A few days from now, the sequester - mandatory government spending cuts - will officially begin, and the president has been out on the stump trying to convince Americans that the results will be cataclysmic (he calls it a "meat cleaver approach" to the budget which will cost jobs, jeopardize military readiness, and hurt America's education and energy sectors) and that the sequester is a creation of the evil Republicans.
Unsurprisingly, Barry is lying like a prayer rug.
In the third presidential debate, Obama angrily said "The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed." Unfortunately for the president, anyone with a memory more functional than that of the heavily tattooed star of "Memento" knows this is bogus. Granted, that means almost the entire mainstream media has been fooled - but Watergate journalist Bob Woodward has published a handy reminder of the real facts.
Simply put, the sequester was proposed by the White House in return for the ability to borrow more money than the debt limit legally allowed. And the sequester would be irrevocably triggered if Democrats didn't subsequently make intelligent spending cuts. Which, of course, they didn't and won't. Ever.
While the administration of the actual sequester spending cuts will be handled badly, with the deliberate intention from the Whitehouse of causing maximum pain and publicity, the actual amount of spending being cut from the nation's budget is roughly equivalent to a mouse's fart in a hurricane.
However, the real significance is that this may also be the first time that the GOP stands up to this pathological liar of a president and forces him to keep his word.
Frankly, we think that should become mandatory, too.
We're looking forward to the sequels, too.
25 comments:
That's what I like about you, man - you call 'em like you see 'em.
Thank you.
Is Bob Woodward the one and only member of the Fifth Estate that can even occasionally call BS on the dog eater? There are so, so many reasons that this country is circling the drain...make that halfway down the drain to the grease trap.
Fifty years of public school indoctrination, the bread and circus prostration of the population to lowest common denominator behavior, the breakup of the family, etc. ad infinitum. The single most damaging factor in my humble opinion is the absolute abdication by the press of their duty to chase and reveal lies and corruption in our government. Obama would have been tarred and feathered by now if he had a R after his name.
How many years now without a Federal budget? Memory is starting to fail. I'm starting to wonder if eventually one of the items on the Beloit College "Mindset List" of what the latest generation of college kids will never have experienced will be "A Federal Budget".
Then again, I won't be surprised. I've long said here that I believe that we're living in the "post budget age", which is the logical progression from the “post deficit matters” age; the Keynesian splurge that started after the 2000 dot-com crash and 9-11 by Bush and the GOP congress. The Democrats were thrilled to take the baton after '06, and it's been on steroids ever since.
As for the "sequester", the Democrats and the squishies want to scare people into believing that the sun will not rise on the 1st, and will make every effort to see that you are inconvenienced in some way should a "deal" not be made. People should be outraged; not just that it has come to this, but that our representatives actually want us to suffer on purpose so that we will support what they want to do, against our long-term interests. F-them.
So I say "bring it on". For those of us who are least dependent upon the government, it will be but a minor inconvenience.
Stilton - the MSM, the celebrities, & the fawners believe all O says. The anti-Americans know better but support O because he is out to destroy our country by eliminating the Constitution as the rule of law. "What difference does it make?" (as said by H. Clinton) She knows who is listening and that many simply hear O's sound bites and believe him. The sequester is the latest in a very long line of lies by O.
I agree with you, TrickyRicky.
Btw - how about Michele O giving an award last night? These people are American celebrities - not Americans for America.
I remember when being anti-American in Hollywood was a bad thing.
How can one cut something out of a budget that doesn't really exist? Meanwhile, it seems to be a small cut in the rate of growth - so it seems to be cutting money not even allocated, appropriated or spent -- they're cutting imaginary numbers to be spent next year. Not to mention, that even with these "mandatory cuts" the congress will pass a stop gap continuing measure to restore every dime -- it's happened too often for it not to happen again. Of course, not one administrator or bureaucrat is ever proposed to be cut. Say, how about every federal employee take a 5% pay cut -- so they are inconvenienced, and not us? Nah, that would be rational.
