Sequestration
April 26, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The Democrats proposed sequestration as part of a package to secure an increase in the debt ceiling, but they never expected it to go into effect. When it did, they felt double-crossed, apparently because they thought Republicans owed it to them to fold like a cheap suit, as usual. When the Republicans figured out that sticking with the sequester was a pretty good outcome–it represented a modest, but real, restraint
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April 10, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The federal government is grounding military aircraft and cutting back on airport security lanes. I heard that a day or two ago, here in the Twin Cities, the airport closed all but one of its security lines, and TSA employees were walking up and down the line, telling people it was because of the sequester. But the sequester hasn’t cramped the White House’s style. True, if you are a regular
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March 19, 2013 — John Hinderaker
When Harry Reid told reporters he had heard a rumor that Mitt Romney didn’t pay any taxes, I thought he had sunk as low as a politician possibly can. But I was wrong. Today, Reid outdid himself. He politicized the tragic death of seven Marines in a mortar accident by linking the accident to the sequester: Details are emerging. We really don’t know, the area has been blocked off. As
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March 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
That the sequester has thrown the Obama administration for a loop is understandable. President Obama, riding a long winning streak, may well have believed that Republicans would back down in the face of his threats to demagogue the issue. And he almost surely believed that, if he demagogued the issue, a clear majority of the public would take his side. So naturally, when things didn’t work out that way, the
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March 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Multimillionaire Steve Rattner, President Obama’s former car czar, is using Twitter (@SteveRattner) to provide real-life examples of the impact of the sequester. First, he tweeted: DoD just cancelled a summer intern program my son was going to apply to. As if this weren’t tragic enough, a few minutes later he added: And my friend’s son was just told his Capitol Hill internship would now be unpaid. Rattner offered no information
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March 6, 2013 — Steven Hayward
So I’m out of pocket for one whole day, and what happens? The stock market makes a new all-time high, despite—or perhaps because of?—the sequester. Yesterday it was reported late in the day that Obama was picking up the phone and calling Republican leaders seeking some kind of deal to end the sequester. Sounds like someone just blinked, as John notes was a distinct possibility in his post yesterday. As
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March 6, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Washington Times has obtained an email from an email from Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official Charles Brown saying he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact. The email indicates he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts Congress had been warned of. Times reporter Stephen Dinan quotes Brown’s message: “We have
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March 4, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Is it because folks remembered President Obama’s promise during one of the debates that there will be no sequester? Is it because word got out that the sequester was Obama’s idea? Is it because folks don’t mind the sequester and resent Obama’s effort to make it sound like the end of the world? Is it because the flap with Bob Woodward was more storm than drizzle? Or is it just
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March 2, 2013 — John Hinderaker
…because last night, President Obama signed an order directing federal agencies to implement the sequester cuts. So this morning, we can breathe a sign of satisfaction as we sip our morning coffee. (Champagne corks may be appropriate, but will have to wait until tonight.) What the sequester shows is that, contrary to the cynical conviction that was all too well justified by experience, government spending can be cut. Republicans don’t
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March 1, 2013 — John Hinderaker
With liberals shrieking hysterically at the prospect of small cuts in federal spending–equal to 2 1/2 french fries out of a Big Mac Extra Value Meal–this is an opportune time to talk about where all of that borrowed federal money goes. We are saddling our children with $17 trillion in debt to do what, exactly? Well, we are keeping Barack Obama in the style to which he has become accustomed,
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March 1, 2013 — John Hinderaker
One would hope that the spectacle the Democrats have made of themselves over the prospect of a modest increase in federal spending for FY 2013 would be enlightening to a lot of voters. The Democrats’ craving for federal dollars is not unlike that of a junkie for heroin, and the lengths of dishonesty to which Barack Obama and the Democrats will go to keep the money flowing are likewise reminiscent
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February 28, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Apparently E.J. Dionne is not content with all the love we’ve sent his way here the last couple of days, and so today’s he’s descended to primal scream liberalism. In today’s column Dionne stamps his feet and demands, “This has to stop.” What has to stop? The permanent budget crisis, that’s what. But to repeat something said yesterday: I thought liberals liked crisis, because, pace the Crisis and Leviathan thesis,
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February 27, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
here, that President Obama is winning the sequester battle but losing the war: The more time we spend on pointless disputes about budget cuts no one is expected to make soon, the less we spend trying to solve the problems that confront us today — and, God forbid, thinking about the future. The 2012 election gave President Obama new authority and new energy. Republicans want to place as much distance
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February 27, 2013 — Steven Hayward
From the apparent horror of the White House, you’d think March 1 was threatening castration rather than sequestration. And they might be right in a sense; as we’ve argued here before, Obama and the Democrats seem much more terrified of sequestration than Republicans for the simple reason that more of their key client groups depend on the discretionary programs that will be pinched in sequestration. Fiscal castration indeed. Will the
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February 26, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The idea that the sequester cuts, which actually amount to more like $44 billion than the $85 billion that is often bandied about, are somehow draconian, is ridiculous. Out of a $3.55 trillion federal budget–well, no, the federal government doesn’t have a budget, that is just an estimate of FY 2013 spending–$44 billion is a pittance. So it is time to bring back my Big Mac analogy. In March 2011,
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February 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, Steve suggested that congressional Republicans should prepare detailed budget cuts of their own, department-by-department, providing exact line items of what programs can be cut or delayed under a sequester. If House Republicans can get their act together to that extent, I second the motion. Meanwhile, here’s another possible approach that isn’t inconsistent with Steve’s. When the public begins to feel the bite of the sequester, House Republicans should haul
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February 24, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Hysteria is rampant inside the Beltway, as politicians and their media fanboys contemplate the unheard-of possibility that federal spending may not rise very much this year. The horror! I’m guessing that outside the confines of America’s last boom town, the idea of cutting federal spending sounds pretty good. Most voters are probably skeptical that it will really happen, given the federal government’s iron grip on our wallets, and they may
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