Lies, Lies, Lies (They’re Gonna Get You)

Remember the Thompson Twins?

How interesting that their new wave song Lies, Lies, Lies (They’re Gonna Get You) was foreshadowing the lies told by the Obama administration. Ok, the Thompson Twins song was really about a scorned love interest, but I do think the title of it is appropriate with regard to events of the past few years.

Since 2008, President Obama and his administration have told three major lies to the American people. So big were these lies, that they played a part in his reelection in 2012. They are:

1. “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. Period.”

According to President Obama, we could also keep the doctors we liked under his new healthcare plan.  None of this turned out to be true. Unlike House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Republicans read the Affordable Care Act (ACA) before debating it, and therefore no Republicans voted for this bill.  Section 1251 of the ACA states that people who had health insurance prior to March 23, 2010 would be able to keep those policies. But, the Department of Health and Human Services further regulated this provision so that “if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date — the deductible, co-pay or benefits, for example — the policy would not be grandfathered,” according to NBC News. This means that the administration knew that people would not be able to keep their existing health care plans.

In true Obama administration style, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that people would not be able to keep their existing health care plans, but that they would know be able to sign up for better plans. “What the president said and what everybody said all along is that there are going to be changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act to create minimum standards of coverage,” Carney said. “… So it’s true that there are existing health care plans on the individual market that don’t meet those minimum standards and therefore do not qualify for the Affordable Care Act.”

Nice. I know many of us (myself included) believed that if we liked our health care plan and if we liked our doctor we would be able to keep both under Obamacare. Because of this, many of us voted for President Obama in 2012. This lie was repeatedly told to manipulate people into voting for President Obama for a second term. That is outrageous.

2. “There were line employees at the IRS who improperly targeted conservative groups.”

On May 10, 2013 at an American Bar Association conference, Lois Lerner, former IRS Director of Exempt Organization, stated that, beginning in 2010, rogue IRS agents in its Cincinnati office targeted applications from Tea Party groups. In May 2013 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released an audit report confirming that the IRS used inappropriate criteria to scrutinize Tea Party groups. This report also confirmed that Cincinnati IRS employees were in constant contact with the Washington, DC IRS headquarters as they targeted conservative groups.  In addition, IRS attorneys in Washington, DC approved intrusive questions of tea party groups and even wrote them. Rich Lowry writes that, “Staff in Cincinnati complained that all the micromanagement from Washington was gumming up the works.”

Following the Inspector General’s report, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform began an investigation into the IRS. At the House Oversight Committee hearing, Lois Lerner read an opening statement asserting her innocence in the events surrounding the IRS scandal, before invoking the Fifth Amendment when asked questions by members of the Committee. According to Lerner, “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough that Republicans have blown the IRS targeting issue out of proportion and that Republicans should instead be focused on strengthening the middle class. Uh huh.

Remember that according to President Obama, there is not a smidgen of corruption with regard to the IRS scandal. Yet another lie.

If there is not a smidgen of corruption, then why did Lois Lerner plead the Fifth instead of testifying to the House Oversight Committee?

3. “This was a spontaneous response…in reaction to this very offensive video…”.

In an email uncovered by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought about by Judicial Watch, Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, told intelligence officials, including Susan Rice, National Security Advisor, to blame a You Tube video for the attack in Benghazi and to deflect from broader policy failures. This email proves that the White House was involved in lying about the origin of the attack in Benghazi which led to the deaths of 4 Americans, including Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens, to save political face.

The CIA never connected the video with the attack in Benghazi. CIA deputy director Michael Morell testified that when Rice “talked about the video, my reaction was, that’s not something the analysts have attributed this attack to.” The CIA station chief during the Benghazi attack testified to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the attack was a terrorist attack and not a demonstration that had gotten out of control. Gregory Hicks, Deputy to Ambassador Chris Stevens, testified last year that he told then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that there was no demonstration on the night of the attack.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, recently issued a subpoena to Secretary of State John Kerry because the State Department has failed to produce all documents relating to the attack in Benghazi. Secretary Kerry apparently refuses to comply with the subpoena. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out once the Benghazi Select Committee chaired by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is formed.

Why would the administration refuse to cooperate with the Benghazi investigation if everything related to it is on the up and up?

How could anyone trust anything this administration says after this documented pattern of deliberate deceit?

