"Live with it!" you say? I believe I did. For eight of the longest years of my life I lived with 'it'. What was 'it', you ask? Here's just a sample of what 'it' was:
'It' was the Great 'Stimulus' Heist, where Americans mostly ended up footing the bill for what was an army of government jobs, and a lavish network of slush funds for the Democratic Party and its union allies.
'It' was Operation Fast and Furious, a scandal with a huge body count, prominently including Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jamie Zapata, plus hundreds of Mexican citizens.
'It' was (then) Attorney General Eric Holder being held in contempt of Congress. This was a result of Operation Fast and Furious, but it merits distinction as a separate scandal in its own right. Holder was the first sitting member of a president’s cabinet in the history of the United States to be held in contempt of Congress.
'It' was 'ObamaCare'. Everything about ObamaCare is a scandal, from the President’s incessant lies about keeping your old plan if you liked it, to Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s "we need to pass it to find out what’s in it" dereliction of Congressional duty. The Supreme Court rewrote ObamaCare on the fly twice to keep it alive, which is a scandal in and of itself. President Obama delayed and rewrote the law so often it was almost impossible to keep track of the changes, cutting Congress out of the loop completely. (Actually, someone did keep careful track of them, and the tally was up to 70 distinct changes by January 2016.)
That made some of Obama’s rewritten mandates and deadlines blatantly illegal – but then, 'who cares?', the Affordable Care Act isn’t really a “law” in the sense American government understood the term. In practice it became something entirely new (another Obama 'first'), an enabling act that gave the executive unlimited power to do whatever it thought necessary to keep the system running. If subverting the American system of government isn’t 'it', what is?
'It' was Spying on Journalists. Establishment media came about as close to falling out of love with Barack Obama as ever when his administration was caught spying on them. If the reporter subjected to the most egregious surveillance, James Rosen, didn’t work for Fox News, the mainstream media might have started treating Obama like a (shudder) Republican. Rosen was treated so badly that even Attorney General Eric Holder eventually admitted feeling a bit of “remorse” about it. Apparently he felt so much anguish that he suffered temporary amnesia and forgot to tell Congress that he signed off on the request to wiretap Rosen while he was testifying under oath. It must have been terrible for him.
'It' was The IRS scandal. Even though the story began with the IRS admitting wrongdoing, the selective targeting of conservative groups by a politicized Internal Revenue Service was a scandal grenade Democrats and their media pals somehow managed to smother. Yes, pro-life and Tea Party groups were deliberately targeted for extra scrutiny, their tax exemption applications outrageously delayed until after the 2012 election without actually being refused. Think about it...
'It' was The Benghazi Betrayal. Nothing can change the absolute fact that the Obama administration’s story for the first few weeks after the attack was false, and they knew it was false. They deliberately lied, spinning a phony story about a video to buy themselves a little time during a presidential election campaign, and it worked.
'It' was Hillary Clinton’s Secret Server. She perpetrated her email offenses while working as his Secretary of State, and contrary to Obama’s false assertions, he knew about it. How could he not?
'It' was The Pigford scandal. The abuse of a program meant to compensate minority farmers for racial discrimination exploded under Obama. This amounted to deliberate politicized misuse of huge sums of taxpayer money.
'It' was the NSA Spying scandal. No doubt Edward Snowden’s pilfering of sensitive National Security Agency data was a debacle that damaged national security. Then we had the ghastly spectacle of Attorney General Eric Holder thanking Snowden for performing a public service by exposing surveillance programs his own administration would rather not talk about. Priceless!
'It' was the Bowe Bergdahl 'Prisoner Swap'. Many lies were told, the law was flouted, a deal of questionable wisdom was struck with his captors, and outraged Americans demanded recognition for the soldiers who died searching for Bergdahl after he abandoned his post. Charged with desertion and endangering troops, he was ordered by a military judge to be dishonorably discharged from the Army, he was reduced in rank from sergeant to private and required to forfeit $1,000 a month of his pay for 10 months (essentially fined $10,000). Public outrage abounded, prompting President Trump to comment: "The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military".
'It' was the Iran Nuclear Deal and Ransom Payment. The Iran nuclear deal was pushed with lies and media manipulation. The infamous 'pallet of cash' that 'wasn’t a ransom' has become symbolic of Obama’s mendacity and penchant for breaking the rules, when he thought following them was too much trouble.
'It' was Polluting the Colorado river. The Environmental Protection Agency managed to turn the Colorado River orange under this greenest of green Presidents. Of course there was a cover-up. Would you expect anything less from this "most transparent administration in history"?
'It' was The GSA scandal. The General Services Administration was caught wasting ridiculous amounts of taxpayer money on lavish parties and silly projects. Heroic efforts to resist accountability were made, leaving puzzled observers to ask what it took to get fired from government employment under Barack Obama. Of course there was a cover-up from the 'Most Scandal-Free Administration Ever'.
'It' was The VA death-list scandal. While executives handed in phony status reports and signed themselves up for big bonuses, military veterans literally died waiting for medical care. Obama was more interested in spinning the news and minimizing his political exposure than addressing problems; in few areas outside ObamaCare has his rhetoric been more disingenuous.
'It' was Solyndra. Remember Solyndra? The marquee green energy scandal wrote "crony capitalism" into the American political lexicon, as corners were cut and protocols ignored to shovel billions of taxpayer dollars to companies with absurdly unrealistic business models. Solyndra received $535 million in federal loan guarantees from the Obama administration - and promptly went bankrupt.
'It' was the Secret Service gone wild. From agents 'making whoopie' with hookers in Columbia, to a fence jumper penetrating the White House, to tipsy Secret Service officials driving a car into a security barrier; they had a blast!
'It' was 'Shutdown Theater'. Remember the 2013 government 'shutdown'? ('Shutdown' because it never really 'shuts down') From using "Barry-cades" (remember those?) to keep war veterans away from their memorials, to releasing illegal alien criminals from detention centers, it was an infuriating lesson for voters in how every dollar they give to government is a dollar that can be used against them when they are impudent enough to demand spending restraint.
I have plenty more if you want it. I can literally do this all day. But of course you just want me to "live with it", don''t you? Riiiight.
"Live with it!" you say? I believe I di... (
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