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The Obama administration is an abject failure. Consider the record: After excoriating former President George W. Bush in the 2008 election campaign for letting the country slide into recession, and spending too much on wars, Mr. Obama has failed to significantly heal the economy. During the 2008 campaign, as the unemployment rate rose to 6.5%, Mr. Obama promised that if his policies were adopted, the rate would not rise above 8.0%. But it actually peaked at 10.0% in October 2009, and, five long years later, the unemployment rate is still 7.3%, significantly higher than at any time under Bush, save for the final two months.
Even more disturbing, median household income continues to fall, when adjusted for inflation. It has tumbled 8.3% since the recession hit, falling from $55,627 in 2007 to $51,017 in 2012. In fact, Americans hit their richest point in 1999 (thanks to productivity gains from the 1990s computer revolution) at $56,080 per household. The very people that Mr. Obama claims to be trying to help, the middle and lower classes, have fared much worse than the so-called rich. Indeed, the poverty rate under this President has increased, from 12.5% in 2007 to 15.0% in 2012. Food stamp usage hit a record high in December 2012, at 47.8 million people (vs. just 37.7 million in October 2009), and that figure has persisted throughout 2013. If it were not for the U.S. E&P industry adding wealth and creating jobs, the country would still be in a full-blown recession.
Bait and switch. Mr. Obama’s litany of failures and broken campaign promises goes much further. He promised to have the “most transparent presidency” in history, yet his administration continually hides its actions from the public. He vowed to “restore trust in government,” yet national polls show the public trust at near-record lows. He promised not to allow lobbyists to work in his administration, yet since 2009, more than 100 former lobbyists have held, or hold, senior policy-making jobs in the Executive Branch.
The list goes on—Mr. Obama’s “signature legislation,” The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare), is a mess. Every day, Americans’ health care plans are either being cancelled, or their premiums are skyrocketing. And the Obamacare website is an unusable joke, forcing the White House to extend registration for health care plans by six weeks. This is also the President, who has used everything from legally shaky EPA rulemaking to Endangered Species status to restrict oil and gas development. Yet, during his 2012 re-election campaign, he tried to take credit for U.S. oil production gains made strictly through the industry’s efforts. This is also the President, who has wrecked relations with key allies, including Germany and Saudi Arabia. Last, but not least, he is the most polarizing President in Gallup polling history.
Ideological agenda. Obamacare exemplifies this administration’s utter incompetence. Yet, if it were not for the filibuster by Sen. Ted Cruz (Rep. – Texas), it is doubtful that other lawmakers, the public and some media would be shining as many spotlights on this flawed legislation, as they are doing now. People in the U.S. need to understand that the Cruz filibuster and the two-week shutdown (although 83% of the government continued to function) were as much a reaction to Obama officials’ behavior as they were an attack on Obamacare and debt ceiling problems. Time and again, the administration has tried (and frequently succeeded) to shove extreme policies, rulemaking and Executive Orders down the throats of Americans. Once again, this is nothing more than South Side of Chicago tactics on a national scale—“do as we say, not as we do, and if you don’t fall into line, we’ll make life miserable for you.” It’s all about the ideology and control.
Look at the bruising measures that they used to shut off federal assets to average Americans during the shutdown—examples range from erecting barricades and stringing police tape across entrances to the new World War II memorial in Washington, D.C., to forcing out a couple from their privately owned home, because it sits on federal property along Lake Mead in Nevada. These thuggish tactics would have made Joe Stalin smile with pride during his prime in the USSR.
Rough E&P times ahead. The cave-in by some Senate Republicans, which led to ending the 16-day government shutdown, and a perceived “win” by Obama and Senate Democrats, will only embolden the administration further. And that’s bad news for the U.S. E&P industry. Producers and service companies, alike, had better hunker down for a miserable three years remaining in Obama’s term. Look for the EPA, under new administrator Gina McCarthy, to use punitive rulemaking and enforcement on air emissions and water usage to further restrict upstream activity.
Some industry executives thought they could work with Interior Secretary Sally Jewel, since she originally was an oil and gas geologist. But Jewell confirmed that she, too, has drunk the Obama ideological punch, when, on Aug. 1, she told a large gathering of DOI employees, “I hope there are no climate change deniers in the Department of the Interior.” Let us not forget Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who, on Sept. 27, referred to the controversial report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as “a watershed.” So, those industry companies that contributed to MIT’s Energy Initiative, to curry favor, while Moniz was still its director prior to taking over DOE, are looking a little naïve right now. Last, but not least, the Bureau of Land Management is working hard, every day, to find ways to shut off access to federal lands for oil and gas development.
The Obama administration is a cancer that threatens the very future of America, and the health of its upstream oil and gas industry. The good citizens of this country cannot afford to allow these ideological extremists to achieve their full agenda. 
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