 

 

 

Benghazi is Not a Phony Scandal

The September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya has raised a lot of important questions. This attack occurred on the eve of the 2012 Presidential elections, making those questions particularly interesting. The administration has tried to dismiss Republican concerns over what happened that fateful night by calling the attack a “phony scandal.” As an American citizen, I find such a description of an attack that left 4 Americans to fend for themselves and die offensive.

New evidence has come to light via White House emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Judicial Watch, in which it is clear that the administration has been engaging in a cover up from day 1 over what happened in Benghazi. The administration blamed the attack on a spontaneous demonstration in response to a You Tube video, even though they knew that this was not the reason for the attack.  In addition, the administration removed reliable security detail from the Benghazi compound and replaced it with Libyan security personnel, who Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens deemed unreliable. The cause of the attack in Benghazi did not fit the administration’s narrative that Al Qaeda was on the run.

Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer stated that the newly released White House email on the Benghazi talking points is the “equivalent of what was discovered with the Nixon tapes.” Krauthammer is correct. At least President Nixon had the decency to resign once the truth about Watergate came to light. In contrast, this administration keeps covering up each lie with more lies rather than take responsibility for what happened. The reason that Benghazi is so important is that, by covering up what happened, the Obama administration is demonstrating its willingness to use the military and intelligence agencies to lie in order to win an election. Lying to the American people seems to be a pattern of this administration. Remember this?

In lying about what really caused the attack in Benghazi, this administration is in essence telling us that they would rather put politics above the security of the American people. This is not only true of President Obama, this is also true of former Secretary of State and possible 2016 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.  Secretary Clinton deliberately repeated the lie to the families of the Benghazi victims and to the American people about a You Tube video being the cause of the Benghazi attack. She also lied to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, claiming that she had no knowledge of the security situation in Benghazi. However, House Republicans released a report stating that Clinton signed off on denying additional security to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. So which is it? Was she unaware of the security situation in Benghazi, or was she aware, but did not want to admit her knowledge of the situation?

Even if Clinton was not directly responsible for responding to cables from the Benghazi consulate requesting additional security, the buck stops with the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is responsible for organizing and supervising all employees in the State Department and is responsible for the supervision of interdepartmental activities of the U.S. government overseas.

Clinton has a pattern of lying. In fact, she was fired from her job with the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigation for lying and for unethical behavior.  Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has said that Clinton’s actions as Secretary of State leading up to the killing of 4 Americans in Benghazi, including Ambassador Stevens, are “inexcusable, it was a dereliction of duty, and it should preclude [Clinton] from holding higher office.” Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) has stated that, in regard to Clinton, “anyone who would just throw away 200 years of military ethos and leave our men behind to be murdered” should “never be considered as a commander in chief.”

While Clinton certainly deserves blame for denying security requests that led to the deaths of Ambassador Stevens, Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith and Glen Doherty, what about President Obama? Where was he that fateful night? Former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor admitted that President Obama was not in the White House Situation Room the night of September 11, 2012.

The White House was careful to release this photograph of President Obama and his national security team monitoring the raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011.

Why was no such photograph taken during the Benghazi attack released?

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced this week that the House will finally form a Select Committee on Benghazi. Here are some questions to which the Select Committee should get answers:

If there is no cover up with regard to the Benghazi attack, then why did there have to be a lawsuit to obtain relevant White House documents? Why was additional security to the Benghazi consulate denied? Did President Obama sign a Cross Border Authority as only he could do as Commander in Chief so that the military could get to Benghazi? Many people talk about a stand down order, but what if no order to go into Benghazi was ever given? Who was in charge that night? Where was Secretary Clinton that night? Why was the military not prepared to come to Americans’ aid in an unstable country on September 11 of all dates?

What questions do you think the Select Committee needs to answer? Who do you think the Select Committee should subpoena to obtain such answers?

The day after the attack on Benghazi, President Obama allegedly skipped that day’s intelligence briefing so that he could attend a Las Vegas fundraiser for his reelection campaign.  This timeline illustrates the events leading up to the attack in Benghazi:

The actions of President Obama, Secretary Clinton and the administration show a lack of integrity and a callous disregard for American security. If this attack was covered up just to save face so that President Obama could win reelection, then we should all be disgusted and outraged. The families of Stevens, Woods, Smith and Doherty deserve to know the truth about why no one saved their children that fateful night. All Americans deserve nothing less than the truth about what happened in Benghazi. To call Benghazi a “phony scandal” is despicable. The truth, Mr. President, is anything but phony.