Where is Obama's change we can believe in?

Monday 08th December, 06:04 AM JST

By Chuck Baldwin

“Change you can believe in.” This was Barack Obama’s campaign slogan. There is no doubt that the American people were fed up with George W Bush and his fellow Republicans. Who can blame them?

After campaigning for change back in 1999 (What political challenger doesn’t campaign for change?), President Bush and his fellow neocons promptly set out to continue business as usual in Washington, DC. Federal spending and meddling exploded under the leadership of the GOP. In fact, one has to go back to the administrations of Franklin D Roosevelt to match the increases in Big Government and Big Brother by Bush and Company. Add to the out-of-control spending habits of the GOP an unnecessary war, a near-Depression economy, and a burgeoning police state. It is no surprise that the American people were ready for change. And Obama excelled in delivering the message of change. So, what kind of change will Obama actually deliver?

Will Obama remove U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan? Probably not. Oh, he might reduce troops in Iraq, but if anyone believes that he will not leave a significant U.S. presence in Iraq, they are living in a dream world. Furthermore, many, if not most, of the troops from Iraq will most likely find themselves in Afghanistan. Mark my words; Obama has no plans to remove U.S. troops from the Middle East. Net result: no change.

What about America’s economic woes? What changes will Obama bring to the table? Hardly any. America will continue it’s trademark deficit spending; we will continue to send manufacturing jobs overseas; so-called
“free trade” deals will continue to advance; big Business will continue to receive government bailouts; the Federal Reserve will continue to call the shots for America’s financial decisions (and reap gargantuan profits in the process); Congress will continue to be inept, irresponsible, and clueless; there will be no attempt to return the United States to sound money principles; and there will be no reduction in foreign aid. In a nutshell, it will be business as usual in Washington, DC.

Don’t get me wrong: Obama will doubtless throw out some bones to his liberal supporters in much the same way that Republican presidents throw out a bone or two to their conservative constituents. Watch for Obama to overturn the ban on embryonic stem cell research. America’s upper income earners can expect some sort of tax increase. No doubt, oil companies will end up losing some tax exemptions. Watch for additional environmentalist policies to be enacted. And, yes, there will be some sort of “universal health care” proposal. But the Bush administration has already given America a socialized financial system, so how can Republicans complain about socialized medicine?

Obama might try to resurrect the “Fairness Doctrine.” Some suggest that Obama might try to rid the prohibition of homosexuals serving in the armed forces, but I doubt that he will take on this one. The political net gain would not be worth the potential fallout.

Although he might want to, I doubt that Obama will actively promote additional gun control (Democrats always lose when this happens). He may push for a ban on “high capacity” magazines that hold over 10 rounds, as Bill Clinton did. If Obama does not go after guns directly, we can expect some sort of attack on ammunition (which is already happening) that will drive up the cost of ammo even more. Of course, some sort of gun confiscation or martial law could materialize in the wake of another “terrorist” attack. But a McCain administration would have acted no differently, so, again, the net result is zero change. Remember, it was Republican George W. Bush who expunged Posse Comitatus and deployed 20,000 army troops on U.S. soil to be used for domestic law enforcement. If Obama really wants to bring about change, he would reverse Bush’s draconian decisions, would he not? Don’t hold your breath.

We can also expect more harassment of gun owners and lawful gun dealers by the BATFE. But this is no change at all. The current leadership at BATFE is already about as hostile to gun owners and gun dealers as it can possibly be. An Obama BATFE will be no worse. But neither will it be any better. Net result: no change.

So, what will be the overall change to the direction of America? Answer: there will be no change to the overall direction of the country. There will be no change to the welfare state. There will be little change to the
warfare state. No change to NATO, except to expand it. Very little change, if any, to foreign policy. No change to America’s open sieves, otherwise called national borders. And there will be absolutely no change to the burgeoning New World Order that began in earnest under both Bushes and Bill Clinton.

The NAFTA superhighway will have the support of the Obama administration. The North American Community will proceed unimpeded by the Obama White House. In all likelihood, the Amero (a common currency with Canada and Mexico) will materialize during Obama’s first term. But this would all have happened had McCain been elected. No change here.

