President Obama has been a very controversial president. What I disliked most about what he has done so far is the extension of the laws which Bush passed in the name of security which took away the right to Habeas Corpus. The truth is I thought he would keep his word when elected and make many changes to restrictive laws, but he really didn’t. Having said this I thought it might be interesting to update what is going on in the presidency.
President Obama has made it clear he wants community college to be free for all students. Community college is traditionally a two year institution. I don’t see how he would accomplish this with a Republican majority in both houses, but it sounds good. If he did accomplish it I have to wonder if it would drive up the tuition for traditional four year colleges since I am sure they would have less students. The other problem is credits from many community colleges are not accepted when students try and transfer over to a four year institution.
Some Democrats are saying enough is enough and they are trying to block Obama’s trade agenda. He wants to have the power to negotiate these agreements and then speed them through congress. The president has been busy trying to line up support for what is called the trade promotion authority. What has happened is that different organizations have banded together to stop him from getting this authority. They are organized labor, environmental, religious and civil rights groups. The groups do not want the Trans-Pacific Partnership to go through. Many Democrats believe this agreement would cost many American jobs and weaken our food safety and financial regulations while undermining environmental and labor standards.
The Keystone pipeline is a project which would allow Canadian oil to be sent across the United States. The president has been against this pipeline from the beginning. This project was said to create jobs by the Republicans but it has been studied and it seems after the pipeline construction is finished it will not add many jobs at all and it is very dangerous to our water supply. It is to be noted we would get a pipeline but the Canadians won’t have one going to it. They don’t want to let oil seep into their water and I cannot blame them. The pipeline is just environmentally unsafe and Americans would not be deriving much profit since the oil is Canadian which would flow through it.
Why is it the president is opting to completely ignore our immigration laws? If there is a law and you don’t apply it are you not breaking the law yourself? Isn’t it true than no one in this country is said to be above the law? Statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security showed deportations down despite the fact illegal immigration was up. I think most Americans want our laws to be enforced. They do not want illegal aliens to get perks like driver’s licenses in California, they want them out of the country until they qualify to come in.
President promised the French people the U.S. would help track down the terrorists which killed so many people at the French satirical magazine. He had criticized the cartoonist for depicting a religious figure in satire in the past but now said, "The fact that this was an attack on journalists ... also underscores the degree to which these terrorists fear freedom of speech and freedom of the press." He went on to say France was one of our oldest and strongest allies.
At an appearance at Ford’s assembly plant in Wayne the president hailed the auto industry comeback. I think it is important to note Ford took no money from the government bailout of the auto industry. Obama said, "Today I wanted to come here to Michigan because this state proves that no matter how tough times get, Americans are tougher." Here is the part I wonder about, he went on to talk about how the government provided funds to the auto industry instead of doing nothing and yet I say again Ford took no money so this was an inappropriate place to talk about the bailout. He should have went to a General Motor’s plant. General Motors took the most money.
I don’t know what these figures mean but I decided to share them with you. President Obama has set a new record in having 21,000 agency regulations set under his administration so far. The new regulations now fill 468,500 pages in the Federal Register.
President Obama has announced he will aid Mexico in its effort to beat back the drug cartels. He met with the Mexican President Enrique PeΓ±a Nieto in the Oval Office and when the two men met President Obama also sought support for his new immigration and Cuba policies. President Obama said, "Our commitment is to be a friend and supporter of Mexico”, including efforts to eliminate drug gangs that are responsible for so much tragedy inside of Mexico. The Mexican president has been facing allegations of corruption and a rash of drug-related violence in parts of his country. When Nieto was in the White House demonstrations took place outside the building as demonstrators were chanting and blowing horns. One demonstrator was said to have a sign which said, "Stop killing. Stop stealing. Start governing."
President Obama is nearing his goal of closing Guantnamo Bay as the pace of prisoner releases is increasing. There are only 127 prisoners left there at the writing of this article. The president’s goal is to get the population down to 60 to 80 prisoners and to not keep it open when it no longer makes economic sense. It is being said the president expects Ashton B. Carter his nominee for defense secretary to move much more aggressively to empty the prison than Chuck Hagel did.
