A longtime Republican Party operative answers a very basic question regarding what sequestration is – and isn’t. Here is their response.
(Will Barack Obama’s Chicken Little Sky Is Falling Act work in preventing even moderate cuts to the federal budget?)
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RI: Sequestration has been around longer than many people realize. All the way back to the 1980s in fact. It was part of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings. In its present form that was signed off on by Barack Obama and Congress, there would be mandatory cuts of about 1.2 trillion dollars to the budget spread out over almost ten years, or to put it another way, about 120 billion dollars less spending by the government per year. That 1.2 trillion in cuts over ten years actually only reflects one year of the deficit spending by Barack Obama.
Now those 120 billion cuts are not much if you factor in just how bad this deficit monster has become for the United States. A lot of people forget or don’t even know that last years federal budget was almost 4 TRILLION DOLLARS. 4 trillion. So now we have the Obama White House and the Mainstream Media screaming bloody murder over just $120 billions dollars less than last years 4 trillion dollars. The entire premise is a joke. The argument is a joke. Call it a distraction or a false flag or political manipulation. It’s all of those things really.
We know (we as in a group of Republicans) what the president is doing in all of this. His White House has been planning it since he was re-elected. They will sound the alarms about education and law enforcement and the military. They are going to beat the drums as loudly as they can about this and use it to push them to victory in 2014. They also intend, once those cuts start to be enacted, to turn right around and pat themselves on the back for cutting spending. And the fact is, if we look at just how corrupt the media has become over the last five years, the president will get away with doing it. If you do a simple Google search on sequestration you will see a whole list of far left sites already up and running on the issue. That means they have been planning for it, that they want it, that they think they will be able to use it to their advantage.
I say let them have it. Sequester away. Cut away. Cut. Cut. Cut.
Let the cuts happen. Then and only then will people start to realize that they don’t need all this government. Remind people that Barack Obama wasted about $100 billion on bogus green energy companies that were just paybacks to his political supporters. Remind people we are spending over a billion dollars per year on the Obama family alone. Or better yet, explain to people how much it is going to cost all of us, every last one of us, if interest rates jump up to even a moderate 5%. Do they realize how many more hundreds of billions of dollars that will cost the country every year? It will easily dwarf the tiny by comparison cuts we are talking about here with sequestration.
Let’s say sequestration happens. People don’t understand that with all those cuts in place, the federal budget would actually be returning to 2007 levels. And in 2007, the United States was already spending way too much money on itself. Democrats said as much back then. Barack Obama called the spending in 2007 “unpatriotic”. Right? So that is the level of spending we would be returning to. The levels of spending going on now during the Obama era are not just unpatriotic. They are insane and threaten every man woman and child in America.
Could there be some short term pain? Sure. The last time we actually saw a widespread reduction in government spending was the defense cuts of the early 1990s. Unemployment rose to just over 7%, though in a couple years went back down to about 4%. GDP exploded to almost 10 trillion by the end of the 1990s. More jobs. More money. More opportunities for all Americans. It isn’t rocket science. Just basic common sense free market capitalism. The kind of free market capitalism the Obama White House has wanted to destroy since day one.
My belief system has always informed me that overall, cutting government is almost always GOOD. Growing government is almost always BAD. History is on my side there. When government shrinks, the private sector grows and the private sector is what creates far more jobs and opportunities than government ever could. It means government has less control over the people and the people have more control over the government.
So when it comes to this sequestration nonsense I say great! Bring it on! Bring on the cuts.
-RI
We need to cut the budget by 50%, and I mean real cuts.
I agree with RI and have the whole time. I’m more worried about what will happen because of O Care than I am with government budget cuts.
I agree 100% with RI here. All of the so called cuts are only about 2% of the current budget increases. If politicians are freaking out about 2% less than none of them are serious about the deficit problem.
Obama let the payroll tax expire this year which means about 2% less in our paychecks now. If he expects us to accept that then why shouldn’t we expect the federal government to make do with 2% less?
Obama is the worst fucking joke of a president ever. He wants to tear this country down. RI is right about that too. Since day one Obama has wanted to destroy our capitalist system.
I’m glad that R.I. brought up the budget cuts in the early 90′s. I live in one of the areas hit hard by those cuts and this state is one that will once again feel a large part of the cuts again. I wish that I could agree with R.I. on his description of how private industry will come in and fill the jobs lost. The simple fact is that no this does not always happen. It certainly did not happen here. This area before the cuts of the 90′s was bustling and every storefront was filled, some have gone empty since and many have been torn down and now are just green space. The Republican talking points here sound great, but to be honest as a Republican, they are full of crap. No one wants to sit down and do the real fix to the high expenses we pay for in this country. Those expenses have at times been hinted at, but not stopped and no penalties are ever placed on those who defraud because they can. The government is way overcharged for some product, yet because the product is supplied by major contributors the cost goes unquestioned. Meantime, portions of the country lose valued workers and skills that may not be quickly replaced if the need arises.
RI is right. And I was also around in the early 90s working for a private firm that got lots of military contract work. That work was cut by about half by 1994. I had a couple of very tough years but ended up relocating and updating my education and by 2002 I was earning about 30% more than my best wage was before those military cuts. I think that is what RI is saying here. There can be some short term pain but long term if we limit government that is a good thing. I agree with that. I know there are some places that are sucking on the govt. tit pretty hard and scared to death it will be taken away. And thats how govt controls us. That’s what Obama is doing by scaring people like you. The first ten yrs of my working life was like that. I grew up though and learned you can’t count on govt or you lose a bunch of your own power. I’m glad I got to learn that lesson.
Boehner is already making concession noises. WHY WHY WHY can’t we have some balls show up in the House and stop all this nonsense? WE all know the sequestration was the Emperors idea. The lo fo voters aren’t paying attention the anything but cashing their next government check. Just freaking DO IT for gods sake!
Greta von Susteren put together a montage to show that Obama and the WH are the originators of the sequestration:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/02/amazing-obama-caught-in-bald-faced-lie-on-white-house-sequester-video/
Obama could be caught in BED,,,with a 14 year old BOY, a RUSSIAN Surface to air MISSILE up his ASS, and a CUBAN Cigar in his mouth,,,,and the Lame Stream Media,,,would still be his Lap(hand-job)DOG…
(for my bro-n-law, Jeffrey)….