The Daily Dishonesty: 1,375 Well-Sources Examples of Barack Obama's Lies, Lawbreaking, Corruption, Cronyism, Hypocrisy, and Waste
The first thing that we need to do is to distinguish between an indictment and a conviction. An indictment returns a bill of charges but does not necessarily mean that a defendant is guilty of anything. A conviction results from judicial proceedings in which the defendant is found guilty of the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Throughout the 2016 election campaign, we were inundated with talk of indictments, guilty verdicts, and criminal convictions relating to Hillary Clinton, but since Obama's first election, we have had very little discourse on the numerous ways in which he has violated the law. In this list, I want to go through some of the key instances of Obama's lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, and waste. The list is not exhaustive, but it is extensive. These are all sourced links, and you can verify them easily enough. So, without further ado:
- Carried out military interventionism in Libya without Congressional approval
In June 2011, U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said that Obama had violated the Constitution when he launched military operations in Libya without Congressional approval. In April 2014, Ralph Nader said that Obama should be impeached for his actions in Libya.
- Gave a no-bid contract to Halliburton cronies – just like Bush did
In May 2010, it was reported that the Obama administration had selected KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburhill, for a no-bid contract worth as much as $568 million through 2011, just hours after the Justice Department had said it would pursue a lawsuit accusing the Houston-based company of using kickbacks to get foreign contracts.
Don't be fooled by the words "former subsidiary." These are the same Halliburton cronies that Bush gave a no-bid contract to.
- Has an administration full of lobbyists, after promising he wouldn't have any
On November 15, 2007, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Obama said that lobbyists "will not work in my White House." However, by February 2010, he had more than 40 lobbyists working in his administration. You can see a list of them here.
- Had close ties to Wall St., but pretended to support Occupy Wall St.
Although Obama claimed to support the Occupy Wall St. movement, the truth is that as of 2011, he had raised more money from Wall St. than any other candidate during the previous 20 years. In early 2012, Obama held a fundraiser where Wall St. investment bankers and hedge fund managers each paid $35,800 to attend. In October 2011, Obama hired Broderick Johnson, a longtime Wall Street lobbyist, to be his new senior campaign adviser. Johnson had worked as a lobbyist for JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Fannie Mae, Comcast, Microsoft, and the oil industry.
- Broke his promise to close Guantanamo Bay
Obama's campaign made the following promise: "As president, Barack Obama will close the detention facility at Guantanamo." PolitiFact rated this as "promise broken." In July 2012, ABC News reported that this "might be President Obama's biggest broken promise." I have gotten more criticism for this particular item than for any other item on my list. People have said that Obama "tried" to close Guantanamo Bay, but was blocked by Republicans in the House and Senate. However, Obama did not promise that he would "try" to close it. He promised that he would "close" it. Furthermore, there were enough Democrats in the House and Senate to pass Obamacare without any Republicans voting for it, so if you want to blame someone in the House and Senate for failing to close Guantanamo Bay, then I suggest that you blame the Democrats.
- Supported the $700 billion TARP corporate-welfare bailout just like Bush
While Senator, Obama voted for the $700 billion TARP bank bailout bill. The bailout rewarded irresponsible and illegal behavior. It redirected resources from more productive uses to less productive uses. It punished the hard-working taxpayers who had played by the rules and obeyed the law. It created horrible incentives, and sent the wrong message. The bailout was evil because it rewarded the bad people and punished the good people. No society that does this can expect to remain free or prosperous. Instead of bailing out these corrupt corporations, we should have let them cease to exist, like we did with Enron.
- Waged the biggest war against medical marijuana of any president, which was the opposite