Obama's Plan To Spend Billions Overseas

NRO: Democrat Rails At Billions Spent In War But Supports Bill That Would Mandate Billions More In Foreign Aid Each Year

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Andrew C. McCarthy.

What happens when Democrats get their wires crossed?

What happens when drivel like “Change you can believe in” collides with such malarkey as “our commitment to the Rule of Law”?

Fraud happens. The etymology, by the way, traces to the Latin word fraus - which the Obama campaign might bear in mind if it’s planning to whip up any more of those mock presidential seals.

Or, for that matter, mock presidential addresses. Sen. Barack Obama has just bestowed another of these upon us: a two-minute political ad on a Wall Street upheaval so sudden the campaign didn’t have time to dust off the seal or the Greek columns.

Explaining “what I believe we need to do,” the Anointed One decreed the need for “a responsible end to this war in Iraq so we stop spending billions each month rebuilding their country when we should be rebuilding ours.”

Where to begin with such a whopper? Let’s start with the felony, since it leads seamlessly to the fraud.

Thanks to reporting from Amir Taheri, the gist of which the Obama campaign has confirmed, we now know that while Obama is telling the American people he wants an end to the war, he has secretly negotiated with the government in Iraq to extend the U.S. military mission there. That is a black-and-white violation of federal criminal law.

Very simply, in our system the president is responsible for conducting foreign policy. President Bush is thus negotiating with the Iraqi government for a “status of forces” agreement that would clarify the rights and responsibilities of U.S. forces in Iraq after the current U.N. mandate expires at the end of this year.

Yet, during Obama’s heralded trip to Baghdad in July, he asked Iraqi leaders to ignore Bush and delay resolving the legal status of our forces until next year - by which time the Senator hopes no longer to need a phony presidential seal.

Under the “Logan Act” (now codified at Section 953 of the federal penal code) it has been against the law since the late 18th century for U.S. citizens to carry on “intercourse with any foreign government” that is aimed either “to defeat the measures of the United States” or to influence the foreign government’s dealings with the United States. Being a senator is no immunity from this statute - as any Republican senator would find out in a hurry if he dared to pull a stunt like this during an Obama administration.

Naturally, the Waxmans, Conyers, Leahys, law-professor legions, and Democrats everywhere who’ve harangued us for eight years about “the rule of law” have fallen silent. No one is issuing subpoenas, talking about special prosecutors, or holding top Obama advisers in contempt until they tell us “what did you know and when did you know it.”

That’s fine. The episode is a welcome reminder of what we learned in the Clinton years: When these folks say “no one is above the law” they really mean “no Republican is above the law.” If a Democrat president, or mock president, decides to violate statutes, order national-security searches without warrant, kidnap uncharged suspects for extraordinary rendition to countries that practice torture, detain captives indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, and launch attacks without congressional or U.N. approval - all and more of which were staples of Democrat governance in the nineties - it’s anything goes.

But more to the point, Barack’s Baghdad Bonanza surfaces his seamy, Tony Rezko side. If successful, these secret negotiations with the Maliki government would add months to the U.S. military mission in Iraq.

Let’s put aside that Obama’s tactic makes cynical use of our troops in harm’s way, placing them in legal limbo while the resolution of their status is delayed. Obama’s sleight of hand further promises to cost American taxpayers untold billions of additional dollars - and for no better reason than allowing him, rather than Bush, to claim credit for success in a war Obama tried his damndest to have us lose.

And all this at a time when Obama’s latest audacity consists of looking Americans in the eye and decrying the billions spent each month rebuilding a foreign country. Those billions, he now says, should be kept at home for “rebuilding” our own country.

Nice try. The Candidate of Hope is hoping that while he caterwauls about our lost billions, you won’t notice that he has already proposed the most jaw-dropping transfer of wealth in American history: taking nearly a trillion dollars out of the pockets of American taxpayers and doling it out to the world’s worst regimes through its most corrupt intermediary, the U.N.

The scam is better known as Obama’s Global Poverty Act. Sen. Joe Biden, his trusty running-mate, recently tried to slam it through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - the better to address the rarely discussed fact that Obama, having achieved nothing noteworthy as an Illinois state senator, is similarly without accomplishment after three years in the Senate.

The GPA is a monstrosity. Thanks to Obama’s praetorian guards in the mainstream media, it is a better kept secret than most covert intelligence programs. But Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid has been digging (see here). If the GPA became law, the United States would be required to fork up for foreign aid 0.7 percent of its gross national product through 2015. That is, Obama would skyrocket U.S. largesse from its current annual level of about $21 billion (the world’s most generous) to - you’ll want to be sitting down for this - $85 billion per year.

