OPINION:
There is growing unease over President Obama’s refusal to say anything about his agenda for the final two years of his administration until after the midterm elections. Changes in Obamacare will remain a secret until mid-November. His public pronouncements on amnesty for illegal immigrants are muted. He says next to nothing on tax reform and enhancing our energy security with regard to the Keystone XL pipeline. Recently, the White House confirmed there would be no nominee to replace Eric Holder Jr. as attorney general until after the elections.
Like a card shark playing his hand close to the vest, Mr. Obama is putting on his best poker face in the hopes that nobody can determine what cards he’s holding. When it comes to his plans for the next two years, though, Mr. Obama has provided the American people with plenty of “tells,” which betray the strength or weaknesses of a poker player’s hand.
The Obama administration is preparing to solicit bids from contractors for materials to make tens of millions of Permanent Resident Cards and Employment Authorization Documentation cards. The pre-solicitation notice from the General Services Administration even notes that millions of these cards would be in anticipation of what it describes as a “surge.” It’s impossible to read this and doubt that Mr. Obama is preparing some form of executive amnesty for people who broke the law to enter the United States, perhaps millions more than anyone feared.
Earlier this year, the president used his weekly radio address to described as “unpatriotic” the practice of some companies that operate completely within existing law to lower their tax liability through corporate inversions, indicating his intention to use the worst form of rhetoric to impede meaningful tax reform. What Mr. Obama calls a “loophole” is simply the law as passed by Congress.
Obamacare is littered with clues as to what lies ahead for the nation. Hundreds of thousands of families are receiving notices canceling their health insurance policies, and the administration has warned insurance companies to not disclose any information — to customers or the media — about pending changes to Obamacare. Does anybody believe this bodes well for Americans?
The Obama administration earlier this year further delayed action on the Keystone XL pipeline, a critical component in furthering America’s energy security. The excuse for this most recent delay until after November is that the pipeline route demands even more study, something that’s been in progress for years. Mr. Obama is relying on a draconian regulatory apparatus and an activist judiciary to delay and, in all likelihood, kill a pipeline that would create thousands of jobs, lower the cost of fuel and further reduce our dependence on foreign oil — all for the sake of appeasing the radical environmental wing of the Democratic Party.
As for Mr. Holder’s replacement at the Justice Department, there’s little more than speculation as to who the nominee will be. However, it all reflects back on the biggest tell we’ve seen from Mr. Obama. He flashed it on Oct. 2 when he told a crowd at Northwestern University to “make no mistake; these policies are on the ballot.”
These misbegotten Obama policies have nationalized this midterm election and they are, in effect, on every ballot in the nation. He is keenly aware that his policies are at odds with what a majority of Americans want, and he’s not foolish enough to add to their worries. A growing body of research shows his party faces a crushing defeat at the polls next week, regardless of whether congressional Republicans simply roll with the wave or campaign on a platform of greater personal freedom, economic freedom and reining in our debt.
The president may consider himself clever by maintaining silence on his agenda, but in the high-stakes political poker game he’s playing, he’s revealed one tell after another, and Americans are seeing him for what he is. He’s holding a losing hand, and all that remains is for him to lay his cards on the table after Nov. 4.
Jenny Beth Martin is president and co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.
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