Obama: Promises Kept, Promises Broken

[rowjimmy21]

As everything Obama does gets scrutinized, PolitiFact keeps track of Obama's 510 promises from the campaign.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/

The latest tally:
Promises kept - 6

125 - Direct military leaders to end war in Iraq
239: Release presidential records
241: Require new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliation or contributions.
411: Work to overturn Ledbetter vs. Goodyear
427: Ban lobbyist gifts to executive employees
503 : Appoint at least one Republican to the cabinet​

Promises compromised: 1

240: Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials​

Promises stalled; 1

505: Create a $3,000 tax credit for companies that add jobs​

Promises broken: 1

234: Allow five days of public comment before signing bills​

There are also 17 "in the works" and 484 with no action at this time.

Now time will tell between candidate Obama promises and President Obama actions.

Obama, at this point, has officially broken one promise: not posting the Ledbetter Act on his website for people to comment on for five days before signing into law. The Ledbetter Act was posted after he signed this into law. Even though this has been around for a couple of years and people have commented on this before during his campaign should he have given the public the five days to leave comments on this bill for five days?

I believe this bill could have waited the five days and another promise could have been made kept and started his administration off with promise kept intact. The longer he waits on this one the harder it will be to implement.

 

[Glafna]

This is quite interesting. But isn't it like this with all politicians? From what I can tell, nothing truly critical was broken or compromised, although the 5 day period is at times quite important

 

[rowjimmy21]

^with 510 promises tracked there are some that are more important than others. All politicians will make promises and we know they will break probably half of those while in office (if not more). Will be interesting to see how many promises Obama made, that he will keep.

The first one that was "broken" still needs to be implemented as part of his government transparency pledge. It's a matter of when and what the bills the administration chooses to do this with.

 

[Glafna]

^with 510 promises tracked there are some that are more important than others. All politicians will make promises and we know they will break probably half of those while in office (if not more). Will be interesting to see how many promises Obama made, that he will keep.

The first one that was "broken" still needs to be implemented as part of his government transparency pledge. It's a matter of when and what the bills the administration chooses to do this with.

I honestly think that it isn't so much broken as bypassed, considering the bill in question was first brought up I think 2 years before, so there was time for public scrutiny and comment beforehand.

 

[techboywi]

Post from the right side of the isle criticizing this report or Obama in some other way in 5....4.....3...2...1

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

This is quite interesting. But isn't it like this with all politicians? From what I can tell, nothing truly critical was broken or compromised, although the 5 day period is at times quite important

"Truly critical" is subjective.

 

[rowjimmy21]

I honestly think that it isn't so much broken as bypassed, considering the bill in question was first brought up I think 2 years before, so there was time for public scrutiny and comment beforehand.

The bill has been around for a long time but technically should have gone through this process. During his campaign he had the bill open for comments on his website so he could get a small pass on this one for arguments sake.

"Truly critical" is subjective.

Good to see you didn't go anywhere.
So do we call you fg or just fabulous.

 

[TheTalkingAsshole]

Cool site...seems like it's pretty objective. I'll be curious to keep an eye on it.

 

[rowjimmy21]

Obama has a new promise in the works
455: Work with UN on climate change
Secretary of State Clinton names Todd Stern Special Envoy for Climate Change

Stern coordinated initiatives on global climate change for the Clinton administration from 1997 to 1999, acting as the senior negotiator at United Nations climate talks in Kyoto and Buenos Aires.

The Kyoto Protocol has never been brought to the senate for ratification by either Clinton or Bush. With the same negotiator for the US, Todd Stern, will the results be the same or with Obama wanting to free are dependency from foreign oil will Kyoto or a similar agreement be ratified?

Many cities have adopted Kyoto as a way to support the treaty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Agreement#United_States

As of 27 July 2008, 850 U.S. cities in 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, representing over 80 million Americans support Kyoto after Mayor Greg Nickels of Seattle started a nationwide effort to get cities to agree to the protocol.[80] On 29 October 2007, it was reported that Seattle met their target reduction in 2005, reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent since 1990.[81]

 

[construct]

Thanks, rowjimmy, for calling our attention to that site.

Now, I did not agree with all of Obama's plans (though I did vote for him). The five-day rule was one of the plans I disagree with. I'm glad he broke it, and I hope he just forgets all about it. A comment period is the kind of rule that is necessary for agencies where no one was elected. It's not so important where the people have the power of the election box.

 

[NickCole]

Again, as he did with the Ledbetter Act, Obama breaks his "sunlight before signing" promise. He pledged, during the campaign, http://www.barackobama.com/issues/ethics/ , to give the public five days to review a bill before he signs it. Today he signed a 32.8 Billion expansion of SCHIP hours after it passed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed a law expanding a health program to include 3.5 million uninsured children, advancing an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system despite the embarrassing withdrawal of his nominee to lead the initiative.

Obama signed the legislation at a White House ceremony just hours after the U.S. House of Representatives voted 290-135 for the $32.8 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, which was approved by the Senate last week.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5135JJ20090204

 

[NickCole]

Thanks, rowjimmy, for calling our attention to that site.

Now, I did not agree with all of Obama's plans (though I did vote for him). The five-day rule was one of the plans I disagree with. I'm glad he broke it, and I hope he just forgets all about it. A comment period is the kind of rule that is necessary for agencies where no one was elected. It's not so important where the people have the power of the election box.