This week’s new and improved “let’s take care of Americans first” Obama is a fraud. The real Obama is post-sovereign, transnational progressivism personified. His 0.7 percent figure comes straight out of a 1970 U.N. General Assembly resolution, and the 2015 deadline was dreamed up by a gaggle of international community organizers at the U.N.’s “Millennium Summit” in 2000.

Are you worried about the $85 billion AIG bailout? Well just imagine doing it once a year for about a decade … except with no return on your investment and with the U.N. (the people who gave us “Oil for Food”) doing what passes for the oversight - i.e., presiding over the transfer of American dollars to the very freedom-hating despots who have kept the third world poor in the first place.

The price tag by 2015 for Obama’s international trough is estimated at about $845 billion. And that, you can be sure, is just the start. Harvard’s Jeffrey Sachs, who advises the U.N., anticipates that the funds needed “to put real resources in support of our hopes” would be raised by “a global tax on carbon-emitting fossil fuels.” With a Democrat Congress at his back, a President Obama would surely repeal the Bush tax cuts for Americans, but does anyone see him repealing the global tax on Americans? Dream on.

Obama is all for taking billions out of our pockets to give it to the world. He is only against taking billions out of our pockets to give it to Iraq. There, after all, it stands to promote American national interests and military success - which Obama and Democrats have worked to undermine in both the halls of Congress and, we now learn, the Green Zone.

Back before he perceived the expedience of costuming himself as sentry of the American pocketbook, a more forthright Obama justified his GPA proposal this way:

[T]his important bill will demonstrate our promise and commitment to those in the developing world. Our commitment to the global economy must extend beyond trade agreements that are more about increasing corporate profits than about helping workers and small farmers everywhere.

That’s the real Obama, the guy who decries corporate profits for Americans and thinks we elect a president to help the workers and small farmers of the globe.

Does he not know that the country he wants to lead is an investor society which thrives on corporate profits? That corporate profits allow Americans, both privately and through their government, to provide more foreign aid than any other people in the world?

Of course he knows it. Obama and his wife have made plenty of money in America. He’s not ignorant. He’s fraudulent.

[horse3farm]

I first read this story last week in the NY Times. More proof of what I have been saying all along. Besides being an idiot, Obama is the worst enemy this country has ever had. He cares not for any single American, whether white, black, red, or brown. He cares only about being in power. Why is he not being taken to task for consorting with the enemy? What the hell is wrong with the people running things? This is so scary and all of you under 30 crowd do not, absolutely do not, understand what this man is about. You see young, you see cute, and I bet a full 80% of you could not answer a history question. The New Yorker magazine cover was so right on.

[jrysk]

If you want to read more on the Syrian mafia flunkey Obama, there is a very detailed series by Evelyn Pringle ("Curtain Time for Barack Obama") at opednews.

[jrysk]

By the way, stay tuned for Fitzgerald''s indictment of Obama (Blago too!) for the 2003 board legislation under 18 USC 1346 (detailed in Pringle).

The Sun-Times says Rezko may be talking with Fitzgerald--which he better do if he wants to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison!!

And by the way, how did Alsammarae go free? Of course, he bought/threatened his way out, but what are the details?

[demsts]

Why would CBS reprint this garbage? And why would the Washington Post print it when Obama, all the people who accompanied him and the US Ambassador representing the Bush Administration were present and said NO SUCH THING EVER HAPPENED.
We can expect these lies and smears from Ahmed Chalabi (who told Bush there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to influence the invasion) to help his friend McCain and from the gutter McCain campaign, but that you fail to print that they have been totally refuted by numerous, impartial witnesses, is gutter/yellow journalism.
CBS is a disgrace.

[swinko05]

I am scared to death of Obama, I don''t want him to be President, I don''t even want him to be a Senator. I want him and his wife to go away. And I am not a racist, I would vote for Powell or Condi any day!

[atoh1]

Why is the CBS printing this without fact checking? THis thing is littered with conjecture and plain lies...Andrew C McCarthy used to work for Romney. This piece is an opinion piece and does not state facts at all...what is this republican obsession with their endless web of lies? They lie, then get called out...then they continue...it''s the same thing about Obama''s taxes, same thing about the kindergarten...now this travesty? Are they hoping that by repeating it people would see it as the truth? Do they really think Americans are stupid?

[upto1947]

Obama is an Idiot. He must not win. He well make the last week look like nothing, when he gets done there well be nothing left to bail out.
**********************************
PS: I hope Mr. Spell Check can give me an %u201CA%u201D today.
Hope my Grammar meets your approval.
I know you are out there and I know YOU ARE A NO BODY.
GET A LIFE.

