Axelrod’s World Of Make Believe

Obama Strategist David Axelrod Spends Another Sunday Morning Pretending Obama Hasn’t Been President For The Past Three Years

AFTER OBAMA ADDED NEARLY $5 TRILLION TO THE NATIONAL DEBT, AXELROD SAYS WE DON’T WANT POLICIES THAT BANKRUPT OUR COUNTRY

Obama Strategist David Axelrod: “I think everybody recognizes we had deep problems that welled up over a year that are going to take a while to deal with, and they want to know that we’re moving in the right direction. It is hopeful that the last quarter, in terms of job creation, was the best we’ve had in six years. The last quarter, in terms of manufacturing, was the best we’ve had in two decades. People get that things are moving in the right direction; the last thing they want to do is go back to the same policies that bankrupted the country, punished the middle class, and put our economy in a tailspin.” (CNN’s ” State Of The Union,” 4/22/12)

Obama Has Added Over $4.9 Trillion In Debt, The “Most Rapid Increase” Of Any President

The National Debt Is Now $15,615,590,975,022.30 An Increase Of Over $4.9 Trillion.(U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 4/22/12)

Since Obama Took Office, The National Debt Has Increased By Over $4.9 Trillion, An Increase Of Over 46 Percent. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 4/22/12)

• Obama Is Responsible For “The Most Rapid Increase In The Debt Under Any U.S. President.” “The latest posting by the Treasury Department shows the national debt has now increased $4 trillion on President Obama’s watch. The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office. The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion. It’s the most rapid increase in the debt under any U.S. president.” (Mark Knoller, “National Debt Has Increased $4 Trillion Under Obama,” CBS News, 8/22/11)

“[Obama’s] Record On The Growth Of National Debt Is The Worst Of Recent Presidents.” “But the fact remains that under basic economic measures, not phony ones, his record on the growth of the national debt is the worst of recent presidents.” (Glenn Kessler, “A Bogus Chart On Obama And The Debt Gets A New Lease On Life,” The Washington Post’s “The Fact Checker” , 9/29/11)

FLASHBACK: In 2008, Obama Said Adding $4 Trillion To The National Debt Was “Irresponsible” And “Unpatriotic.” OBAMA: “The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At A Campaign Event, Fargo, ND, 7/3/08)

• Click Here To Watch Obama Call $4 Trillion In New Debt “Unpatriotic”

OBAMA’S SCANDAL-RIDDEN TENURE

Scandals Are “Generating The Kinds Of Questions That No Administration Wants To Answer This Close To A Re-Election Bid.” “Neither Obama nor his top aides have been implicated, but both of those stories are generating the kinds of questions that no administration wants to answer this close to a re-election bid.”(David Jackson, “Obama Grapples With Secret Service, GSA Scandles,” USA Today , 4/18/12)

Scandals Under Obama’s Watch Are Piling Up

CNN’s Candy Crowley Read Off A Laundry List Of Scandals To Obama Strategist David Axelrod, Who Then Tried To Spin Obama’s Record On Good Governance.CNN’S CANDY CROWLEY: “Let me ask you in the broader sense, so you’ve got the GSA, the Secret Service scandals, you have had sort of an ongoing thing about government money that was given to Solyndra, solar power company that went bankrupt and how they got the backing that they did. You’ve had Fast and Furious, the ATF scandal that Eric Holder has been working on. Do you think that the totality of that hurts the president?” DAVID AXELROD: “Do I think that the GSA problem is concerning? Yes and the President was furious when he learned of it. Obviously we’ve revamped the whole operation as a result of it but is it emblematic of our administration? Absolutely not. Candy, we’ve imposed new strictures relative to waste and inefficiency and fraud that have saved tens of billions of dollars on travel, on printing, on leases, on fraud. Our Medicare, our health care fraud unit over at the Justice Department and HHS has recovered over $10 billion. those prosecutions are up 70%. We are saving taxpayers money all the time.” (CNN’s “State Of The Union” 4/22/12)

Wasteful And Extravagant Spending At The GSA

General Services Administration’s 2010 Western Region Conference In Las Vegas “Made Headlines When An Inspector General Report Found A Pattern Of Excessive Spending, Waste, And Possible Fraud On The Pricey, Taxpayer-Funded Las Vegas Conference.” “The conference made headlines this week when an Inspector General report found a pattern of excessive spending, waste and possible fraud on the pricey, taxpayer-funded Las Vegas conference, where organizers went out of their way to organize a lavish, over-the-top celebration that included a mindreader, a clown, fancy food, and several ‘trial runs’ by GSA employees.” (Byron Tau, “Videos Of $800K GSA Conference Surface,” Politico,4/7/12)

At A House Oversight And Government Committee Hearing, The GSA Official Who Planned The Conference, Jeff Neely, Pled The Fifth To Avoid Incriminating Himself.“A top General Services Administration official who was in charge of organizing a lavish Las Vegas conference that’s drawn congressional and taxpayer fire repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Monday on Capitol Hill. During Monday’s hearing, Jeff Neely, refused to answer several questions from House Oversight and Government Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), including rudimentary questions such as his official title at GSA and whether he was currently employed at the agency.” (Seung Min Kim, “GSA Official Pleads Fifth In Conference Scandal,” Politico, 4/16/12)

