We Need Honesty, Integrity and Leadership In Our President

I never expect much from State of the Union addresses but I do expect honesty. A little integrity is desirable too. Unfortunately, President Obama chose to promise many things he's been promising for years and has yet to deliver on. What's really missing? Leadership. He does great at delegating things to and demanding things of others. He certainly has expertise at organizing a 'here is what I want you to do' thing but many of our most intractible challenges require our president to get out in front and lead. He hasn't been doing that. Evidence and his resume suggest that he can't. It's unfortunate for us.

Also, he said things he wants us to believe that just aren't true. I don't like feeling our president isn't being truthful. Makes me think I can never trust him. To prove my point, here are just two of the big things Obama promoted in his State of the Union address last night that simply are less than honest, in fact pretty deceitful:

1. He said that an independent analysis determined that repealing the health care reforms would "cost us" $250 Billion.
2. He was taking credit for 100,000 troops being withdrawn from Iraq.

The truth in case you're interested is this.

The health care reforms, in fact, cost over $500 Billion. They don't save any money at all. It's true that repealing the whole health care bill will result in $250 Billion less into the Treasury but it's because the health care bill included $250 Billion more in TAXES than is needed to pay for the reforms. That means the bill does bring $250 Billion more into the Treasury but it is NOT because the reforms save us money because they do not. My question is, why in this economy did congressional Democrats take $250 Billion more in taxes than needed to pay for it in the first place? The truth: because it's COVER for getting an EXTRA $250 Billion of our money in their hands to spend on other stuff THEY want.

Did Democrats say this during the bill's debate: "By the way, another benefit of this bill is that we take $250 Billion more from you than needed! Isn't that cool?" Of course not, even though (according to his own CBO) it's 100% true! It does allow him and other Democrats to say that repealing the bill eliminates that $250 Billion extra money but it's money they dishonestly took from us in the first place so they could spend it on other stuff they didn't want to honestly tell us about.

On top of that, many Democrats have been saying lately that the loss of that $250 Billion is $250 Billion less we'll have to pay down the debt. Even average Americans know the truth: they would have spent it on other stuff, NOT use it to pay down the debt!

The #2 item above is very dishonest too. In fact, troops are being withdrawn according to Bush's plan and HIS agreement with Iraqi leadership. Obama's claim to credit for this is double dishonest because, during his election campaign, he slammed Bush for not withdrawing troops fast enough and promised he'd withdraw them 6 months sooner. Then, after being in office a short time, he QUIETLY(!) moved his timetable out 6 months but conveniently forgot to tell the American people he decided to withdraw them according to Bush's plan after all. Hmmmm.

Btw, I wonder why he didn't mention Gitmo and many other things he promised to do looooong before now?