[willywonker2]

The right wing is soooooooo desperate. It''s laughable.

OBAMA 08

[ramos937]

Andrew ---- You must have forgotten to take your meds again. A long time ago, readers to this page discovered that anything political written by the NR is distorted, biased and irrational. According to the NR, Republicans are saints and Democrats are crooks. Yet, somehow, someway, somebody buys enough of your magazine to keep you going. Please concentrate of child stories. You need to build some self respect.

[progres_sive]

I have NEVER seen an article with so much distortion and hate in my entire seventy years.

[sandycat2]

Why would CBS print this "garbage" so to speak? Why the same reason they print the "garbage" from The Nation. They want to present both points of view. Imagine that. Showing both sides. Not just YOUR side.

[ajmarine111]

Posted by sandycat2 at 03:10 PM : Sep 19, 2008



I fear, when we do elect a President, he won''t be the President of the USA, he will be the President of either the Democrat or Republican party.

[usapride70]

This piece is an opinion piece

Posted by atoh1

Hence why it is under the OPINION section of the news.

Nice to see an article that doesn''t have it''s lips planted square on Obamas ray of sunshine.

[questionnews]

Seems that some want their candidate to win not because they would be best for America, but as a way to create an opportunity to punish the opposition.
That is on both sides!

[incog-nito]

We already have a plan to spend billions overseas. It''s called the War on Terror.

[amervtrn]

For those too young to know or remember. Change for the sake of change is seldom for the better. 1975 U.S. was in turmoil. An obscure young man with good credentials (exceptional credentials compared to the aspirants today) championed the cause.The mood of the country was anti-Washington and people were demanding change.In 1977, President Carter inherited an economy that was slowly emerging from a recession. He had severely criticized former President Ford for inflation and unemployment, but after four years of Carter, both were considerably worse.The annual inflation rate rose from 4.8% in 1976 to 6.8% in 1977, 9% in 1978, 11% in 1979, and hovered around 12% at the time of the 1980 election campaign. The deficit for the fiscal year 1979 totaled $27.7 billion, and that for 1980 was nearly $59 billion. With approximately 8 million people out of work, the unemployment rate had leveled off to a nationwide average of about 7.7% by the time of the election campaign, but it was considerably higher in some industrial states.
The Dollar was at an all time low, result of U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
In July 1980, Carter received a favorable rating of only 21% in the Gallup Poll. That was the lowest rating any president. Jimmy Carter was widely viewed as a failure. Carter%u2019s tenure witnessed an energy crisis, soaring inflation(11-12 percent), and skyrocketing interest rates(21.5 percent)devastated military preparedness. Do we need to re-live this in 2008-2012?

[bigsk8fan]

oh my gosh, another national review article is critical of obama. what a surprise!

anyway, can''t wait to see the national review piece talking about bush''s spending $10 billion overseas per month (and just in iraq).

does obama''s planned spending even come close to that? can anyone spend as much money as a republican without any funding whatsoever? of course not!

[amervtrn]

For those too young to know or remember. Change for the sake of change is seldom for the better. 1975 U.S. was in turmoil. An obscure young man with good credentials (exceptional credentials compared to the aspirants today) championed the cause.The mood of the country was anti-Washington and people were demanding change.In 1977, President Carter inherited an economy that was slowly emerging from a recession. He had severely criticized former President Ford for inflation and unemployment, but after four years of Carter, both were considerably worse.The annual inflation rate rose from 4.8% in 1976 to 6.8% in 1977, 9% in 1978, 11% in 1979, and hovered around 12% at the time of the 1980 election campaign. The deficit for the fiscal year 1979 totaled $27.7 billion, and that for 1980 was nearly $59 billion. With approximately 8 million people out of work, the unemployment rate had leveled off to a nationwide average of about 7.7% by the time of the election campaign, but it was considerably higher in some industrial states.
The Dollar was at an all time low, result of U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
In July 1980, Carter received a favorable rating of only 21% in the Gallup Poll. That was the lowest rating any president. Jimmy Carter was widely viewed as a failure. Carter%u2019s tenure witnessed an energy crisis, soaring inflation(11-12 percent), and skyrocketing interest rates(21.5 percent)devastated military preparedness. Do we need to re-live this in 2008-2012?

[paris1969]

I was wondering when Network News was going to use this ... if this is true, Obama is a traitor! Run Clintons Run ... get away from this guy!!!
This is incredible:
The scam is better known as Obama%u2019s Global Poverty Act. Sen. Joe Biden, his trusty running-mate, recently tried to slam it through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - the better to address the rarely discussed fact that Obama, having achieved nothing noteworthy as an Illinois state senator, is similarly without accomplishment after three years in the Senate.

