What the Obama administration hasn’t done is just as bad as what it has done.
We all know by now what the president’s gang is accused of doing. In recent days, we’ve found out that the IRS singled out conservative political groups for special chop-bustings.
And the Justice Department, under Eric Holder, rummaged through the Associated Press phone logs on a witch hunt for a source who may — or may not — have leaked the news organization information about a foiled terrorist attack.
I won’t get into Benghazi, the mess made of health care reform and the fact that the economy is doing next to nothing.
As a taxpayer, I’m appalled that the IRS was used for partisan politics. As a journalist, I’m scared that the government’s chief legal organization can be sicced on practitioners of the First Amendment.
But I’m mostly worried as a citizen who believes people should be treated equally under the law. This is what the Obama administration hasn’t done.
Even as kids, we understood — thanks to Superman — the concept of “truth, justice and the American way.”
Truth has pretty much been abolished. The American way of life isn’t what it used to be. And justice these days is selectively enforced based on the amount of clout a person or organization has.
Here’s proof this administration hasn’t treated everyone equally in the eyes of the law.
On March 6, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was questioning Attorney General Holder before the Senate Judiciary Committee about why financial firms were not held accountable for the damage that they caused during the fiscal crisis.
Said Holder: “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charge — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even on the world economy.”
So not only are the biggest culprits in the financial crisis too big to fail but also the executives of these companies are too big to jail.
Isn’t that convenient, especially since many large financial institutions are also generous contributors to political campaigns?
I’ve already told you one of the things that went on in 2007 and 2008. Members of the Bush administration were undoubtedly leaking confidential information to big shots on Wall Street, probably pretending that they were serving the greater good.
What was going on is insider trading, which is illegal. And you, I, Wall Street hedge funds and grannies in Topeka would get jailed for doing it.
Financial firms are lucky that the statute of limitations is running out on these crimes. And they are also fortunate all the US attorneys across this country have kept their mouths shut about this perversion of justice.
Now that we know the IRS and the Justice Department were being used for political gain, what about all the other government agencies? For instance, have the Labor Department and the Commerce Department been giving us accurate pictures of the economy — or ones that will help people feel better about themselves?
Have we gotten to the point where some dismal economic statistics are just too truthful to release? A particularly bad employment report may, after all, have a negative impact on the US economy, perhaps even the world economy.
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If you were paying attention this week, you witnessed a freakin’ miracle! But before you fall to your knees, you should realize it was probably just a mirage — one of those visions that won’t hold up under sober scrutiny.
The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the federal deficit for this year will be only $642 billion. That’s $200 billion less than it projected in February. Plus, the CBO says next year’s deficit will be even better.
There were some spending cuts that came about because of sequestration. But Washington apparently also saw a large influx of revenue at tax time.
Now, let’s see why tax revenues would have increased by so much more than even the CBO thought. Hmmm…
It takes all of three seconds to figure this out. But since the improved numbers get politicians off the hook in having to slash spending, don’t expect to get a straight answer from the CBO or anyone in Washington.
You’ll read elsewhere that the deficit numbers were helped by an improving US economy. Nonsense! Even yesterday, the economic numbers were poor, with industrial production showing a much bigger-than-expected decline in April.
Now I’ll tell you what is really going on.
Remember the end of last year: Americans were scared stiff by the big, bad fiscal cliff and the tax increases that were coming in 2013. So many companies accelerated payments to employees.
Those extra payments meant more tax was owed. And the tax rates on that extra money would have been higher than normal.
In other words, the revenue boost discovered by the CBO was probably an anomaly.
Now, I could be wrong. There could have been a miracle surge in taxes based on some heavenly blessing upon the US government.
And everyone does want to believe in miracles, including me.