Are President Obama and the Democrats fear mongering?
It was Obama's idea to have a sequester law enacted. Congress agreed and passed in what has to be termed a bipartisan manner since neither side in either house had enough vote by themselves to push the bill through. And after it went through Congress Obama could have changed his mind and vetoed it.
That looks to me like everyone in DC said something has to be done about spending. Sure the consequences would hit both sides if sequester went into effect. And supposedly both side wanted to avoid sequester happening.
Here's the idea sequester would MAKE them work together and the necessary spending cuts would be found in ways that would avoid the most vital programs. Guess what? It didn't happen.
They had 18 months to work out a mutually agreed upon plan. The President got $600B in increased tax revenue. But what has the left given up.
To avoid sequester Congress needed to come up with $85B in budget reductions for next year. Now to this country boys way of thinking with expected expenditures of $3.6T next year. They should be able to find $85B they can do without. That's less than 2.5%. That shouldn't be that hard. That's not hack and slash, that's not devastating, that's not draconian. That's like dropping HBO and CineMax from you satillite bill compared to your entire budget for the year.
And lets look at what we will supposedly lose if this HORRIBLE sequester goes into effect. Police and fire? Does the federal government pay for ALL the policemen, firemen, and EMTs? Or is that paid for locally? Massive teacher layoffs? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't teacher employment taken care of by local administrations?
Close scrutiny doesn't provide much validity to Obama's claims of the world coming to an end if sequester goes into effect. A close look would say it would have about the same effect as the Mayan Calendar running out.
As far as the over all claims by the left. I'd trust a used car salesman more.
Update:Mr Wolf, I'm old enough to remember duck and cover. And I noticed YOU did not contradict a single point I made.
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Barack Obama yesterday:
1. Border Patrol agents will see their hours reduced.
2. FBI agents will be furloughed.
3. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go.( LMAO )
4. Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays at airports across the country.
5. Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. (how many times will he use that line?)
6.Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find childcare for their kids.
7. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings.
Translation " If cuts go through, we're ALL GONNA DIE !" lol
Barack Obama - 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. There will be no easy off ramps on this one."
What you seem to have missed is that since the sequester is an "across-the-board" move, and 52% of our budget goes to the US Military, the US Military will be by FAR the biggest "victim"...
And guess which States get the most benefit from Federal dollars?
Red states.
The sequester will have little effect on "policemen, firemen, and EMTs", and not much on education either...
The REAL negative impact will be on the Republican governors, Congressmen/women, and Republican Senators... one would have THOUGHT that the GOP would have figured out by now that Obama is no dummy! But apparently not...
... do you realize that you just basically answered your own question... and the answer was "no"?
here, let me use your quotes...
"That looks to me like everyone in DC said something has to be done about spending. Sure the consequences would hit both sides if sequester went into effect. And supposedly both side wanted to avoid sequester happening"
in short, the cuts were so extreme, thus damaging, they wanted to make sure that no one would let them happen...
so, yes, it would be bad, and that was the point... and you basically SAID THAT...
then you go on to basically say that you dont' believe what you just said because a politician said it?
whatever dude...
EDIT: here's the hint, as you clearly need one... CONS ARE RUNNING AWAY FROM THIS LIKE IT'S THE EBOLA VIRUS... now... maybe you think they're just stupid and blindly believing the president for the first time in 4 years... I don't think so...
if your idea was correct, cons should be running toward it... right?
when you see everyone running away from something... and no one running toward it... may be a good idea to join them...
Not sure you are correct that it was Obama's idea.
Congress passed sequestration before the president signed it, and the whole self-defeating exercise was carried out in response to Tea Party Republicans’ insistence that we play chicken with the debt ceiling, which ultimately cost America its AAA credit rating.
There is an old email that throws cold water on House Republicans’ attempts to call this “Obama’s Sequester.”
It’s a PowerPoint presentation that Boehner’s office developed with the Republican Policy Committee and sent out to the Capitol Hill GOP on July 31, 2011. Intended to explain the outline of the proposed debt deal, the presentation is titled: “Two Step Approach to Hold President Obama Accountable.”
The first bullet point: "Set up a new sequestration process to cut spending across-the-board—and ensure that any debt limit increase is met with greater spending cuts—IF Joint Committee fails to achieve at least $1.2T in deficit reduction."
Edit: @LTM: Thanks, did not see that, you are correct. Reminds me not to rely upon only one source of information.
Does a one legged duck swim in circles?
@ Sandplant16... Even Jay Carney Admits Sequester Was The President's Idea
Video http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/02/12/...
But yeah it's the same old crap. You could pick 10 CPA's at random from the phonebook and give them a few days and they could find $85B in Waste and Fraud.
Now come on! Did you see the list of stuff that Obama said we will lose if we cut $85 Billion from our budget? Millions of jobs! Tons of services?
If that's what $85 Billion buys, I can't wait until he gets that $600 Billion in new taxes! Not only can I upgrade my ObamaPhone to a smart phone, I can probably have it mailed to me (but not on a Saturday, no more deliveries).
The first rule of the seduction strategy is to encourage doubt. Those doubts lead to fear - thus it can be truly said that the president is definitely engaged in fear mongering.
Well written and well done, Sir.
Democrats weren't the ones that said there would be 1000 years of darkness if Obama was re-elected.
Democrats aren't the ones threatened with civil war.
Republicans are fear mongering
I guess you are too young to remember Bush's terror color codes or how Iraq was going to nuke us.
Democrats feed off fear and ignorance...