One reason why it is so easy to predict a business-as-usual Obama presidency is the people that Obama has surrounded himself with. Former New York Federal Reserve chairman Timothy Geithner for Secretary of the Treasury; former Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers for National Economic Council director; Bush’s Defense Secretary Robert Gates will keep his job; Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel for Obama’s Chief of Staff; Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State; Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano for Secretary of Homeland Security; former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle to head the Health and Human Services Department; former Assistant Attorney General Eric Holder to be Attorney General; New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce; Susan Rice for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Paul Volcker for the Economic Recovery Advisory Board; James Steinberg as Deputy Secretary of State; Mona Sutphen for Deputy White House Chief of Staff, and Louis Caldera for Director of the White House Military Office.

Does anyone see “change” with the above names? Every one of them is a longtime political insider. And at least 11 of them are members of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In fact, six out of the 11 cabinet-level positions in the Obama administration are CFR members.

The CFR has dominated both Democrat and Republican presidential administrations for decades. Presidents such as Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton have all been members of the CFR. Vice presidents such as Hubert Humphrey, Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Mondale, and Dick Cheney have been CFR members. And over the last several decades, practically every secretary of defense, secretary of the treasury, and most CIA directors have been CFR members. And let’s not forget that this year’s Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, is a CFR member.

Do you now see why—no matter who is elected president of the United States—nothing changes? Republican or Democrat, it does not matter: the CFR and their collaborators remain in power. And as Sonny and Cher used to sing, “The Beat Goes On.”

There will be no real change in Washington, DC, until the CFR and their elitist cronies are thoroughly and universally removed from power. And the only way this will happen is if we elect an independent president of the United States (someone who truly understands the New World Order and is dedicated to defeating it), because the two major parties will never allow someone opposed to the CFR to become their nominee. The only Republican candidate for president in 2008 who demonstrated those credentials was Ron Paul. And to a lesser degree, the only Democrat who even seemed to vaguely understand this was Dennis Kucinich. Notice that both men were thoroughly repudiated by their respective parties’ leadership and all but totally ignored by the national news media. (The CFR and their surrogates also control the national news media. What a coincidence!)

External Link:http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com

Latest 15 of 46 Total Comments Show All

Ke11iente at 06:33 AM JST - 9th December

Hey! Way to make a ton of needless predictions & unsubstantiated claims without skimping on the puerile whining.

Moderator: Why don't you state where you disagree with the writer? That's the purpose of the discussion board.
apecNetworks at 06:36 AM JST - 9th December

Well, actually Mr. Baldwin is closer to the truth than what most people realize. If you research your rear off on how the US Govt. works academically, the ceiling one hits is CFR. Now, if a person is researching outside the US, the overview is different - there is something higher than CFR. For the people who MUST know this, it would be fruitful to take a look at the Executive Orders of former Pres. Truman. There is now an organization who answers to no one, they are above the US Constition and the US President, and the US Govt. is finding out they can't afford the schemes implemented by them. From personal exposure, they are run like a dictatorship and this will affect how the US develops. For the layperson, the books and bibliography written by top researchers like Bamford would be fruitful. Sooooooo much has been analyzed about them, they may opt to create other branch(es) invisible to the US public. Prof. Chalmers Johnson explains symptoms, but the bottom line is coming - geopolitical burnout. US Constitution is dying, and Pres. elect Obama is just being told how things are in the US.
tkoind2 at 08:45 AM JST - 9th December

"Moderator: The editors welcome contributions from readers. Would you care to submit a commentary?"

Sure!! When and where?

Moderator: Please contact the editor at editor@japantoday.com
Sarge at 09:38 AM JST - 9th December

"Where is Obama's change we can believe in?"

Stay tuned?
likeitis at 12:18 PM JST - 9th December

TPOJ: He's still jumping the gun in a petulant, childish manner.

I cannot see how he was petulant or childish. Maybe his view could have been prettied up more, but to what purpose?

The rest of your post was 24 carat however.
frontandcentre at 02:07 PM JST - 10th December

Even if McCain had won the election, I wouldn't have been criticising his record BEFORE his inauguration.

