Sequestration is not a word most of us use in our daily lives. But it seems like we’ve been hearing an awful lot about it lately. And what we hear from President Obama and his various spokespersons is downright scary. Allegedly our food won’t be inspected, our skies won’t be safe, our children won’t be educated, our borders won’t be patrolled, and life as we know it will cease to exist.
What kind of massive, draconian, heartless cut in federal spending could bring about such catastrophic devastation?
2.4%. That’s right, about 2 and a half cents of every dollar Washington now spends, is what we’re talking about. It’s $85 billion out of a $3.6 trillion budget. And the irony is, it was the Obama White House’s idea in the first place.
Back in August of 2011, when Republicans in the House, Democrats in the Senate, and President Obama were struggling to deal with the debt ceiling impasse and the out-of-control spending issue, an agreement was reached to allow the debt ceiling to increase, and a so-called super committee to come up with $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over a 10 year period. And if the super committee couldn’t agree on what to cut, there would be $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts, across the board, half in defense cuts and half in domestic program cuts. Well, the super committee turned out to be not so super, and so the automatic cuts are scheduled to kick in in March (those cuts are the sequester.)
None other than liberal author Bob Woodward confirms that the sequester was the Obama White House’s idea. And Obama White House Press Secretary Jay Carney admitted that “Sequester was one of the ideas put forward, yes, by the President’s team.” Democrat Senator Max Baucus of Montana agrees that “the White House recommended it (the sequester) frankly.”
Now the President acts like the sequester is just another Republican scheme intended to harm the American people.
When I was asked by the Cincinnati Enquirer the other day what I thought about the sequester, here’s what I told them: “Sure, there are preferable ways to trim the federal deficit. But with a Senate that hasn’t passed a budget in four years, and a President fixated on raising taxes at every turn, the sequester is currently the only opportunity we have to begin to slow the growth in federal spending.”
And coincidently, as of today, Wednesday, February 27th, it has now been exactly 1400 days since the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a budget. That’s one reason it has been so difficult to get any reasonable spending restraints in place in Washington – the Senate is just not doing its job.
There are more preferable ways to cut spending than across the board, as the sequester does. And the Republican House has twice passed bills which would do just that. For example, making deeper cuts in areas that are more wasteful (such as Obamaphones) would be better, but Harry Reid’s Senate and President Obama just haven’t been receptive. The one thing the President has made no secret about, is that he’d love to once again raise taxes on the evil rich. Republicans are not likely to be dragged into doing that again, as they were less than two months ago, sequester or not.
So how does this all play out? No one knows for sure. But as always, I welcome your input.