But I always like to bring up one of my favorite programs for cutting: the 1917 Emergency Mohair Act -- which to this day, through all these presidential terms, still pays out a measly $150 million a year to mohair herders to make sure the US has a steady supply of mohair. How many other tiny programs like this exist which can be cut long before anything else?
Yes, the sequester is the child of obama. And thankfully the repubs are beginning to show tiny signs of an emerging backbone. However, IMO there's enough blame to go around. Congress - both parties - has sat around for years with its collective head up its collective ass while this country headed down the road to economic distress(can you kick the can down the road while cranially inverted?).
Jim Hlavac is correct. The (non-existent) budget is not being cut. The brutal, meat cleaver sequester is, at a macro level, a 2.3% reduction in the rate of growth of federal spending, not a cut in actual spending. The govt. will still spend more in 2013 than it did in 2012, even with the sequester. The problem is the unconscionable way in which the 'cuts' are targeted; designed, as you pointed out, to inflict the maximum harm and discomfort to the American public.
Bah! I need some 'coffee'...
oops sorry, meant 4th estate thinking 5th column..
CenTexTim,
Your question about Congress' ability to kick the can brings to mind my favorite description of the denizens of D.C.: "terminal case of rectal-cranial inversion"
@wirecutter- Thank you. There wouldn't be any point to this blog if I did anything else!
@TrickyRicky- Remember the good old days when the only way for Bob Woodward to break a story was for him to do scads of research and meet with a guy named "deep throat" in a parking garage? Now all he has to do for an "exclusive" is write down what was public knowledge a year or two ago and wait for everyone else to forget.
And while I do believe that Obama would have been tarred and feather if he were a Republican, I think he gets even more protection out of his alleged blackness. His race (and racism) make him untouchable.
@John the Econ- a "Federal Budget" is now a mythical creature, no more likely to be seen than a chimera.
And regarding the government's effort to punish people to make them sorry there even tiny budget cutbacks, "F them" and the flying horse they rode in on.
@Irene Peduto- As I've said before, the only thing that bothers me more than Barry's baldfaced lies is the eagerness with which they're accepted by a seeming majority of our fellow citizens.
Regarding the Oscars, I wasn't watching because I haven't been to the theater to see a film in years (the one exception being Dinesh D'Souza's "2016: Obama's America"). I've become enough of a curmudgeon that I can't stand the Liberal undercurrent to almost all of the films and trailers, and the incivility of the other audience members - talking, texting, and taking phonecalls.
So last night I was spared the unsightly spectacle of our celebrity first lady being lauded by those in the illusion business.
@Jim Hlavac- You're right that the "cuts" are not to baseline budgets but to the rate of growth. When was the last time you heard about the average citizen having "growth" in his/her purchasing power? It's all a joke, and not a funny one.
And while I like mohair as much as anyone (although Larry had the most hair of the three stooges), the $150 million subsidy you mention showcases one of government's myriad problems: in a world of trillion dollar deficits, "just" $150 million isn't a big enough figure for them to even bother with.
@CenTexTim- Readers can search back in this blog's archives over four years now, and you'll never find a kind word from me about the Republicans' fiscal prudence. They have been 98% as much to blame as the Democrats.
I think the symbols for the two parties should be changed from the elephant and donkey to the dog and pony.
@TrickyRicky- That's a natural mistake to make: the two groups are pretty hard to tell apart these days.
@txGreg- That's the funny thing about politicians; if you kick their can they get headaches.
President is on now, letting us if he doesn't get our way, women and children will be harmed and we all will die from the flu.
Will the GOP squishies be rolled again?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crt5J3XM_zk&feature=player_embedded
Barack Obama, Nov 2011:
"Already some in Congress are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts. My message to them is simple: No, I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending."
Freddie Sykes
John Econ, the wise money would be on looking towards some serious ankle-grabbing by the RINOs by Thursday.
Message from me to the GOP in congress: Don't you even frickin' THINK about blinking! And if sequestration can't be made to hit bureaucrats and ridiculous and antiquated, outmoded programs, then you should bend to make it hit the entitlements, all while throwing Øbama's offering of the sequester, and his protestations against eliminating the sequester in his moronic, lying face. Learn to fight freaking fire with fire, WILL YOU ALREADY?!
