Krauthammer: Sequester “Most Ridiculously Hyped Armageddon Since The Mayan Calendar”… <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vMsQLRHuHTw?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0"></iframe> Fact: The sequester cuts domestic spending by only 2.5 cents on the dollar. KRAUTHAMMER: This is the ridiculously hyped armageddon since the Mayan calendar. In fact, it looks worse than the Mayan disaster. Look, this, as you say, can be solved in a day, in an hour by allowing a transfer of funds. It’s incredibly soluble, easily soluble. And the president is the one who ought to propose it. He won’t, of course, because he is looking for a fight and not a solution. But secondly, look at this in perspective. In terms of the gross domestic product of our economy this is .03, it’s a third of 1% of our domestic economy. On the domestic side, overall, it’s 2.5 cents on the dollar. And overall, on the non-defense side, it’s a penny-and-a-half on the dollar of reductions. Here we are with a debt of $16 trillion and the argument today is if we cut a penny-and-a-half on non-defense spending in one year it’s the end of the world. If so, we are hopelessly in debt and we’re going to end up like Greece.
Top Dem Senator Admits Sequester Was Obama’s Idea… <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rAd1trp0rgk?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0"></iframe> So he’s calling Obama a liar? Via CNS News: Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Tuesday that “the president is part of the sequester” and “the White House recommended it, frankly.” when asked about the sequester by KPAX at the Billings Chamber Newsmakers Forum in Billings Montana.
Bob Woodward: Obama Claim That Congress Proposed Sequester Not True; WH Proposed It, Obama Personally Approved It Obama not telling the truth and shifting blame to someone else? What a suprise… Via Bob Woodward at Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bob-woodward-obamas-sequester-deal-changer/2013/02/22/c0b65b5e-7ce1-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html Misunderstanding, misstatements and all the classic contortions of partisan message management surround the sequester, the term for the $85 billion in ugly and largely irrational federal spending cuts set by law to begin Friday.What is the non-budget wonk to make of this? Who is responsible? What really happened? The finger-pointing began during the third presidential debate last fall, on Oct. 22, whenPresident Obama blamed Congress. “The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed,” Obama said. “It is something that Congress has proposed.” The White House chief of staff at the time, Jack Lew, who had been budget director during the negotiations that set up the sequester in 2011, backed up the president two days later.“There was an insistence on the part of Republicans in Congress for there to be some automatic trigger,” Lew said while campaigning in Florida. It “was very much rooted in the Republican congressional insistence that there be an automatic measure.” The president and Lew had this wrong. My extensive reporting for my book “The Price of Politics” shows that the automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House and were the brainchild of Lew and White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors — probably the foremost experts on budget issues in the senior ranks of the federal government. Obama personally approved of the plan for Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). They did so at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved.
As I recall the government shut down during the Clinton administration and the Republicans got blamed. It appears to me that the plan all along was to force the sequester to once again shut down the government and blame the Pubs. Santa Clause can't keep buying presents for the parasites if the Republicans control the House. This is his way of trying to influence the '14 elections. Fortunately for the lying clown, the zombies that believe anything this guy says will once again believe that the Republicans proposed the sequester.
Obama: Republicans “Chose” The Sequester… Actually, it was your idea. Via WaPo: President Obama has released the following statement in response to the failure of the Senate to pass either a Republican or a Democratic sequester replacement bill: “Today, Republicans in the Senate faced a choice about how to grow our economy and reduce our deficit. And instead of closing a single tax loophole that benefits the well-off and well-connected, they chose to cut vital services for children, seniors, our men and women in uniform and their families. They voted to let the entire burden of deficit reduction fall squarely on the middle class. I believe we should do better. We should work together to reduce our deficit in a balanced way – by making smart spending cuts and closing special interest tax loopholes. That’s exactly the kind of plan Democrats in the Senate have proposed. But even though a majority of Senators support this approach, Republicans have refused to allow it an up-or-down vote – threatening our economy with a series of arbitrary, automatic budget cuts that will cost us jobs and slow our recovery. Tomorrow I will bring together leaders from both parties to discuss a path forward. As a nation, we can’t keep lurching from one manufactured crisis to another. Middle-class families can’t keep paying the price for dysfunction in Washington. We can build on the over $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction we’ve already achieved, but doing so will require Republicans to compromise. That’s how our democracy works, and that’s what the American people deserve.” Worth noting: Even the Democratic bill, which mirrored Obama’s ideas about how to replace the sequester, got some opposition from red state Democrats. So it wasn’t just Republicans refusing to bring the bill to a vote. -
I keep coming back to the same question Why in 2008 to 2010 when Democrats had control of the House, a veto proof Senate and The White House didn't those hypocritical bastards pass whatever FAIR tax bills that they wanted? If you recall, they actually extended the Bush "tax cuts" (which we all know was a roll back from the Clinton tax hikes.) I'd like to see what fairness the Senate has put in its proposed budgets for the past 3 years but as we all know, they're not into budgets.
