Don’t Listen to the Liars: Obama’s Sequestration Lies (Open Thread)

© Miri WTPOTUS February 22, 2013

This week, we were “treated” to the ridiculous spectacle of a grandstanding president of the United States giving a campaign-like speech against his own ideas and policies.  Barack Hussein Obama II referred to the upcoming “sequestration“, which was his idea, as like taking a “meat cleaver” to the economy.

The sky is falling!  People will DIE!  Millions will lose their jobs!  Meat won’t be inspected!  Children will have nobody to watch over and care for them!  National security will be at risk!  The border will be overrun! (As if it’s not overrun now, by design of the Obama administration.) Airplanes won’t fly! Unemployment will necessarily skyrocket!  Mind you, $44 billion is what our government spends about every 9 days.

The sequestration is a “manufactured crisis,” Obama said.  Indeed it is: A crisis manufactured by the White House.   Don’t believe it?  Ask Obama’s own spokesperson, Jay Carney. [emphasis added to quotes]

The sequester was one of the ideas put forward, yes, by the president’s team.

Not enough evidence for you?  Ask Democrat Senator Max Baucus:

The president is part of the sequester. The White House recommended it, frankly, back in August, 2011.

Another senator, Republican Rand Paul, agrees:

I mean, for goodness sakes, it was his [Obama's] proposal. He proposed the sequester. It was his idea. He signed it into law, and now he’s going to tell us that, oh, it’s all our fault?

I voted against the sequester because I didn’t think it was enough. The sequester cuts the rate of growth of the spending, but the sequester doesn’t even really begin to cut spending, which we have to do or we are going to get a credit downgrade, another credit downgrade.

Speaker of the House (Republican) John Boehner agrees with Senator Paul:

Boehner said Thursday that the only reason the sequester exists is because Obama insisted it be included in a debt ceiling and budget deal the two negotiated in 2011 and if Obama thinks it is such bad policy, he should present a plan to fix it.

“This sequester was the president’s idea. His party needs to follow through on their plans to replace it,” Boehner said. “I’ve made it very clear. The sequester – I don’t like it. Nobody should like it, but the sequester is there, because the president insisted it be there. Where’s the president’s plan to replace the sequester that he insisted upon?”

Obama took pains to mention in his speech that sequestration was a bill passed by Congress.  Indeed it was!  But he “forgot” to mention that it was HIS IDEA and that HE SIGNED THE BILL.  If it was so stupid, then why did he sign the bill?  Why the about face?  Why the flip flop?

He was for sequestration before he was against it. 

Not only was the idea his idea, not only did he sign the bill to put sequestration into effect, but he also threatened to veto any attempt to stop the automatic cuts in the rate of growth!

[T]he president said his answer to those who want to eliminate those cuts “is simple: No.

I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off-ramps on this one.”

The fear mongering has become so bad and so ridiculous that Rush Limbaugh opined that for the first time in his lifetime, he’s ashamed of his country:

Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in my life, I am ashamed of my country. To be watching all of this, to be treated like this, to have our common sense and intelligence insulted the way it’s being insulted? It just makes me ashamed. Seriously, man. Here we get worked up over $44 billion. That’s the total amount of money that will not be spent that was scheduled to be spent this year. In truth, we’re gonna spend more this year than we spent last year.

They really do think we’re stupid. It remains to be seen if we are.  Will the people of this country be smart enough to know when they’re being openly LIED TO?  If we are to believe at least one poll, nearly half of Americans fell for it and blame Congressional Republicans alone for the sequester:

Nearly half of Americans would blame Republicans if $1.2 trillion in spending cuts go into effect on March 1, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Only 31 percent would blame President Barack Obama, according to the Pew Research Center/USA Today poll, while 49 percent would blame the congressional GOP. Eleven percent would blame both.

How is it that the congressional Democrats get off the hook? 

Notice how the story uses the scarier figure: $1.2 trillion over ten years instead of this year’s quota, which is $44 billion.   They’re not cutting $1.2 trillion on March 1!

Of course, this all means something only if you believe such polls, which are produced by the statist media and/or leftist so-called nonpartisan think tanks, who work in lockstep with Obama to promote his tax-and-profligately-spend policies. 

If these various liars can convince the Republicans that they will be blamed for these so-called cuts (to the rate of growth), then perhaps the Republicans will cave and let Obama raise taxes, lest they be “shellacked” in 2014.  Or so the leftist statists hope.

Everybody with half a brain knows how polls can be skewed to find whatever the pollsters want them to find, simply by the way they word the questions and limit the options for a response.  Typically, of course, they over-sample Democrats for good measure.

The inimitable Charles Krauthammer weighed in, upon being asked why they don’t solve this situation by passing a bill “tomorrow”:

That is precisely why this is the most ridiculously hyped Armageddon since the Mayan calendar. In fact it’s made – it looks worse than the Mayan disaster.

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 of — it’s a third of one percent on the domestic side, well overall it’s 2.5 cents on the dollar. And overall on the non-defense side it is a penny-and-a-half on the dollar of reductions. 

Here we are with a debt of $16 trillion and the argument today is that if we cut a penny-and-a-half on non-defense spending in one year it’s going to be the end of the world. If so, then we are hopelessly in debt and we’re going to end up like Greece –

As Rand Paul said, these so-called cuts are not even going to reduce the debt:

It’s a pittance. I mean, it’s a slowdown in the rate of growth. There are no real cuts happening over 10 years.

Over 10 years, the budget will still grow $7 trillion to $8 trillion. He added $6 trillion to the debt in his first term. He’s on course to add another $4 trillion to $6 trillion in his second term. So, really, this is just really nibbling at the edges, and he’s saying, oh, it’s some dramatic thing where all of a sudden it’s still the rich’s fault.

Didn’t he already raise taxes on the rich? I’m having trouble even understanding what he’s talking about because he sets up this rhetoric and this sort of game of let’s go get the rich again that really is divorced from any reality. It’s his sequester we’re talking about, his bill.

Senator Rand Paul also said this:

I think the sequester happens, and it will be in some ways a yawn, because the histrionics that are coming from the president, saying, oh, we’re going to shut down and get rid of meat inspectors.  Is anybody not going to stand up and call his bluff on that ridiculousness?

We shall find out over the next week.  The “automatic cuts” in the RATE OF GROWTH of spending take effect on March 1.  That is, unless the Republicans cave in fear.  Unless they listen to the liars.

Congressional Republicans:  Don’t listen to the liars.  The people are on your side. 

That same Pew poll said that 54% of Americans want the deficit reduced, and they want it done mostly by spending cuts, not increased taxes.

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