Get that chip off your shoulder, Chuck - and let's criticise Obama once he has actually had a chance to have some influence on matters
kenjinakasone at 02:17 PM JST - 10th December

change? obama was referencing his turn at the white house.
that is all. same old tune sung by a different impersonator.
JoeBigs at 02:40 PM JST - 10th December

Memo to the far right, Presdent Elect Obama is not President Obama yet. I think President Bush is still Commander and Chief. Wait until he is in Office, then you can start going nutz.

Sheeesh........
Orchid64 at 07:13 PM JST - 10th December

Isn't it premature to be talking about whether or not we can believe in Obama's change? He's not really in a position to do anything yet given that he is not the president. The writer of this piece seems to be pre-judging rather seriously. It's important to remember that George Bush is still president.
pathat at 05:11 AM JST - 11th December

Barack Obama promised to go through the next federal budget "line by line" in order to find and eliminate wasteful spending. While he won't be able to do such a thing, millions of voters believed such nonsensical talk from the new leader of Camelot.

Let's look at it in detail:

In fiscal 2008, Social Security spending will total some $658 billion. Fat chance of cutting into that in fiscal 2009 with baby boomers retiring in droves, and average life expectancy at levels never imagined when Social Security was started in the first place.

Defense outlays reportedly come to $595 billion, although we all know there is other spending going on, and the general public is not privy to the details. How is this amount going to be sliced and diced by the Obama administration? Sure, they will try to start in motion a drawdown of forces in Iraq, but quite a number more military personnel will find their orders stamped, "Destination Afghanistan," in the next few years. Should we believe that Obama has some secret plan that he is working on with Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, to eviscerate billions in spending on various new weapons programs? Not going to happen, in my opinion.

Speaking of military-related matters, the $85 billion budgeted for the Veterans' Administration will undoubtedly balloon in the coming years.

Medicare spending in this fiscal year will total at least $461 billion, while Medicaid's portion of the budget pie comes to $201 billion. We often here of a bunch of "swell ideas" to eliminate waste in these programs, but I think there's a snowball's chance in hell that much of anything will be done during Obama's first term to change the skyrocketing costs, and where would the bipartisan agreement and political will to do so come from anyway?

Obama's magic wand can't do anything about the burgeoning costs of servicing the interest on the national debt, which was $451 billion last fiscal year, and will continue to increase unabated for the foreseeable future.

How about taking a sizable bite out Homeland Security's lifeline? I can't see that happening in the near future.

That pretty much leaves us with domestic discretionary spending. How about carving up education's budget? Why not pull the plug on various foreign aid programs? Farm subsidies? Even doing so would be a drop in the bucket of the federal government's $3 trillion budget.

And to think that Obama is planning to drastically increase spending on public works across America to create jobs-aka "Japan-style economic recovery." I guess there is a town in Japan named after him for a reason.

What to do, Mr. Obama, what to do? Sounds like to me that there is virtually no hope of making any substantive changes to the bankrupt federal government budget for many years to come.

Things are not going to get better anytime soon. They are going to get worse, much worse.
JoeBigs at 10:59 AM JST - 11th December

If everyone is tossing their two cents in the ring, let me not be one to stay out of it.

To start all great empires survive because of the Infrastructure. If the road are not repaired then it is hard to move about them. If the bridges are not kept up then they fall. If the people are not cared for then they can not work and pay taxes. We can go on and on and on.

The moment a government decides that it cut spending on these things, then the country begins to decline.

Some would claim that all a nation needs is prayer and a god to follow. This god will provide all and care for the people. That in the thinking that has brought down older civilizations.

Now when FDR made the great leap to get America moving it saved our country and got it's economy moving again. I think that when President Elect Obama becomes President Obama and he gets some social work programs started our economy will begin to move forward again.

We can not still and wait for a god to save us, we need to get up and help ourselves. But no one person can do this it will take the masses. Only government can make such a move and not just one person.

This may sound like a Lefty idea, but maybe just maybe we need more lefty ideas to get us out of this Righty problem.

