From Volume 37, Issue 14 of EIR Online, Published Apr. 9, 2010

United States News Digest

Obama, Not 'Entitlements,' Is Bankrupting the U.S.

April 3 (EIRNS)—Fascism came to the University of Maryland on April 1 when the Peter G. Peterson Institute and the Concord Coalition kicked off their "Fiscal Solutions Tour," with a panel discussion that featured House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Peterson Foundation CEO David Walker, and others, on how to "solve" the Federal debt crisis. Hoyer was the keynote speaker, and he demonstrated that health care was only the Obama Administration's first target in its war on the general welfare.

Hoyer called the government's accumulation of debt "a common danger, ... one that ought to engage the best efforts of liberals and conservatives alike." He warned that, "The course we are on leads to debt that exceeds the value of our entire economy, to a government that does nothing but pay for entitlements and pay interest to our creditors, and an end to American leadership in the world."

Over and over again, he emphasized that the requirement is for future Congresses to keep the pledge made in the health-care reform law, in the pay-as-you-go law, and other austerity measures, and "taking hard votes" to cut spending in the years ahead. The health-care reform he said, is "only the beginning of the struggle to control health-care costs, the single greatest driver of our deficit."

Beyond that, Hoyer pledged full support for Obama's fascist Fiscal Commission. As for what proposals the Commission may put on the table, Hoyer said, "We can't rule out any solution on the revenue or the spending side." He also very strongly argued against the notion of putting the Commission's proposals before the voters, ridiculing House Republican Leader John Boehner's suggestion that the Commission issue its report prior to the election. This can't be done, Hoyer said, because "it would simply become the object of politics" and nothing would get done. Heaven forbid that the voters might want to weigh in on what's going to be done to them!

Lyndon LaRouche, responding to comments by President Obama earlier this week, that health care is bankrupting the nation, retorted that, "Health care hasn't bankrupted the economy, Obama has." LaRouche stipulated that to stop any further collapse of the U.S. economy, Obama must be dumped now. "Bush was bad," LaRouche said, "but Obama is infinitely worse," looked at from the standpoint of the rising death rates Americans will suffer under Obama's policies.

Liberal Author: Obama 'Guilty of Impeachable Crimes'

April 2 (EIRNS)—Investigative journalist David Lindorff is the first former Obama supporter to call for President Obama's impeachment. Lindorff who worked closely with Rep. John Conyers' (D-Mich.) House Committee on the Judiciary in 2005-06, making the case for the impeachment of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush—that is, before Nancy Pelosi took impeachment "off the table."

In an April 1 article titled "The Case for Impeachment of Barack Obama," which is being widely reported on left and Democratic Party-affiliated websites, Lindorff recounts that in 2005-06, he wrote The Case for Impeachment, which argued that Vice President Cheney, President Bush, and other members of the Administration should be "impeached for war crimes, as well as crimes against the Constitution of the United States."

"Sadly, it is time to say, just 14 months into the current term of this new President, that yes, this President and some of his subordinates are also guilty of impeachable crimes, including many of the same ones committed by Bush and Cheney."

The grounds cited by Lindorff: Escalation in Afghanistan and use of mercenaries there who carry out targetted assassinations; the expanded attacks on civilians; the failure to prosecute those who authorized and perpetrated torture; the use of death squads in Iraq; and the escalation of warrantless wiretaps. He adds that there is also "ample evidence" to call for the impeachment of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for covering up Wall Street's crimes and being party to "unprecedented giveaways."

Lindorff is the first of the liberal left to face up to the fact that Obama has to go; he won't be the last.

Court Blasts Bush and Obama Administrations for Illegal Wiretaps

April 2 (EIRNS)—On March 31, Federal Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco not only found that the Bush-Cheney Administration's wiretap program was illegal, but also blasted the Obama Administration's efforts to keep the illegal program secret. As with other Constitution-shredding policies of the Bush Administration and the National Security Agency (NSA), Obama campaigned against the wiretapping program (calling it "unconstitutional and illegal") while running for President, but once in office, he rapidly adopted the policy, and his Justice Department has vigorously defended the policies he once pretended to attack.

Constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald writes in Salon.com: "Although news reports are focusing (appropriately) on the fact that Bush's NSA program was found to be illegal, the bulk of Judge Walker's opinion was actually a scathing repudiation of the Obama DOJ."

Greenwald points out that the Obama Administration adopted "the imperial and hubristic position that the court had no right whatsoever to rule on the legality of the program, because (a) plaintiffs could not prove they were subjected to the secret eavesdropping (and thus lacked 'standing' to sue) and (b) the NSA program was such a vital 'state secret' that courts were barred from adjudicating its legality."

Shane Harris, the author of the new book The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State, recently told EIR that nothing has changed from the Bush to the Obama administrations. In his book, Harris reports that after Obama took office, he was "conspicuously silent" on Bush's electronic surveillance policy, and "showed no inclination to dismantle a set of tools that his predecessor had regarded as the 'crown jewel' of America's counterterrorism arsenal."

Berwick: To Save the Health-Care System, Blow It Up

March 31 (EIRNS)—President Obama's reported choice to head the Federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid, Donald Berwick, has long been an enemy of the medical profession, as he prescribes means of cutting costs and services in both the U.S. and the U.K.

On Jan. 4, 2004, the Boston Globe published a profile of Berwick. Here are excerpts:

"Berwick gets irritated when health care leaders complain about a lack of resources. There's too much money in the system already, he says. His critique takes aim at the medical profession's exalted view of itself. He's convinced that the fundamentals of the current system—the same fundamentals Boston used to build its reputation as the world's medical leader—are so screwed up that it is no longer possible for the medical profession to provide reliable, high-quality care, no matter how many innovations its renowned doctors roll out, no matter how many awards they rack up. 'They want to cure cancer,' Berwick says. 'Well, how about curing health care?'

"His conclusion: To save the health care system, it first needs to be blown up...."

It has been reported that Berwick would not accept the appointment to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), until Obama's fascist health-care bill was passed by Congress. It's easy to see why he insisted that the bill first be passed, with its myriad of cost-cutting, control and standardization mechanisms. As the Globe summarized his views already in 2004: "And the treatment you receive from your doctors would be made far more effective by a system that gave them less discretion. Physician habit and ego would take a back seat to science in determining standardized courses of medical action."

Gallup: Tea Party Not What the Media Claim

April 5 (EIRNS)—While avoiding any mention of the impact of LaRouchePAC organizing on the Tea Party movement, a Gallup poll released today blows the cover off media-created stereotype of the movement as the swine-trough of illiterate, racist, bulletheaded yahoos. The Los Angeles Times said the poll found "nothing fringe about self-proclaimed Tea Party adherents; they are slightly more likely to be employed, male, and definitely more conservative. But otherwise, Gallup's Lydia Saad writes, [by] 'their age, educational background, employment status, and race—Tea Partyers are quite representative of the public at large."'

Belying the "cut the deficit" issue of some Peterson Institute-type would-be Tea Party leaders, 61% said they believe infrastructure spending creates jobs, and favor "reducing unemployment" to "balancing the budget" by nearly a 2-1 margin, 63-32%.

Seventeen percent of the people polled identified themselves as Tea Partyers.

Also today, Rasmussen reported that Barack Obama now trails the Tea Party among likely voters, in terms of identification of views on major issues, 44-48%.

All rights reserved © 2010 EIRNS