In 2008, we elected a little-known junior senator from Illinois on the foundation of "hope" and "change," but it took less than four years for most Americans to become disillusioned. Our modern-day Robin Hood has not lined our pockets with the excess wealth of the greedy 1 percent - he has left us with a debt that will burden America for generations.
Everyone in America knows that times are tough, which is why President Obama has spent considerable time trying to divert the public attention away from his record in office. Obama has the worst record of job creation of any president since 1948, and it is not even close. Obama had created 0.1 million jobs as of May 2012. In comparison, the second-lowest president for job creation was George H.W. Bush, who created 2.4 million jobs - 24 times more than Obama.
Even worse than his job creation has been his unemployment record. The unemployment rate has remained above 8.5 percent for most of Obama's tenure, despite his promise that it would remain below 8 percent. Even though unemployment has dropped slightly in recent months, much of that can be attributed to the labor force shrinking, as many Americans are no longer even looking for jobs.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor force participation rate for women has not been lower since 1992, or for men since 1948. The overall participation rate has dropped by 2 percentage points since Obama assumed the office of president in 2009, meaning that even though the unemployment rate is now at 7.8 percent, it only got that way because more Americans have given up.
Yet despite this stagnant growth, Obama has spent more of our money than any president in American history. His 2013 budget is $700 billion more than any other budget in history, at a time when America cannot afford such expenditures. By increasing the national debt at an unprecedented rate, he is essentially mortgaging the future of America.
However, we shouldn't focus solely on Obama's flawed economic policies, because he's made missteps elsewhere that deserve attention. Obama promised a transparent White House and an administration that would look out for every citizen. So where was the transparency when he decided to invoke executive privilege in order to protect Attorney General Eric Holder against investigation in the Fast and Furious scandal? Fast and Furious was an operation that allegedly put over 2,000 firearms in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, and more than 1,300 of them are still unaccounted for. One thing that is known about these guns is that they have led to the slaughter of at least 150 Mexicans as well as American border agent Brian Terry. Instead of facing the public, the Obama administration decided to cover up the facts and protect their own by means of executive privilege.
The Fast and Furious scandal is on top of the aftermath of the terrorist attack at Benghazi. For two weeks, the Obama administration blamed the attacks on mob protests when the president knew that the attacks were preplanned and had no relation to any protests.
This same president has failed to keep his promise to close Guantanamo Bay, fought to keep indefinite detention of "enemy combatants" legal and has constantly attacked small business owners through his policies and rhetoric. Obama has made unprecedented attacks on religious freedom with his Department of Health and Human Services mandate, and, under his watch, the State Department no longer considers religious freedom, a founding principle of our nation, part of its human rights requirements.
The Obama administration has systematically failed at nearly every level. At what point will the president cease to believe that the American public will blame George W. Bush for the failures of the last four years? America needs a president who is willing to take responsibility for his actions, a president who has a proven history of reaching across party lines and getting the job done. There is only one candidate that meets those requirements, and that is Mitt Romney.
Romney has a proven track record as a governor and businessman. He has shown time and time again that he is one of the most compassionate and humble candidates in recent memory, and he has the skills to pull America out of this recession once and for all. On Nov. 6, the choice is clear: We cannot afford four more years of the same.
The Brown Republicans think it's time for a change.