I think President Elect Obama has a very sense and may have what it take to get us out of this Republican mess.
TooFarGone at 01:04 PM JST - 11th December

Now when FDR made the great leap to get America moving it saved our country and got it's economy moving again.

Wrong. FDR prolonged the Depression.
pathat at 12:07 AM JST - 12th December

Joe Bigs wrote:

"I think that when President Elect Obama becomes President Obama and he gets some social work programs started our economy will begin to move forward again."

Ah yes, let's get "some social work programs started" and everything will be just fine and dandy.

We can't afford the spending that we've had for most of the past few decades, the national debt is going to the moon, foreigners-especially the Chinese and the Japanese-largely finance our profligate ways, yet you think that some more social welfare spending is the key to an American economic revival.

There are undoubtedly construction projects nationwide that could use the financial assistance of the national government. But such spending will not have an immediate impact on the economy once Obama takes office, and it won't produce the kind of long-term jobs we need to compete in the global economy. Like I said before, Obama seems keen on the Japanese model.

Americans have wanted to have too much, too easily for quite a long time, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

"we need to get up and help ourselves"

Yes, but take your own advice and realize that more government spending and other intervention is not the answer.
JoeBigs at 09:32 AM JST - 12th December
Yes, but take your own advice and realize that more government spending and other intervention is not the answer.

Let us see this response for what it is, propaganda. The belief that we can pull ourselves out of this without Government involvement, is a nice pipe dream.

This is bigger than a single business or two going bust. This my friends is another great depression. Every nation is feeling this one and everyone is scared. This depression took 8 years to create and now there is no way to get around Government involvement. No company, no person, no group can fix this. This will take leadership and government to fix it. To believe otherwise is to believe the far right Fantasy.

Every nation's governments have seen it for what this is and they have begun aide programs for their people to get to work. I am glad that McCain did not get elected. He would just have been more of the same far right propaganda/fantasy.

President Elect Obama sees this for what this truly is, a great depression. I hope when he becomes President Obama that he regulates wall street and takes back fiscal control of the US government.

Time to reverse the deregulation policies of Clinton and Bush. Time to break up some monopolies and time to get our Country and the world on the right road. A stable road to recovery.

We can't afford the spending that we've had for most of the past few decades, the national debt is going to the moon, foreigners-especially the Chinese and the Japanese-largely finance our profligate ways, yet you think that some more social welfare spending is the key to an American economic revival.

When the Dot-com bubble burst in 2000 our leaders in Government and business should have had an idea what was to come. But by the time the burst came President Clinton was no more than a puppet. He had been hunted down like a bank robber and he and Hillary had barracked themselves in the Oval office.

When President Clinton left office he left a strong Government with some surpluses. When Bush came into office he had what all in coming Presidents dream of having
1. Control of Congress Senate and House
2. Strong reserves
3. Support of the people
But now Bush leaves, the Country is in dire straits. Accept it or not, under his watch the world suffered. His policies and his parties policies did not work. His policies nearly brought the house of cards falling. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. He and his party needed to go and the people spoke!

I for one am glad that change is coming.
rofea at 04:31 AM JST - 14th December

That was an embarrassing article to read.

Moderator: Why don't you point out where you disagree with the writer? That's what the discussion board is for.

First of all moderator thanks for deleting my comments and the comments of others questioning the choice and quality of feature writers in japantoday.

It seems pretty obvious to both the left and right why this whole article is of such low quality. The whole article and critique is centered around the assumption that Obama is already in power as president - to which everyone knows is completely false thus making the headline incorrect, deluded and embarrassing. To see that he has already dismissed the new president before he has had a day in power should be the first sign of Chuck's flimsy intellectual rigour! Then to add insult to injury he charges forward with pre-judged ideas about how change is not possible by setting up a line of straw men (that is irrelevant and/or distracting facts) to easy burn down in the name of making an argument. To quote black flag

"waiter, this soup is cold" "sir, I havent taken your order yet" "yes, but I'm sure it will be cold when it gets here get it and probably have a fly in it too"

So the most striking question to come out of this article is really how did it get through the J.T editorial filters? Is J.T just trying to suck readers into a bit of a good old red vs blue flame war? Whilst the rest of us look for journalism.