So I rose this morning to the sounds of birds chirping on their annual flight from South to North. The sky was a perfect shade of blue, and the traffic lights all were in perfect operating condition for my daily trek towards productivity. I counted three police vehicles, all of them being driven by peace officers. I also confirmed with my local fire department that they were indeed open and just waiting for some actual emergency to happen so that they might be able to spring into action. I saw a line of cars at several McDonald's restaurants, Gas stations were open for those motorists who needed to fill their tanks, and both television and radio stations were telling me all I never wanted to know about current events. In short, life is happening today, much as it has since that early Spring morning almost 50 years ago when I made my entrance into this world.
Welcome to, "gasp!" Sequestration day, plus 4. Just like the great Gulf Oil spill disaster of 2010, the ill effects of Chicken Little episode number 964 have been greatly overblown. (Before the usual suspects of Liberal America start bunching their panties into that irretrievably uncomfortable wad, I know that the oil spill was not a good thing. That being said, even you guys have to admit that the predictions of all life ending for every species of animal and plant in that region have not become reality. Fishermen never stopped fishing, and the owners of beach resorts opened their businesses immediately after the episode ended. Further, any stories that we've heard about actual problems have been few, and not at all that terrible, in fact, I'm not really sure that there have been any permanent ill effects at all.)
Rest assured that what ever shuts down in our Government, and who ever may find themselves temporarily out of work, back pay and postdated restitution will be made or arranged for. In effect, this is nothing more than a paid vacation for every poor civil servant, who by the way statistically speaking, probably is remunerated at a rate 40% greater than their private sector counterpart to begin with, who finds him or herself sent home as a result. What's important to remember in the coming days of news reports desperately seeking any kind of human suffering that can be found and then blamed upon those evil Republicans, is that our President's Constitutional duty is as our nation's chief executive. When any organization cuts its budget, it is the executives of that organization who determine where and how deeply to make those cuts. When Barack Obama goes about the business this week ensuring that the cuts are felt hardest of all within those areas of government that most people agree are the essential services that government provides, please use your head and realize that that particular cut was Barack Obama's doing, and nobody else's. There are plenty of other places where the cuts could have been made, and as long as I can tune in NPR and listen about or latest gift of weapons and such to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Libya, I would say that we haven't come anywhere near eliminating the unnecessary that should have gone long before we got to the police and firefighters that our President has been trotting out onto stages that he's appeared on during his taxpayer funded campaign tour.
Elections have consequences, and Barack Obama's rampage to destroy America is one we've earned by electing this Man and his band of minions. The EPA, Departments of Education, Energy, Obamacare, Dodd Frank, are all relatively new sources of government largess that have done not one single positive thing for our national well being. I bet we could lose those boondoggles and suffer not one single negative consequence, and all of that before the first policeman loses his job.
Comment
Comment by Kate Bowe on March 5, 2013 at 10:18am Comment by Frank Haydock on March 5, 2013 at 9:47am I got some news for all the turnips out there, bouncing around on the truck. Sequestration is a non-event when you are talking about cuts that are less than 5% of the total federal spending and those cuts are in areas essential for defense, health, safety, and transportation. The cuts do not include anything of the raw entitlements which are given out to the 50.1% of the bums out there who have had their votes bought and paid for like skid row street whores.
There is $338 billion per year (that is billion with a B) of spending that is being spent on ILLEGAL ALIENS – that is ILLEGAL ALIENS – and everyone is crowing and beating their chest about $85 billion in sequestration cuts. We cannot see fit to cut the subsidy spending on ILLEGAL ALIENS and take care of two problems. If we are not subsidizing ILLEGAL ALIENS, they will certainly find their way home. So, immigration problem solved in addition to finding four times the sequestration cuts without putting the country in peril. Well DAH!!!!!!!!!!
It is true the sky is not falling. The USA is falling past the sky. The sky is falling up; America is falling down. The relative velocity of the sky is up compared with our position in a nation that has fallen off the cliff. The only problem is we are still in flight so we are perfectly content to ride the horse because we have not begun to feel the pain, see the LZ, or hit the bottom. The problem with going over the cliff is not the fall; it is that sudden and imminent stop that is quite terminal. Obama is taking us there. We have an incompetent Congress and Supreme Court that is allowing it.
Comment by Jeff Waller on March 4, 2013 at 8:52pm and...BOOM
Another one blows up in Obama's face!
Comment by Jeff Waller on March 4, 2013 at 8:51pm S+4, and counting!
Can I get an Amen?
Comment by Volunteer Patriot on March 4, 2013 at 3:47pm 
I would drink to all the above, John W.
Additionally, I have a couple of suggestions.
For addressing the budget shortfall predicament, what would you say to the following policies?
First, reduce the salaries of all public sector employees, starting with the DHS and TSA, by $10,000 per year for starters. This would apply to somewhere around 300,000 employees, give or take a few thousand. The net savings would equate to approximately $3 billion per year savings.
Next, let's begin reducing the number of employees in bloated bureaucracies by 10,000 per year for the next 10 years, and begin decommissioning the agencies which are not essential to maintaining critical infrastructures. This would equate to a savings of approximately $1.2 trillion over 10 years, and accrue at the rate of $1.2 to $10 billion savings per year onward. This is a good goal for improving fiscal responsibility.
Finally, begin taxing the trading and speculation on Wall Street, which is essentially untaxed at this point, to broaden the federal tax base by some $2 quadrillion / year. 1% tax would yield revenues at approximately 7 times the federal budget, eliminate all federal payroll taxes and federal income tax for everyone, and give all salaried or hourly paid worker in America an automatic 50% pay raise with no employer contributions, and no federal subsidies. The national debt could then be retired in 4 to 7 years without even breaking a sweat, and no reductions in the social safety net, essential infrastructure, or curtailing military spending, in the interest of maintaining defense preparedness.
Mandatory health insurance under the Patient Protection and (un)Affordable Care Act should also be eliminated and replaced by HSAs and private, competitive group health consortiums for negotiating the best solutions to meet individual needs.
Comment by Herb Irish on March 4, 2013 at 3:08pm Anyone stupid enough to vote for this Bozo (actually, 51% of the electorate), is likewise stupid enough to believe his consummate and blatant lies about sequestration. The imbecile-in-charge cannot tell a truth - his tongue rejects all attempts to do so. The only problem with sequestration is that it doesn't go nearly far enough. Our gutless and spineless House Republicans cower in fear of upsetting the clown in the White House and could stop the downward spiral of our economy very quickly if they had the stomach and courage for the task. The first step in correcting this gigantic problem is to de-fund O'Bummercare. Wishful thinking!
Comment by Debrajoe Smith-Beatty on March 4, 2013 at 2:40pm So we see that in this paradigm, we begin to take our power back when we refuse to go along, when we no longer cooperate with the injustice. This is a choice. When we see power as an exercise of choices, we begin to see that every day, every moment gives us an opportunity to exercise our power and that our choices become opportunities to either liberate or oppress. When people cross lines that typically divide, they generate power, power that builds spirit and trust and conscious organizing. That is one of the greatest challenges of an organizer – how to bring diverse communities into respectful relationship with one another, where using or losing privilege strategically can equalize power and spread access to resources to those who have the least, where those most impacted have the greatest voice
Right out of Obama's hand book of rules.
Comment by Cynthia Zapotocky on March 4, 2013 at 2:39pm John: How does this cutting process actually work? How are the actual cuts determined department by department?
© 2013 Created by Judson Phillips.
You need to be a member of Tea Party Nation to add comments!
Join Tea Party Nation