Whether or not you agree with it, it's a pledge he made and failing to honor it tells us he can't be trusted.

 

[Glafna]

Whether or not you agree with it, it's a pledge he made and failing to honor it tells us he can't be trusted.

Will you stop it. He signed a bill that, and I quote EXACTLY from your source,

expanding a health program to include 3.5 million uninsured children, advancing an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system despite the embarrassing withdrawal of his nominee to lead the initiative.

And from what I understand, the Ledbetter Act, which was also apparently proposed two years prior to Obama signing the bill, obviously far much more time then his promised 5 day comment period, has something to do with gender equality within the workplace.

Explain how it shows how he cannot be trusted when he doesn't wait to pass bills that actually DO help people?


No, wait, lemme guess. Doesn't matter that it was good, because he broke a political promise?? What was that, I'm just justifying his actions???

Try a different tune Nick, cause your current pessimistic one is getting tiring.

 

[rowjimmy21]

With the signing of the SCHIP law has kept another promise.

58: Expand eligibility for State Children's Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP)

As nick pointed out this Obama has still not fullfilled the sunlight before signing promise.
234: Allow five days of public comment before signing bills

This time the bill was posted on Feb. 1st for public comment.

This time, though, the White House had posted the text of the working bill to its Web site on Feb. 1, 2009, with the following note: "Since this version of the bill is expected to pass the House of Representatives in the coming week, we are making the legislation available for public comment now."

we got a reply via e-mail from spokesman Tommy Vietor:
"During the campaign, the President committed to introducing more sunlight into the lawmaking process by posting non-emergency legislation online for five days before signing it. The President remains committed to bringing more transparency to government, and in this spirit the White House has posted legislation expected to come to the President's desk online for comment. We will be implementing this policy in full soon; currently we are working through implementation procedures and some initial issues with the congressional calendar. In the meantime, we will continue to post legislation on our website for comment as it moves through congress over the next few weeks."

Nick in Obama's defense with the passing of these two bills, they have been around for a year or two and congress passed them through fairly quickly. Both laws were commented on heavily during the campaign through his campaign web site. Obama still has kept 7 promises and broken one, sounds like a good ratio whether or not you agree with the promises.

 

[NickCole]

Nick in Obama's defense with the passing of these two bills, they have been around for a year or two and congress passed them through fairly quickly.

Doesn't matter how long they've been around or how quickly Congress passes them. Obama's pledge was to post bills on the White House website, allow five days for Americans to review bills like that and to comment on them on the website. It was an unambiguous pledge: “As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.”

There is a pattern with Obama, which I pointed out many times during the Primary and General, and, as I predicted, it continues as he's President. He does not do what he says he'll do and people he's seduced not only give him a pass for it, they protect and defend him when he doesn't deserve it.

He made promises and he's breaking them already, just two weeks in. You can justify it for yourself, so you can defend him, as long as you can somehow conconct a way the promises he's breaking don't matter. But eventually he will break a promise that matters to you, then, standard human nature being what it is, suddenly you'll think his broken promises aren't okay. I'm not like that. I don't wait until I get hurt to recognize something's wrong. I know that people who break promises are people who are untrustworthy and that no matter how appealing someone is, people like that are ultimately destructive.

Both laws were commented on heavily during the campaign through his campaign web site.

That's nice for Obama supporters who hung out at his campaign website, but his pledge was for what he'd do as President and the White House website. He's not President only for Obama supporters, even though I know that's what some Obama supporters think. His pledge was to open up discussion for five days to all Americans, not only to his fans and groupies.

Obama still has kept 7 promises and broken one, sounds like a good ratio whether or not you agree with the promises.

Hardly.

He promised to bar lobbyists and he hasn't (his pledge didn't include anything about waivers). He promised to get rid of special interest bogging down bills, but his stimulus bill is bloated with special interest, which led to another broken pledge - effective bipartisanship. He promised higher ethical standards and transparency, yet he's nominated three high ranking officials who're tax cheaters, didn't reveal that when he knew it, and the one who got confirmed now heads the IRS.

 

[Glafna]

Why do we even bother quoting stories and legitimate figures to you Nick? All your going to say is "It isn't good enough".

 

[Glafna]

That's nice for Obama supporters who hung out at his campaign website, but his pledge was for what he'd do as President and the White House website. He's not President only for Obama supporters, even though I know that's what some Obama supporters think. His pledge was to open up discussion for five days to all Americans, not only to his fans and groupies.

Pray tell, exactly WHAT stopped you or any other anti-Obama person to visit his website?

 

[Kulindahr]

I think Nick is being very negative, but he has a point that when a person makes a promise, he ought to keep it -- and when the President makes the promise, he's made it to not just the 300 some million people in the U.S., but to everyone in the world who looks to the U.S. for leadership, or as an enemy.

We need better than what Obama is giving us. So far, he's just making the presidency look like any old politician got it. The entire world knows he's bloody well bright enough to pay attention to detail... and he's being sloppy.

 

[NickCole]

Pray tell, exactly WHAT stopped you or any other anti-Obama person to visit his website?

I visited his website regularly.

But many Americans did not.

And he pledged to put legislation up on the WH website for five days before signing it.

 

[smelter]

I visited his website regularly.

But many Americans did not.

And he pledged to put legislation up on the WH website for five days before signing it.

A dehydrated man needs water, why make him wait 5 days before you give him a drink?