[amrt5016]

''... while Obama is telling the American people he wants an end to the war, he has secretly negotiated with the government in Iraq to extend the U.S. military mission there. That is a black-and-white violation of federal criminal law.''

If Obama could cut such a deal--secret or not--, so could anybody from the U.S. government but Bush must still sign off on it. Nothing in this scenario even begins to look real and believable. Only from Twilight Zone of sick Republican delirium.

[ajmarine111]

in December, Obama also sponsored the Global Poverty Act which, if passed, would require the president to commit to cutting global poverty in half by 2015. Critics say that would cost American taxpayers $845 billion.



We are working on Global Poverty now?

Don''t we have enought to worry about all ready?

[talkingham]

Well Bush has poured more than a trillion dollars down a hole to insure that Iraq has a Shiite government (that''s a 1,000 billion for you Bushies who never took math). Wish the NRO would talk about something that has really happened, like... maybe they could follow this up with a story about the Alaska pipeline that does not exist that Palin touted in her speech to the GOP convention.

This type of disinformation reminds one of Big Pharma.
The republican smear campaign is in full swing.

[ampsanne]

Why is it we can send billions of dollars to all the other countries, and we can''t even help our own here in the U.S.? And why can''t we elect a president with an AMERICAN NAME? Obama gets in and it will seem like we''re a foreign country here with a name like that.

[jmurrieta11]

NRO only likes spending billions overseas when lots of dead "mud people" are the result.

[aakalan]

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

We all know you neocons lie. You lied us into war, so I guess trying to lie McCain into the presidency is no big deal.

Obama never did ask Iraq to delay a security agreement. That has been debunked so many times, it''s silly. So many times that I know you saw it and you know it isn''t true - so what you''re publishing here is just one more set of intentional bald-faced-lies.

You have no morals at all... and no shame.

[cdfoxtrot3]

I''m a little puzzled. It''s okay to throw away $10 billion on a stupid, unnecessary war, but spending UP TO $85bn in a whole year helping people is unacceptable? America gains influence by spending overseas - that''s how the world works, folks! The question is, do you want that influence to be at the end of a gun, or through the gratitude that follows from helping others?

[ubrew12]

NRO: "Obama Rails At Billions Spent In War But Supports Bill That Would Mandate Billions More In Foreign Aid Each Year"

I''ve thought of a way Obama can get NRO to support his foreign aid program.

Just spend those billions in foreign aid on israel...

[stealth54]

Obama is not right for the USA!

[element51]

wp4088....."and the people are even more dumber." What country have you been living in? Sorry, I''m just fuvkin with you. Actually you have a point. I don''t think we need to stop trying to help people in other countries, I just think we need to find a way to make sure that our help goes to the people. When people are starving and food is rotting on the docks because some tin horn dictator won''t release it there is a problem. But it''s a cold hard world out there and all we can do it try to help. But I agree that we need to help our own people first. Lots of hungry folks here too. One last thing...if you are a veteran, I suggest that you take a good look at McCain''s voting record on veterans affairs, then weigh that into your decision before you give him your vote.

[element51]

ampsanne.....Yours is the best reason not to vote for Obama that I have seen yet. Because of his name. It really shows the depth of thought you have put into your decision. Why don''t you tell the truth and admit that you aren''t very fond of black folks. That, at least, would be honest.

[element51]

All I have to see is the headline of an article and I can immediately tell it is NRO. These trolls have no shame and can twist anything to say what they want it to say. If McCain wins they are going to have a hard time because they won''t have anyone to lie about.

[gunfighter51]

Element,
They said the same thing about Rush Limbaugh after Clinton, did''nt seem to have any effect.
I''m sure the NRO will still be around to reign in and expose the wimp left.

[markangeloo]

Obama is violating criminal law !!

Make us barf Andy isn''t that the # 1

qualification for president.

The NRO could change its name

to The National Socialist Review

since after this week

the curtain was raised off the fake republic.

& the joke is it was republicans who brought us here.

[siobama]

ENOUGH OF REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION AND LIES.

ENOUGH OF REPUBLICAN MONARCHY.

8 YEARS OF DESASTERS ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH:

ATTACKED ON OUR LAND 9/11
KATRINA
HOUSE MORTGAGE CRISIS
ECONOMIC MELTDOWN
IRAQ WAR

WHAT ELSE TO SEE THAT GOD IS NOT ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE?