Time’s Up: Obama Officially Signs Executive Order Ordering Sequestration All his. Via The Weekly Standard: President Barack Obama orders sequestration. Here’s the text of the executive order: THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 1, 2013 SEQUESTRATION ORDER FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013 PURSUANT TO SECTION 251A OF THE BALANCED BUDGET AND EMERGENCY DEFICIT CONTROL ACT, AS AMENDED By the authority vested in me as President by the laws of the United States of America, and in accordance with section 251A of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended (the “Act”), 2 U.S.C. 901a, I hereby order that budgetary resources in each non-exempt budget account be reduced by the amount calculated by the Office of Management and Budget in its report to the Congress of March 1, 2013. Pursuant to sections 250(c)(6), 251A, and 255(e) of the Act, budgetary resources subject to sequestration shall be new budget authority, unobligated balances of defense function accounts carried over from prior fiscal years, direct spending authority, and obligation limitations. All sequestrations shall be made in strict accordance with the requirements of section 251A of the Act and the specifications of the Office of Management and Budget’s report of March 1, 2013, prepared pursuant to section 251A(11) of the Act. BARACK OBAMA THE WHITE HOUSE, March 1, 2013
Lots Of Bleating And Then The Goat Screamed <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yietmUdqJos?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0"></iframe>
White House Cancels Visitor Tours, Claims Sequester Related… Not buying it. Via Washington Examiner: Never say the White House isn’t affected by sequestration. The Visitors Office just notified Congress that tours of the White House are cancelled until further notice. “Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice,” the White House email to legislative offices explains. “Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours. We very much regret having to take this action, particularly during the popular Spring touring season.”
Obama's 14 year old daughter is touring Manahattan with a group of teeny-bopper friends at present. Eating at five star restaurants etc. With the secret service protection and all the trimmings. This would certainly be more important than WH tours for the tax paying public. Brit Hume suggested that Obama is willing to inflict as much pain and distress on the American people as he deems necessary to get his way. He will do anything to achieve the "greater good ".
How do you respond when the baby in the White House has a tantrum? Why you give him a time out. http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/286345-lawmaker-proposes-language-blocking-government-spending-on-obama-golf-trips
A guy stopped at a local gas station, and after filling his tank, he paid the bill and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to drink his cola and watched a couple of men working along the roadside. One man would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on. The other man came along behind him and filled in the hole. While one was digging a new hole, the other was 25 feet behind filling in the hole. The men worked right past the guy with the soft drink and went on down the road. "I can't stand this," said the man tossing the can into a trash container and headed down the road toward the men. "Hold it, hold it," he said to the men. "Can you tell me what's going on here with all this digging and refilling?" "Well, we work for the government and we're just doing our job," one of the men said. "But one of you is digging a hole and the other fills it up. You're not accomplishing anything. Aren't you wasting the taxpayers' money?" "You don't understand, mister," one of the men said, leaning on his shovel and wiping his brow. "Normally there are three of us: me, Elmer and Leroy. I dig the hole, Elmer sticks in the tree, and Leroy here puts the dirt back. Elmer's job's been cut ... so now it's just me an' Leroy!
Report: Obama Planning Yet Another Martha’s Vineyard Vacation… To summarize: No money for White House tours because of the sequester, but more than enough for another vacation. Via Politico: President Obama and his family are likely headed to Martha’s Vineyard for a summer sojourn again this year. A source tells POLITICO that the Secret Service has started booking accomodations on the toney island off the Massachusetts coast. So far, the White House isn’t saying anything, but the Vineyard is abuzz with the news. The first family is expected toward the end of August, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Obama had to skip his traditional Vineyard vacation last year as he campaigned for reelection. But he and his family went there for three summers before that.