One can only hope that the majority of Barack Obama’s supporters are not as inane as actress Susan Sarandon, who announced last week that she supports Obama for president and “can’t wait to see what he stands for.”
No one need be mystified. On his Web site, Obama details precisely where he stands on issues from Iraq to infant education. (Yes, infant education. Never underestimate a leftist’s ingenuity in finding ways to spend your money.)
Yet the surprising — and somewhat disappointing — conclusion after reading through his proposals is that Obama suggests very little real change, calling mostly for the expansion of existing programs.
In person, Obama is eloquent and dazzling. In writing, he sounds like the candidate for class president pledging no more homework and free pizza. Among the senator’s fantastic promises:
» “Obama will make college affordable for all Americans.”
» “Obama will quadruple Early Head Start and increase Head Start funding. Obama will also provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families.
» “Obama will double funding for after-school programs.
» “Obama will provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, so that they are successfully re-integrated into society.
» “Obama will create a fund to help people refinance their mortgages and provide comprehensive supports to innocent homeowners.
» “Obama will create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to develop affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods.
» “Obama will create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in areas that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement … which provide a full network of services, including early childhood education, youth violence prevention efforts and after-school activities, to anentire neighborhood from birth to college.
» “He will provide at least $2 billion to expand services to Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries, and ensure that Iraqis inside their own country can find a safe haven.
» “Obama will double our foreign assistance to $50 billion.”
And you will have even less money to pay for all that and his other spending proposals because Obama’s plan to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security is to raise taxes on overburdened workers.
“Currently, the Social Security payroll tax applies to only the first $97,500 a worker makes. Obama supports increasing the maximum amount of earnings covered by Social Security.”
Inexplicably, Obama plans to meddle in minutiae, such as radio programming in Topeka (“An Obama presidency will promote greater coverage of local issues and better responsiveness by broadcasters to the communities they serve”), yet his proposals for homeland security are extraordinarily meager.
Obama only suggests requiring (1) chemical plants to beef up their security, (2) the tracking of spent nuclear fuel, (3) mandatory plans for evacuating special-needs populations during disasters, (4) plans for reuniting families after emergencies, (5) keeping our drinking water safe and (5) protecting the public from radioactive releases.
What about a plan to make sure terrorists don’t get into our country and booting out the ones already here?
Indeed, his plans for dealing with the rabid elements of humanity sound alarmingly naive. Consider his position on Iran: “Iran has sought nuclear weapons, supports militias inside Iraq and terror across theregion, and its leaders threaten Israel and deny the Holocaust. … If Iran continues its troubling behavior, we will step up our economic pressure and political isolation.” Yeah, that’ll show ’em.
Not only does he want to make nice with Tehran, he doesn’t want to appear too threatening to terrorists. “While other candidates have insisted that we should threaten to drop nuclear bombs on terrorist training camps, Obama believes that we must talk openly about nuclear weapons — because the best way to keep America safe is not to threaten terrorists with nuclear weapons; it’s to keep nuclear weapons away from terrorists. Obama will secure all loose nuclear materials in the world within four years. … This will deny terrorists the ability to steal or buy loose nuclear materials.”
Could he really believe the most vicious people on the planet can be thwarted that easily?
No one can deny Obama’s personal appeal — or that his call for change resonates with Americans. But unless we’re a nation of Kool-Aid drinkers, we will take into account what sort of change he has in mind. We also would be wise to remember that change — not matter how eloquently offered — is not always for the better.
Examiner Columnist Melanie Scarborough lives in Alexandria.
