Barack Obama, who has presided over the sharpest increases in economic
inequality in U.S. history, adopts the persona of public advocate,
reciting wrongs inflicted by unseen and unknown forces that have
“deepened” the gap between the rich and the rest of us and “stalled”
upward mobility. Having spent half a decade stuffing tens of trillions
of dollars into the accounts of an ever shrinking gaggle of financial
capitalists, Obama declares this to be “a year of action” in the
opposite direction. “Believe it.” And if you do believe it, then crown
him the Most Effective Liar of the young century.
Lies of omission are even more despicable than the overt variety,
because they hide. The potentially most devastating Obama contribution
to economic inequality is being crafted in secret by hundreds of
corporate lobbyists and lawyers and their revolving-door counterparts in
government. The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, described
as “NAFTA on steroids,” would accelerate the global Race to the Bottom
that has made a wasteland of American manufacturing, plunging the
working class into levels of poverty and insecurity without parallel in
most people’s lifetimes, and totally eviscerating the meager gains of
three generations of African Americans.
-- Glen Ford, "American State of the Union: A Festival of Lies" (Black Agenda Report).