Ach! I feel an aneurysm coming on...
txGreg - I wish that particular malady was terminal. Unfortunately, it all too often seems to result in getting re-elected. Go figure.
Stilton - the only issue I have with changing the party symbols to the dog and pony is that those are two worthy creatures. How about something more appropriate, like the tick and the leech?
Emmentaler Limburger - 'coffee' is a good preventative medication for aneurysms...
@CenTexTim and Stilton -- Party mascots or symbols, I was thinking more along the lines of dunghill and beetle.
@CenTexTim, true, it's not terminal for them... not sure same can be said for the Republic.
This one had me laughing so hard I almost spewed tea all over the keyboard! Excellent post Stilton. And it brought to mind that every time Turdboy is on TV spewing his lies that I have a meat cleaver that would like to meet Oblamers stump. ;)
Wow! I really screwed that up. Let's try it again...
I think the mosquito is an apt symbol for both parties. Mosquitoes are irritants, and cannot survive without the host from whom they (aptly) suck blood. Their only sound is irritating to those who hear it, and their parasitic activity leaves behind irritation and, sometimes, destructive disease. They are actually immune to most devices and methods intended to control them, and circumvent even the most effective ones, simply taking another route to the same end. You will note that this all sounds very much like our government, no matter which party is in charge.
Since each party functions in fundamentally the same manner, they can both be represented by the mosquito. If you insist on some form of differentiation, let's make the democraps the Tiger Mosquito as it is responsible for more disease-borne destruction than the House Mosquito, which I propose for the republiscams. (My apologies to any mosquitoes I've offended through this comparison.)
There. That's better. Stilton, if you want to whack the preceding, incomplete post, you have my blessings, and most of all, my appreciation.
@John the Econ- if the GOP does roll over again, I'm going to become a much stronger advocate for a third party, or perhaps a general migration of decent people to a new country called Aynrandia.
@Freddie Sykes- Great link! The SOB is on the record but the MSM doesn' look at the record anymore.
@Grafton Cheddar- Please, please, please don't let that happen. Though it probably will.
@Emmentaler- Well put!
@CenTexTim- I don't think "Tick and Leech" is quite disgusting enough for the two parties. Actually, it sounds like a British pub I wouldn't mind visiting for a pint of "coffee."
@Gang of One- I think you're on to something there. The Dems would be the dung (obviously), and the GOP would be the dung beetles (because they're always rolling).
@txGreg- Sad but true.
@Sparky Hudson- You make an interesting point; as long as we're talking mandatory reductions, how about a mandatory reduction in the sheer quantity of BS coming out of this president?
@Emmentaler- I like the Mosquito analogy. And don't forget that both politicians and mosquitoes require a stagnant environment as their base of operations.
another brief Oscars nod... Maybe there is something to say for the benevolent influence of a despotic Muslim government system. Unfortunately, the Iranian censors halted their excellent work a foot or so too low.
Stilton, this is child's play for you. You are way too smart for this administration. Thanks for all the awesome snark and observations. In other words, thanks for calling this tool and his toadies out on all of their endless bee es. #tcot #tlot #ObamaFAIL
@txGreg- I'm not sure why they didn't just go "full burqa" on her.
@Red- Thanks for the nice words. Unfortunately, the challenge comes not in mocking the Obama administration but in trying to get more people to listen to that mockery and understand that the issues are critically important for all of us.
I think you've done a nice job of turning the Alinsky playbook on its ear regarding this fool. I also think that thinking people will see what a clown he is and how counterproductive his policies have been. Well done sir.
Yep, the GOP will squish yet again, but I did love Boehner's statement about the Senate "getting off their ass." If he would only follow through! The libs are way more afraid of that than the actual piddling spending "cuts" (or reduced increase I should say). If the sequester happens, people just might find out that it did basically nothing. And if they find out it did basically nothing, thye may start waking up. Crap Weasel's worst nightmare = an engaged voting block.
This whole thing is giving me crainial optomitis (shitty outlook).
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