Tag: sequester

Barack Obama to actively campaign against the sequester THAT HE HIMSELF PROPOSED.

God, I love on-the-job training: don’t you?

And he’s going to do it with the usual living props, too: “President Barack Obama will once again call on members of Congress to avoid the mandatory spending cuts due to hit at the end of the month, joined by first responders whose jobs may be on the line, according to a White House official.”

Some thoughts on this:

  • This is remarkably small-ball for a sitting US President.  Watchers of municipality politics are familiar with the gambit, of course: a second-rate mayor (usually Democratic), faced with looming budget cuts (because the money was spent on some mindless enthusiasm of said mayor instead of what it was supposed to be spent on) will come out and cheekily proclaim that if the voters don’t give him more money then all of these firefighters here will get it in the neck.  Or school teachers.  Or whoever or whatever else the mayor thinks will get the public to panic. Continue reading Barack Obama to actively campaign against the sequester THAT HE HIMSELF PROPOSED.

Mitch McConnell: No, there will be no tax hikes to replace the sequester.

This is a pretty clear statement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that he would not accept a plan to avert the sequester by raising taxes, just days before Democrats are expected to propose exactly that.

“My constituents in Kentucky will not accept a tax hike in the place of spending cuts that were already agreed to by both parties,” McConnell said. “We agreed to reduce this amount of spending in October of 2011, without raising taxes. We’ve already made this agreement.

“The question is, what are we going to do about it?”

Continue reading Mitch McConnell: No, there will be no tax hikes to replace the sequester.

This is probably going to be my only real comment on the sequester.

Well, two comments.  The first is that I agree with John Boehner: it sucks, but the alternative of tax hikes sucks more, so we’ll have to do it if the Democrats refuse to cut spending.  Full disclosure: this means that I am explicitly supporting a policy that, if implemented, will directly and immediately lower my household’s income*.  Which, again, sucks, but the alternative is worse.  I have kids.

Second comment: if the sequester is implemented – and to be implemented all John Boehner has to do is absolutely nothing – then the withdrawal symptoms that politicians (particularly Democratic ones) will exhibit afterwards will be EPIC.  They’re already starting to look like junkies trying to score a fix, frankly.

Both links via The Transom.

Moe Lane

*Yeah, I’m trying to figure out how to ameliorate that problem myself.  Dammit, it’s not like recovering from a recession is actually hard; plenty of Democrats have managed the trick.