OBAMA IS
BUSH’S THIRD AND FOURTH TERM. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT HE WAS REELECTED BY
ILLEGALS!
The committee’s
support for Lew’s appointment underscores the bipartisan commitment to cut
corporate taxes, raise taxes on workers and slash social programs.
Senate handles Obama’s treasury pick with kid gloves
By Andre Damon
16 February 2013
16 February 2013
Jacob Lew, US President Barack Obama’s nominee for treasury
secretary and an ex-Citigroup executive who received a million-dollar bonus
after the bank got bailed out, breezed through his Senate Finance Committee
confirmation hearing Wednesday.
The committee’s
support for Lew’s appointment underscores the bipartisan commitment to cut
corporate taxes, raise taxes on workers and slash social programs.
Lew is expected to be confirmed by the Senate soon, with no
significant opposition in either party to his appointment, despite his
association with the fraud surrounding the 2008 financial meltdown. Last week,
the Wall Street Journal reported that Lew held offshore investments in
the Cayman Islands, a practice that Obama singled out for criticism in his
first term.
“Mr. Lew has been confirmed by the Senate three times already,”
wrote Max Baucus, chairman of the finance committee, adding, “I don’t expect
there to be any reason why he should not be confirmed this time around as
well.”
“Frankly, I think you’ve done really well today,” concluded
Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the committee’s highest-ranking Republican. “My
gosh, I have nothing but respect for people like you who give yourself to our
government.”
The hearing was particularly friendly, with Republicans and
Democrats alike giving Lew a free pass. “This hearing sounds so polite and calm
you might wonder whether Lew is getting confirmed for an assistant secretary
job, not the senior role on the administration’s economic team right in the
middle of a giant budget brawl,” commented the Journal’s live blog of
the hearing.
Lew struck an unapologetically right-wing tone in his prepared
remarks Wednesday, reasserting the Obama administration’s commitment to
lowering corporate taxes and eliminating deductions that benefit many
working-class Americans, referred to as “broadening the base.”
“We must put our nation back on a path of fiscal sustainability,”
Lew said in his introductory remarks. “Over the past two years, we have locked
in $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction through spending cuts and revenue
increases. And we can do even more to shrink the deficit over the next decade
through a balanced mix of spending reductions and tax reforms, and sensible
reforms to Medicare that will help the program stay sound in the future.”
Lew flaunted his credentials as a vociferous budget cutter and
long-time facilitator of bipartisan attacks on social programs. As an advisor
to then-Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, Lew helped develop the 1993 budget deal that raised regressive payroll
taxes and increased the Social Security retirement age by two years, to 67.
“By asking me to take part in the negotiations that led to the
historic agreement with President Reagan to save Social Security, [O’Neill]
allowed me to gain a deep understanding of what could be accomplished through
bipartisan cooperation,” Lew said.
From August 1995 to July 1998, Lew served as Clinton’s deputy
director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where he helped work out
the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which included $112 billion in Medicare cuts.
“Working across the aisle while serving under President Clinton, I helped
negotiate the groundbreaking agreement with Congress to balance the federal
budget,” he boasted.
After taking a break from the government to earn millions as a
Wall Street executive, Lew joined the Obama administration to head the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) from November 2010 through January 2012, after
which he moved on to become Obama’s third chief of staff.
“At the Office of Management and Budget, pursuing sound fiscal
policy required transcending politics and making tough calls. We eliminated and
cut programs, and we worked with Democrats and Republicans to pass the Budget
Control Act, which has reduced federal discretionary spending to historically
low levels,” he said.
While Wednesday’s hearing largely consisted of deference and
softball questions, some of the committee members felt compelled to politely
ask about Lew’s practices as a multimillionaire Wall Street executive. In 2007, Lew invested $56,000 in a Citigroup hedge fund
operating out of the Cayman Islands. Obama had previously denounced such
investments, which he called an “outrage” and a “tax scam” because they are
often used to avoid paying taxes on investments.
Lew was likewise questioned about his role at Citigroup, which
paid him a $940,000 bonus shortly after the firm was bailed out by the
government. Asked about the bonus, Lew stated unapologetically, “I was
compensated for my work.”
Lew joined
Citigroup in 2006 and became chief operating officer for its alternative
investments unit in Jan. 2008. He held the position during the peak of the
financial crisis, when Citi received a $45 billion bailout from the federal
government.
The unit that
Lew oversaw made large investments in the hedge fund managed by billionaire
John Paulson, which helped banks issue toxic mortgages during the subprime
boom, then bet, using insider knowledge, that those mortgages would collapse in
value. These activities were amply documented by the Senate Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations, and prompted a then-record $550 million
settlement between the Securities Exchange Commission and Paulson’s partner in
crime, Goldman Sachs.
“I was not in the business of making investment decisions,” Lew
said in his defense. “I was certainly aware of things that were going on. I was
working in a financial institution. I learned a great deal about the financial
products. But I wasn’t designing them and I wasn’t opining on them.”
The elevation of Lew to the post of treasury
secretary, the government position most closely associated with the bank
bailouts, is only the latest signal by the Obama administration that those
responsible for the 2008 financial crisis will in be in no way held responsible
for their crimes.
Moreover, the appointment of Lew—one of the
Democrats most closely associated with entitlement cuts—underscores the Obama
administration’s commitment to slashing trillions of dollars from Medicare,
Medicaid and Social Security.
*
A FEW BASIC FACTS ABOUT OBAMA:
“Behind the thin rhetoric about reigniting a
“thriving middle class,” Obama made clear that the administration’s policies in
its second term will be subordinated entirely to the interests of big business,
beginning with plans to slash hundreds of billions more from health care
programs.”
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/02/obamanomics-scam-he-perpetrates-on.html
Newsmax
Obama's
'Hispanicazation' of America
January
10, 2011
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