Being President v Being Right

Big Red Car here on the verge of the SOU (State of the Union) speech by the President. The guy gives a damn good speech, right?

Harry Truman is famously said to have uttered: “I’d rather be President than be right.”

Haha, dear readers, Harry actually said, “I’d rather be right than President.”

Sorry, that was the Big Red Car spoofing y’all. Won’t happen again.

President Truman also said, “You have to know the facts.”

Our current President, must subscribe to the first form because the other day he told some whoppers in regard to the gun control/confiscation/demonization debate.

Internet sales of guns according to the President v reality

The President said that a criminal could go on the Internet and buy a gun in complete anonymity and with no background check.

WRONG!

1. If you buy a gun on the Internet you first have to identify yourself to the gun seller.

2. Then the gun seller has to deliver the gun to an FFL (Federal Firearms License) holder in your state.

3. That FFL has to conduct a background check just like you had walked into his store to buy that gun.

This has been the law for forever. Forever! Go to a gun sale site and check for yourself.

Here is a typical shipping instruction from such a gun sale site, Gun Broker Dot Com.

  • Firearms may only be shipped to a licensed dealer (FFL Holder) – If you are not a licensed dealer, you must make arrangements with a dealer in your state to receive the firearm and transfer it to you. We maintain a list of transfer dealers willing to do transfers.

The President was, essentially, full of crap. This is very simple stuff and he doesn’t know it.

I expect my President to know this stuff. Why doesn’t he? Who is advising him? How can he be this freakin’ wrong and expect to be taken seriously.

Who exactly is the ATF, Big Red Car and what do they do?

The President gave a long winded answer at the Town Hall Summit (handpicked audience in conjunction with CNN, spoon fed, pre-approved questions, boring!) on gun control/confiscation/demonization the other day and said that the good folks at the ATF are “a law enforcement agency working under the FBI that is doing enormous work in going after criminals and drug cartels, and have a pretty dangerous job, so it’s not as if doing background checks or auditing gun sales is all that they’re doing.”

Here are the actual facts:

1. The ATF is under the Department of Justice, not the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The President was just WRONG.

2. The ATF has nothing to do with background investigations. The President was just WRONG.

3. Background investigations are conducted by the FBI using their NICS system. National Instant Criminal Background Check is a database of folks used to identify shitheads with criminal backgrounds who should not, under the law, be allowed to own guns.

4. The ATF has nothing to do with the NICS. It is run by the FBI. The ATF does not conduct background checks. They are conducted by the FBI.

5. Again, the main proponent of gun control/confiscation/demonization was WRONG.

Should we expect the President to know what he’s talking about?

What is the status of funding for the ATF, Big Red Car?

The President implied that the evil Republicans had shorn the sheep of ATF funding to the nub and that if only the evil Republicans hadn’t taken away all their funding, this problem would be handled.

1. In fact, the ATF had a budget of less than a billion dollars when President Obama came into office in 2008 and today has a budget of $1.1 billion. The budget for the ATF has gone UP not down.

2. Note to President, the Democrats controlled the levers of power in the Congress for your first two years and you didn’t ask for more money even then. Sheesh!

3. The evil Republicans approved exactly what the President asked for except for 2013 when they approved $1.1 billion when the President asked for $1.15 billion.

4. The evil Republicans have given this administration exactly what they have asked for.

Oh, those evil Republicans. [Hey, let’s demonize the Republicans even if it isn’t true. Good way to unite the country behind the serious issue of gun regulation, no? Yeah, this could work — said NOBODY ever.]

What does this all mean, Big Red Car?

What this means, dear reader, is that the debate is not going anywhere when the leading proponent of gun control/confiscation/demonization has no clue as to the actual facts, spreads inaccuracies (lies in other latitudes but we’re trying to behave ourselves today), and doesn’t know the facts himself.

Should we expect more from our President? Should we expect him to know the facts? Should we expect him to be advised by people who know what they’re talking about? Should we expect a fair debate based on facts?

Of course we should. And, dear reader, this subject is going nowhere until that happens. Sorry.

On this subject, like many others, this President simply doesn’t have a command of the facts, the subject matter, reality. And he is not even remotely embarrassed at his own ineptitude and that may be the real story, y’all.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Be good to someone who will be surprised and confused by your goodness. Sow some happiness cause we desperately need it.

2 thoughts on “Being President v Being Right

  1. BRC, you are wide awake today and very much in command of some good facts.

    E.g., BRC, you have budget details not so easy to find, essentially impossible to find in our mainstream media (MSM).

    And he is not even remotely embarrassed at his own ineptitude and that may be the real story, y’all.

    Yup, and this has been true for a long time.

    “Long time”? Yup. E.g., back in the fall of 2009, the US had a big debate about Obamacare. There were town halls, etc., and Obama participated in some of them.

    At one of the town halls, Obama made a comment about the cost of a limb amputation and had his facts badly, to quote, “WRONG”.

    So, right away at

    http://www.facs.org/news/obama081209.html

    was in part

    News from the American College of Surgeons

    Releases: August 12, 2009

    Contact: Sally Garneski 312-202-5409 or Barbara Hemberger 952-346-6232

    Statement from the American College of Surgeons

    Regarding Recent Comments from President Obama

    The URL above is still recognized by the server at FACS.ORG, but the particular page is no longer there. However, dear reader, I did keep a copy!

    There, commenting on Obama’s remark, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) used words:

    uninformed

    facts completely wrong

    ill-informed

    dangerous

    alarming

    inflammatory

    incorrect

    As much the same as it is easy to wish now,

    We assume that the President made these mistakes unintentionally,

    Tough to justify that “assume”.

    So, Obama is often “WRONG”.

    And, he doesn’t care.

    Just why is Obama this way? I suspect that early in 2017 there will be some tell-all books that will explain better than I can guess now.

    But for now, to be clear, the full text of the ACS statement is:

    News from the American College of Surgeons

    Releases: August 12, 2009

    Contact: Sally Garneski 312-202-5409 or Barbara Hemberger 952-346-6232

    Statement from the American College of Surgeons Regarding Recent Comments from President Obama

    CHICAGO—The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States. When the President makes statements that are incorrect or not based in fact, we think he does a disservice to the American people at a time when they want clear, understandable facts about health care reform. We want to set the record straight.

    Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.

    Three weeks ago, the President suggested that a surgeon’s decision to remove a child’s tonsils is based on the desire to make a lot of money. That remark was ill-informed and dangerous, and we were dismayed by this characterization of the work surgeons do. Surgeons make decisions about recommending operations based on what’s right for the patient.

    We agree with the President that the best thing for patients with diabetes is to manage the disease proactively to avoid the bad consequences that can occur, including blindness, stroke, and amputation. But as is the case for a person who has been treated for cancer and still needs to have a tumor removed, or a person who is in a terrible car crash and needs access to a trauma surgeon, there are times when even a perfectly managed diabetic patient needs a surgeon. The President’s remarks are truly alarming and run the risk of damaging the all-important trust between surgeons and their patients.

    We assume that the President made these mistakes unintentionally, but we would urge him to have his facts correct before making another inflammatory and incorrect statement about surgeons and surgical care.

    About the American College of Surgeons

    The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 74,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.

    Web site: http://www.facs.org

    # # #

    Online August 13, 2009

    News from the College

    This page and all contents are Copyright © 2009 by the American College of Surgeons, Chicago, IL 60611-3211

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