People make promises and commitments when they seek political office. These promises, when directed toward a whole country, can become pretty lofty, and should often probably be redefined as goals. However, no candidate would be elected on a platform such as, “I have a goal to make sure citizens are well-informed of bills being passed.” Unwisely, President Barack Obama decided to make lofty promises when campaigning for his position of President of the United States. In one campaign speech he stated, “I’ll make our government open and transparent so that anyone can ensure that our business is the people’s business…when there is a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it.” (1) Fellow citizens of the United States of America, President Obama has not followed through on his promise to give us five days to view each bill before he signs them.
The first bill which President Obama signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. This he signed only two days after its passage. On the 17th of February after he took office, “Obama signed his 1,000-page $787 billion stimulus aimed at jolting the declining U.S. economy. He did so only one business day after it passed through Congress—without allowing for five days of public comment.” (1) On the 22 of May, 2009, Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act. This he did a mere two days after Congressed finalized the bill. (2) His promise is clearly not being met. This lack of following through on his promises will cause him serious problems around re-election time.
One could argue that, as President, he will have the responsibility to occasionally sign emergency legislation without five days’ notice. I personally consider sticky situations such as those acceptable. Having said that, the bills he is signing right away are not emergency legislation. For instance, on February 4, 2009, “PolitiFact.com” posted an article that lays another instance of the President’s broken promise on the table. The article states, “Obama signed an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program which provides health coverage for low-income children…just hours after it was finalized in Congress…the bill’s provisions don’t kick in until April 1, 2009, almost three months from signing.” (2) This is not emergency legislation. The very fact that it didn’t go into effect until months later proves that it wasn’t any sort of emergency. Another possible argument in the President's defense could be that the text of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program was posted on a web site days before it was signed by President Obama. While this was a nice gesture by the Obama administration, it was only posted on February first, leaving only three days for the public to view it before its signing. (2) Not keeping his promises to the fullest like this essentially gives ammunition to those against Obama in future campaigns. This is not what we were promised. Obama said five days, why do we feel lucky for three?
Everyone seems to make promises that they aren’t exactly able to keep from time to time. I don’t know how we can change this sad truth, but it is time for change. It’s time for some integrity in the American political system. America knows this, and his broken promises will come back to haunt President Obama in the election of 2012.
hey, I'll need you to teach me a thing or two about this. Your blog already looks way better than mine. Loving all the political stuff. You crack me up.
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