WHAT ELSE TO UNDERSTAND THAT REPUBLICANS ARE DOING THINGS WRONG?

WE NEED DEMOCRATS BACK.

[ghwab1949]

Since Democrats have controlled Congress for at least the last two years,and that is the only body with the power to tax and spend, "change" would mean we have to put Republicans in charge and get rid of Pelosi and Reid.

[ampsanne]

ampsanne.....Yours is the best reason not to vote for Obama that I have seen yet. Because of his name. It really shows the depth of thought you have put into your decision. Why don''''t you tell the truth and admit that you aren''''t very fond of black folks. That, at least, would be honest.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Element51 at 01:04 AM : Sep 20, 2008


I am not against black people, in fact I have friends that are black. It''s just the name I disapprove of. Many black people have common American names. I''m just saying it sounds like a foreign name. We don''t need to sound like some foreign country being run by a foreigner.

[im4honesty]

JOHN McCAIN: "I believe the fundamentals of the economy are strong."

THEN THE NEXT DAY:

"Well... I... err... ummm, what I meant was the fundamentals of the economy are the working men and women, and anyone who disagrees with me is against the American worker."

The question is:

ARE YOU STUPID ENOUGH TO VOTE FOR McCAIN/PALIN???

[kevingrze]

NRO are bunch of liars just like all Repugs. No integrity, no leadership, just stupidity and lies and wars!
Vote Obama!!!

[pvperson]

Do you neo-cons EVER tell the truth? After 8 years of deceit from the Bush administration, I would think even republicans to be ready for honesty, but I guess they''re incapable of that as well as competent government. You people suck.

Want more of the same, then vote McLame.

[babooph]

Israel gets almost half of all aid-a lot of the rest goes to Egypt for not screaming the US ,not Israel beat them in the war,& not warring again.

[incog-nito]

I am not against black people, in fact I have friends that are black. It''''s just the name I disapprove of. Many black people have common American names. I''''m just saying it sounds like a foreign name. We don''''t need to sound like some foreign country being run by a foreigner.

Posted by ampsanne at 05:38 PM : Sep 20, 2008

If I were you I would keep my reasons private. It''s not advisable to flaunt that kind of intellect on the internet.

[whiterepubfo]

NRO is a rag!
I am reading this verbal diarrhea for the first time and I think Andrew C McCarthy needs to gargle after spewing this stinking piece of brainwashing, I''m sure his breath stinks!
GOP = Great Orators of Puke!
NRO = Nutjob Republican Obsolagnium

[whiterepubfo]

NRO is a rag!
I am reading this verbal diarrhea for the first time and I think Andrew C McCarthy needs to gargle after spewing this stinking piece of brainwashing, I''m sure his breath stinks!
GOP = Great Orators of Puke!
NRO = Nutjob Republican Obsolagnium

[nativewoman]

Posted by ampsanne at 05:38 PM : Sep 20, 2008

Considering that the ancestors of most people in the United States today came from somewhere else and brought their names with them, what exactly is a "common American name"?

[verbal836]

Face it... the DNC is losing, yet another election, that the ''elite'' in this country believed was in the bag... Lot''s of hand-wringing going on out there, isn''t there? You can find the proof in the many arguments being floated lately about how far-reaching the level of racism is in this country, and how they are now saying that Obama can''t win because he is black; built in excuse for losing the election... What is interesting is that they are tossing their own people under the bus now; stating that 1/3 of white democrats find fault in black people in general.

Face it, you are about to lose another election that you thought you should win easily, and no matter how much you lay awake in bed at night, you cannot come up with an answer for why. Can you put your hate aside for long enough to wrap your brain around the fact that it is your far left politics that bring you down each time? I doubt it. It is much easier to call the republican an idiot and a simpleton rather than admit your shortcoming. What does it mean when you lose election after election to a simpleton? What does that say about YOU?

------------------------------------------------
"The sky is falling.... The sky is falling!"

[ioweign]

Iraq - McCain''s 100 year "Earmark"

I see McCarthy has moved from the courtroom, where evidence is required, to the opinion page where it is an impediment.

[tibu987]

Well, perhaps having spent the trillion dollars that the Bush cabal has spent on war and killing people and ruining their infrastructure, been spent instead on helping people of the world and getting them clean water, roads, sewage, education, etc., things might be different in the world.

Naive, perhaps, but think about it.

[tibu987]

Well, had the trillion dollars that the Bush cabal has spent on war and killing people and ruining their infrastructure, been spent instead on helping people of the world and getting them clean water, roads, sewage, education, etc., the world situation might just be better.

Naive, perhaps, but think about it.