Tag Archives: Jack Lew

Tone Deaf?

Posted on by

On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported that Jack Lew is President Biden’s choice for Ambassador to Israel.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden’s nominee to be Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, oversaw the infamous “pallets of cash” transfer of funds to Iran while serving as former President Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary in 2016.

The Obama administration paid Iran nearly $2 billion in January of 2016 to resolve a dispute dating back to the 1970’s, in which the U.S.-backed Shah government in Iran purchased $400 million of military equipment from Washington. The equipment was never delivered due to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Obama paid back the $400 million to Tehran plus $1.3 billion in interest.

As Treasury Secretary, Lew oversaw the transfer of the initial $400 million payment on Jan. 17, 2016, which was delivered in the now-infamous form of foreign cash carried on a number of pallets by aircraft. The “pallets of cash” incident became a frequent line of critique for those who opposed Obama’s policy toward Iran, which involved lifting sanctions and negotiating a diplomatic agreement aimed at curbing the development of Tehran’s nuclear program.

The money for Iran came from a Treasury Department fund known as the “Judgement Fund,” which is money set aside by Congress to settle litigation disputes.

I suppose he was just following orders, but I have heard that excuse before.

The article notes:

A 2018 Senate report found Lew falsely claimed Iran had no access to the U.S financial system during his time as Treasury Secretary. In fact, Lew “granted a specific license that authorized a conversion of Iranian assets worth billions of U.S. dollars using the U.S. financial system,” according to the report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Lew was also responsible for implementing sanctions relief for Iran as part of the JCPOA, colloquially known as Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. The JCPOA required that Washington lift various sanctions on Tehran in exchange for the Islamic Republic ceasing its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

If you choose to make this man an ambassador, Israel is not the place to send him.

 

There Is Hope For Congress

Posted on by

On Wednesday, The Daily Signal posted an article about new rules the House of Representatives has passed which will impact Social Security. In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people collecting Social Security disability payments.

See chart below:

17rominachart

Notice that the dramatic increase took place after welfare reform made it more difficult to collect welfare. Social Security disability has become the new welfare.

Anyway, the Social Security disability fund is expected to run out of money in 2016. The new rule prevents Congress from simply taking money out of the Social Security retirement fund and putting it  in the disability fund.

The article explains:

The new House rule would protect the retirement trust fund from being used as a piggy bank to shore up the disability trust fund. By this action, the House sets the stage for comprehensive Social Security reform that protects disabled Americans and seniors from indiscriminate benefit cuts and recognizes a responsibility for stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

Grab the popcorn, this is going to get interesting.

Answering Questions By Not Answering Questions

Posted on by

On Wednesday, Representative John Campbell posted an article in his laptop report about his questioning of Treasury Secretary (and former Obama Chief of Staff) Jack Lew.

Below is a video of that questioning:

Representative Campbell was a successful businessman before entering Congress and has the ability to get things done. He was obviously not impressed with the answers he received from Secretary Lew.

Representative Campbell posted the following parody on his laptop report:

Now, based on what you just saw from Sec. Jack Lew (and from my previous experience with him), I present for your further enjoyment a fictional dramatization of my hypothetical question to him, “Is the sky ever blue?”:
___________________

Campbell: So, Secretary Lew, is the sky ever blue?

Lew: Well, Congressman, that depends. Sometime there are clouds. The clouds can be light grey or…

Campbell: I understand that there can be clouds, Secretary Lew. My question is if you believe that the sky is ever blue?

Lew: This is really quite complicated. Sometime it can be dark at night and you can’t really tell what color the sky is. Is it really black or another color that you can’t see? It could be….

Campbell: No Mr. Lew. I didn’t ask if the sky was black. I asked if it is ever blue. Have you ever seen a blue sky?

Lew: I have never had anything to do with the color of the sky, either as Treasury Secretary or as President Obama’s Chief of Staff. But, I assure you that the President is very interested in this subject and we intend to investigate this thoroughly.

Campbell: Secretary Lew. It’s really not that complicated. Have you ever seen a blue sky or has anyone ever told you that the sky was blue?

Lew: It’s important that we thoroughly investigate all the facts before conclusions are drawn in any such matter involving celestial bodies and the movement thereof. The latest report from the Inspector General did not contain any facts about the color of the sky, although it did acknowledge that the sky, in fact, exists. Therefore, it would be premature for me to make any assertions about the color until all the facts are in. But, I assure you that we will work tirelessly in pursuit of those facts…just as diligently as OJ Simpson pursued the real killer of his wife.

Campbell:  How about this, Mr. Secretary? Have you personally ever even wondered what color the sky is?

Lew: I don’t think it’s productive to speculate on such things over which the administration has no control and which, at this point, really don’t matter.

Campbell: Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time since the Secretary has clearly yielded his common sense.

That is the current state of the search for answers in the power abuse by the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservatives and conservative groups.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Does The President Get His Choices Of Cabinet Members ?

Posted on by

There are a number of questionable nominations for Cabinet posts at this time–Chuck Hagel has a questionable record on Israel, John Brennan has made some interesting statements regarding jihad, and Jack Lew was either lying or totally wrong in his statements regarding the economy while he was director of the Office of Management and Budget. Either way, Jack Lew is a questionable choice for Treasury Secretary.

John Hinderaker at Power Line reminds us of Mr. Lew’s testimony before Congress less than two years ago. In describing President Obama’s budget proposals, Mr. Lew stated:

Our budget will get us, over the next several years, to the point where we can look the American people in the eye and say we’re not adding to the debt anymore; we’re spending money that we have each year, and then we can work on bringing down our national debt.

The article further reports:

In fact, President Obama’s budget added at least $600 billion to the deficit every year, even on the rosy assumptions that it incorporated, which is why no member of Congress would vote for it. Lew was just making it up, deliberately lying to the American people. He also claimed that the reason the Democratic Senate hadn’t adopted a budget is that it was being filibustered by Republicans. This falsehood was repeated multiple times on national television…

Can’t we do better than this?

Enhanced by Zemanta