
see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see
people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. ... I say
after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as
when we started ... and an enormous debt to boot!” Please comment.
(2) Mr. President, this is a two-part question. In your opening statement,
you called today's economic situation “the most profound economic emergency
since the Great Depression” and later “the worst economic crisis since the Great
Depression.” But in the 1981-82 recession, unemployment reached 10.8 percent in
1982 versus 7.6 today.
Ronald Reagan inherited an annual inflation rate of 13.5 percent, while you,
sir, came in with a 0.1 percent inflation rate. Prime interest rates reached
21.5 percent at the end of 1980, compared with 3.25 percent at the end of 2008.
Reagan did not ask for a “rescue” or “bailout” package. He cut taxes and slowed
the rate of domestic spending. Unemployment, inflation and interest rates went
down. The Treasury collected more revenue than ever. First, how then - at least
so far - is this the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression? And
second, given Reagan's success, why not cut taxes, reduce domestic spending, and
leave taxpayers and consumers with more money to save, spend and invest?
(3) Mr. President, you say your administration will not torture. You have
directed our military to apply the Army Field Manual, which relies on 19
psychological methods of interrogation and excludes waterboarding. Yet you are
setting up an interagency panel to decide whether to use interrogation methods
not included in the Army Field Manual. Aren't you having it both ways - saying
you won't torture or use enhanced interrogation techniques, while retaining the
option to do so?
(4) As a candidate, you called raising taxes a matter of “neighborliness.”
Your vice president called paying taxes a matter of “patriotism.” Yet your
treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, who oversees the Internal Revenue Service,
failed to pay some taxes. The International Monetary Fund, where he worked,
informed him in writing of his obligation to pay payroll taxes and increased his
compensation to offset the payment. He accepted the compensation but failed to
pay taxes. Can the head of the department that runs the IRS credibly expect
others to pay their taxes, when he failed to pay his own?
(5) In one of your first acts as president, you signed an executive order
that many call the toughest-ever ethical guidelines. It bans former lobbyists
joining your administration from being involved with any matters or agencies
that might be related to their former lobbying efforts. It also prohibits anyone
from working in an agency he or she lobbied during the last two years. Given
that, please comment on why you have granted a dozen personnel waivers to your
own ethical guidelines.
(6) The respected nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office studies the effects
of the various proposed stimulus plans. The Washington Times said, “CBO, the
official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help
in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years
they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower gross
domestic product over the next 10 years than if the government had done
nothing.” Your comment?
(7) Tonight you blamed the economic crisis on the “failed theories of the
last eight years,” yet tonight you also criticized homeowners who put little or
nothing down and purchase homes without the ability to pay their mortgages if
“something goes wrong.” Sir, which is it?
No charge to use these.
Larry Elder is a nationally syndicated columnist, a radio talk show host
and best-selling author.
Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC
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