• Click To Watch Neely Plead The Fifth

Solyndra

In August 2011, Solyndra Announced That It Will File For Bankruptcy, “Immediately Laying Off 1,100 Employees.” “Solyndra, a Fremont solar tech manufacturer, announced Wednesday it is suspending operations and immediately laying off 1,100 employees. The company said it will also file for bankruptcy.” (George Avalos, “Fremont Solar Tech Firm Solyndra To Shut Down, Lay Off 1,100 Workers,” The San Jose Mercury News, 8/31/11)

• The Solyndra Scandal “Shows How Wealthy People Who Help Fund A President’s Election Campaign Get Special Access To The White House.”“The scandal at base is about how taxpayer money is used, or misused, by government. It shows how the White House uses companies for its own purposes and how companies try to use the White House to serve their aims. It shows how far political appointees, and particularly the senior-most aides in the West Wing, will go to push the chief executive’s agenda on a sometimes slow but generally conscientious federal bureaucracy. And it shows how wealthy people who help fund a president’s election campaign get special access to the White House.” (Patrick B. Pexton, “Post Reporters, Shining A Light On The Solyndra Scandal,” The Washington Post , 11/25/11)
• The Solyndra Scandal Shows How Despite Obama’s Promises To Be “Transparent, Accountable, And Responsible,” He “Often Isn’t.” “The reporters have used these documents to push the story further and tie it to fundraisers. They have also consulted forensic accountants to help analyze how sick Solyndra was when its executives, and Obama officials, were publicly touting the company’s rosy future. And they have shown that an administration that promised to be transparent, accountable and responsible often isn’t.” (Patrick B. Pexton,”Post Reporters, Shining A Light On The Solyndra Scandal,” The Washington Post , 11/25/11)

Fast And Furious

The “Fast And Furious” Operation Was An ATF Program That Tracked Weapons Sold To Illegal Buyers In Hopes Of Arresting Mexican Drug Cartel Members. “Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives purposely allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers, hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them. But they lost track of more than 2,000 weapons, and the Mexican government says some of them have turned up at about 170 crime scenes there.” (Richard A. Serrano, “Emails Show Top Justice Department Officials Knew Of ATF Gun Program,” Los Angeles Times, 10/03/11)

• “But ATF Agents Were Often Told To Abandon Their Surveillance Of The Weapons, Allowing Them – And The Straw Buyers – To Disappear, According To House Testimony From Numerous Agents. The Only Remaining Hope For Agents To Track The Guns Was If Other Agencies Found Them At Crime Scenes Or During Drug Raids And Identified Them By Their Serial Numbers.” (Jordy Yager, “Rep. Issa Threatens Holder With Contempt Over ‘Fast And Furious’ Operation,” The Hill , 1/31/12)
• Two “Fast And Furious” Weapons Were “Found At The Scene Of The Dec. 14 Shooting Of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.” “The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is facing criticism of a program that funneled illegal guns into the hands of Mexican gun runners, drug gangs, and other criminals after two of those guns were found at the scene of the Dec. 14 shooting of US border patrol agent Brian Terry by Mexican bandits in Arizona…The Dec. 14 shootout in Peck Canyon, near Nogales, Ariz., occurred after border patrol agents halted a group of armed border bandits and fired at them with bean bag guns. The bandits then opened fire with live bullets from AK-47 submachine guns, killing Mr. Terry.” (Patrik Jonsson, “Did Flawed US Policies Play Role In Death Of Border Patrol Agent?,” The Christian Science Monitor , 3/4/11)

MF Global

In October 2011, Jon Corzine’s Wall Street Firm, MF Global, Filed For Bankruptcy.“Broker-dealer MF Global, headed by former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs chairman John Corzine, has filed for bankruptcy protection, apparently because of holdings of European debt.” (“Broker-Dealer MF Global Files For Bankruptcy,” USA Today, 10/31/11)

• Reports Now Show There Is $1.6 Billion Missing From Customer Accounts.“The MF Global Missing Money Caper continues. Earlier this week, MF Global’s trustee provided an update on several things but not the missing money. Turns out he just needed a few more days so the world could get ready to hear this: There’s another $400 million now included in the official figure. (Insert Law & Order sound effect here.) Colleague Jacob Bunge is reporting that the new estimate for the deficiency in customer accounts is $1.6 billion.” (David Benoit, “MF Global Missing $1.6 Billion, Counting U.K.,” The Wall Street Journal’s “Deal Journal,” 2/10/12)

NOTE: Corzine Bundled Over $500,000 For Obama’s Reelection Campaign, Which The Campaign Has Not Returned. (Center For Responsive Politics, Open Secrets,Accessed 4/22/12)

• Obama: Corzine Is “Our Wall Street Guy.” “ The rollout also provided a showcase for Corzine, the former Goldman Sachs CEO whom Obama referred to as ‘our Wall Street guy’ at a meeting of Democratic governors in Chicago on Friday.” (Claire Heininger, “Corzine Profile Rises In Obama Camp,” The Star-Ledger (NJ),6/23/08)

Secret Service Scandal

“As If The General Services Administration Flap Wasn’t Bad Enough — An $820,000 Conference/Party In Las Vegas — Now The Secret Service Prostitution Scandal Is Giving Headaches To The Obama Administration.” (David Jackson, “Obama Grapples With Secret Service, GSA Scandles,” USA Today , 4/18/12)