During his press conference on
friday the President provided his assessment of the implications of
sequester. Mr. Obama continued his dissembling. He was calm and
serious in his presentation and told the White House press corps and the
public that he had done all he could to reach a compromise to avoid the
sequester from happening. He made it clear that he was not
successful because Republicans were unwilling to yield to his position
on a compromise of his choosing. He failed to mention that sequester
was his idea. He failed to mention that his so call attempt at
compromise was really a breach of his prior agreement to not raise taxes
(the Republicans compromised last year by giving in to his demands for
both a tax increase and an increase in the debt ceiling in exchange for
honest efforts in 2013 to reform the tax code, reform entitlement
programs, and stop tax increases). He did not mention that he signed
the sequester into law. He failed to mention that he reneged on his no
tax increase promise by refusing to compromise on any Republican offer
unless the deal included another increase in taxes. He failed to
mention that the Republican controlled House of Representatives had
passed two proposals to minimize the impacts of sequester but that the
Democrat controlled Senate (Harry Reid) refused to consider either of
them. He failed to mention that the "so called" draconian cuts that
sequester imposes were just a 2.4% reduction in INCREASES in government
spending spread over the next TEN years. He talked a good game in the
press conference but failed yet again to tell the truth. He did,
however, present examples of harm to the American people that the
sequester HE signed into law that evoke emotional feelings rather than
rational thoughts (ie: teachers being laid off, kids no longer having
access to day care, border guards laid off, workers getting less pay and
impacting family incomes, etc). He did not mention the rational steps
that minimize human emotions such as removing waste or eliminating
redundant and/or useless programs/offices. He/his bureaucrasies have
that authority. There are billions that can be saved by taking such
steps. Nor did he mention that the net affect of what he wants to do by
undoing the sequester is to continue to spend more of what WE pay in
taxes or what HE can borrow from those willing to loan us more money at
interest. Interest, by the way, that WE have to pay with yet MORE of
OUR taxes. His expressed concern for the American people and our
economy is hard to fathom. Indeed, the constraints on our economy
imposed by his regulatory blizzard and his reckless spending, on the
other hand, have hurt and hurt bad. His four years in office have been
filled with economic malaise, increased bankruptsies, unemployment at or
near 8% (longer than any period since the Great Depression) and little
measurable real growth while government spending increased by 16 PERCENT
(much of it wasted on bailouts with losses estimated to be in the
billions, crony paybacks, failed green energy investments, etc.). The
fact is that sequester is nothing more than a bit more than a 2%
reduction in the amount the government can spend over the next 10
years. After a 16% increase in the last four years, reasonable people
would agree that this small reduction in spending growth over ten years
should be manageable. Economic growth results from private enterprise
economic activity; not government spending which in fact removes money
from the economy via taxation. The President's misrepresentations are
intended to deflect attention away from, if you will, the harm he has
had a large part in inflicting on us/the nation while simultaneously
trying to convince us that he has really done just the opposite. In
other words he is trying to convince us that our problems are all the
fault of the uncooperative and misguided republicans who will not
compromise with HIM because they do not realize that it is HE who has
all the answers. However, his credibility on the whole sequester matter
deserves serious inquiry. The below links provides insight. George
Burns
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/022813-646267-obama-labels-new-revenues-as-spending-cuts.htm
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