Obama’s campaign letter to federal workers

By Howard Portnoy
Obama’s campaign letter to federal workers

Obama pointingIn a column at Townhall yesterday, Katie Pavlich provided an excerpt from a letter sent by Barack Obama on Oct. 1, the day the partial government shutdown began. In it he thanks the “dedicated and hard-working employees of the United States Government” for being “driven, patriotic, idealistic Americans.”

Then he moves on to his real agenda: Fixing the blame for the shutdown on the party of anarchists and hostage takers (aka Republicans) and offering his solemn pledge to “continue to work with Congress” to broker a deal.

Here is the portion of the letter transcribed by Pavlich (the original is here), along with annotations and the occasional correction by yours truly:

The Federal Government is America’s largest employer, with more than 2 million civilian workers and 1.4 million active duty military who serve in all 50 States and around the world. [It is also the largest enterprise in the U.S. that operates solely on donations, charitable and otherwise.]

But Congress [the House, and especially Ted Cruz and his ilk] has failed to meet its responsibility to pass a budget before the fiscal year that begins today [the likes of which have never been seen before in this administration, which has dutifully followed ‘settled law’ and passed a budget each and every cycle]. And that means much [roughly 13%] of our Government must shut down effective today.

I want you to know that I will keep [start] working to get Congress to reopen the Government, restart vital services that the American people depend on [like free haircuts and gym facilities for Congress members] and allow public servants who have been sent home [like the guy who pushes the elevator buttons in the Capitol so Congress members don’t need to risk injuring or dirtying their fingers] to return to work….

This shutdown was completely preventable [and I could have done as much as anyone else to achieve that end but chose instead to exploit it for political gain]. It should not have happened [and should not have been exacerbated by my own foolish shenanigans, which included attempting to shut down anything that isn’t nailed down]. And the House of Representatives can end it as soon as it follows the Senate’s lead, and funds your work in the United States Government….

Much of the remainder of the letter is the sort of gross distortion and willful deception that have become the hallmarks of the Obama presidency. He accuses the House for example of attaching “highly controversial and partisan measures” to its negotiations. By this he is referring to a single measure, H.J. Res. 59, which would have delayed the onset Obamacare by one year.

The rest of the stopgap measures he and Harry Reid have rejected are neither controversial nor partisan. One bill, for example, H.R. 3223, would provide immediate funding for FEMA. In act of blatant hypocrisy, Obama made a surprise visit yesterday to the emergency relief agency’s National Response Coordination Center where he blasted Republican intransigence on the lack of funding.

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Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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