Obama Trashes Vets, Three Star General Responds

Finally, some one stands up to this elitists.

Source: AAN
by: AAN Staff

From day one, Barack Obama’s made it absolutely clear that he has nothing but contempt for ordinary people. The Harvard educated, Hyde Park liberal elitist who once characterized ordinary Americans who disagreed with the progressive agenda as “bitterly clinging to their guns and their religion” targeted a new group this week: veterans. As the Weekly Standard notes:
President Obama said Wednesday that people in “VFW halls all across America” and other places with access to cable news and talk radio have a warped view of the economy.

The president’s comments came as part of a riff in Elkhart, Ind. on what he saw as distorted perceptions of the nation’s jobs and fiscal situations during his tenure in the Oval Office.

The relevant portion of the transcript is below:

I hope you don’t mind me being blunt about this, but I’ve been listening to this stuff for a while now. And I’m concerned when I watch the direction of our politics. I mean, we have been hearing this story for decades: tales about welfare queens, talking about takers, talking about the ’47 percent’. It’s the story that’s broadcast every day on some cable news stations, on right wing radio. It’s pumped into cars and bars and VFW halls all across America, and right here in Elkhart. And if you’re hearing that story all the time, you start believing it. It’s no wonder people think big government is the problem. No wonder public support for unions is so low. No wonder that people think the deficit has gone up under my presidency when it’s actually gone down.

In other words: “look, you sacrificing, patriotic bourgeois simpletons, the economy is sweet, and you’re wrong.” As Deaton notes in a follow up post, nothing could be further from the truth:
According to the Census Bureau (see the first link under “Historical”), which is housed in the Obama administration’s own Commerce Department, the real (inflation-adjusted) median household income in the most recent year available (2014) was $53,657. That’s 2 percent lower than in 2009 ($54,925), the year Obama took office. It’s 7 percent lower than in 1999 ($57,843), fifteen years earlier. It’s a paltry 0.7 percent higher than in 1989 ($53,306), a quarter of a century earlier.

According to the Obama administration’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment-population ratio—which the BLS defines as “the percentage of the population that [is over 16 years of age, is not institutionalized, and] is currently working”—was 60.6 percent during the month that Obama took office (January 2009), and it has yet to hit that mark again. For the past 86 months of his presidency (and counting), the employment-population ratio has remained under 60. Pre-Obama, the last time it had been under 60 for even a single month was during the month when Back to the Future was released, more than 30 years ago.

According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center (the Obama administration doesn’t like to publish such figures), about 45 percent of all Americans don’t pay any income tax. Many if not most of them actually get money back—so tax day is pay day. (Maybe it’s time for a Main Street Tax Plan that addresses this problem and many others.)

Obama’s ridiculous attack on perceptive Americans, and specifically vets, was too much for Lt. General Jack Bergman, a retired officer running for Congress in Michigan’s 1st District. Bergman issued a statement:

“I was stunned to see the president attack those looking for work, especially singling out veterans who risked their lives defending our way of life. Essentially, he’s blaming the victims of his failed economic agenda for not believing that he’s been a successful president. As a lifetime VFW member, I’m deeply disturbed by the president’s continued lack of understanding of veterans’ sacrifices. Washington is wildly out of touch, and we need more citizens in Congress rather than career politicians.”

Thank you for your service and for standing up for America and the vets.

kommonsentsjane