President Obama ran for re-election on the idea that he’d be strong on defense. He lied. Today, he’ll veto a defense bill because he wants to shut down Gitmo.
In 2012, Vice President Joe Biden infamously declared, over and over, that Osama Bin Laden was dead and General Motors was alive; when Mitt Romney questioned Obama about slashing the military, Obama derided Romney as out-of-touch on security questions, a fuddy-duddy who wanted to bring back the foreign policy of the 1980s. His administration then proceeded to facilitate the rise of ISIS and the strengthening of Iran and Putin’s Russia.
Now, Obama hammers the final nail in the coffin of his “strong on defense” lie. By vetoing the bipartisan defense bill, Obama ensures that America’s military goes without so he can posture for his leftist base about the evils of George W. Bush.
Not only will Obama veto the bill, he’s holding a party to do it: according to his public schedule, he’ll have a photo op so he can chat with the media. Obama will reportedly also lay blame for the bill-kill on avoidance of spending caps in the defense bill. “The bill includes this slush fund tactic that’s an irresponsible way to fund our most basic national security priorities,” explained White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
Obama forced that slush fund tactic in the first place by mandating that the Budget Control Act of 2011 – better known as sequestration – include massive cuts to the military budget. The “slush fund tactic” is an end-around to continue to prevent America’s military preparedness from falling off a cliff.
Senate Democrats, meanwhile, will not stand with Republicans to override Obama’s veto. Loyalty to their leader, as always, trumps the interests of the United States that even they recognize. That’s no surprise, of course: last night, they held a party on Capitol Hill to celebrate the disastrous Iran Deal that will allow Iran to go nuclear without consequence in a decade, and fund them with billions of dollars that will go toward expansionist terrorism in the meantime. According to Roll Call, the party featured a “string ensemble invited to play at the stately Rayburn Room…White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough attended the fete.” He walked out with a “mouthful of food.” So did purported friend of Israel Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.
This is the modern Democratic Party in which Jim Webb found himself a stranger for the crime of having killed a communist during the Vietnam War. No wonder the rest of the world licks its chops at the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency, as she pledges to carry on the Obama legacy.