There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the sequestration idea was the brainchild of certain Democrats, and reporter Woodward named them. Sequestration happened because Obama rejected his own Simpson-Bowles commission’s advice and refused to look at any fiscal plans offered by Republicans. He has refused to deal with anything, letting all matters go to crisis stage (manufactured or real), and now his game of kick the can down the road has caught up with him.
For some background that led up to the Woodward event, Obama and his kind just got a tax increase, and so far the country has ero cuts. The country hasn’t had a signed budget since April 29, 2009 – nearly all of the Obama presidency – yet somehow in this budget-less climate, the government is still spending.
According to usgovernmentspendign.com, it spent $3.8 trillion in 2012, and that is $1.3 trillion more than it took in – as in, taxing the American workers. The numbers are just as bleak for recent prior years and will be repeated for 2013 and more in 2014.
The numbers are mentioned because the House GOP is asking for a mere $85.3 billion in cuts for this fiscal year. The math is simple: That is 0.0445 percent. I repeat: less than one-half of 1 percent.
Surely not even a hard-line liberal Democrat would look at those numbers and honestly attempt to support not giving at least $85.3 billion in cuts. That amount is tantamount to the $50,000-a-year household giving up $2.225 per year. That is 4.27 cents per week. Nearly every spectrum of income has given up a heck of a lot more than that – every household but blind Democrats who stand with Obama Inc., anyway.
Standing at the White House podium in 2011, Obama said, ”I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending.” In February 2013 he said, “These cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy.” He then told country that sequestration could be avoided; “We just need Republicans in Washington to come around.”
They did, Mr. President. You harped and whined about taxing ”millionaires and billionaires” and the GOP, to the regret and disappointment of many, gave you higher taxes on those households of $400,000 and above. Now you are back for more. You keep moving the goal post – and it is not the first time you have done that. Frankly, you show yourself to be dishonest to the core.
He has a lot of help.
I got an email recently from DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schult . Her exact message is:
“Congressional Republicans have taken their partisan brinkmanship to an entirely new level.
“Unless they act by March 1st, billions of dollars in automatic cuts – the so-called sequester – will start to take effect. If it does, more than 2 million jobs could be lost, 70,000 children would be kicked off of Head Start, and 10,000 teachers’ jobs would be put at risk.
“With this fiscal crisis looming, what did John Boehner and Republican leadership do? They went on vacation, calling recess for the House this week even though Democrats voted to stay and work to avert this crisis.
“This is no time for recess. It’s time for them to do their job.”
I could find no supporting documentation for her claim that Democrats stuck around to work.
Republicans have two bills before the Senate that Harry Reid will not let off of his desk, yet the Democrats continue to tell the House GOP to give them something.
Now, with those facts, back to the subject at hand: The bullying by at least one Obama representative who threatened a journalist for his reporting. And factual reporting, at that.
Politico, ABC News, LBN and Yahoo News are among the many sources to repeat the same story. And Woodward’s story is, as told to CNN’s Wolf Blit er, that last week, the Washington Post reporter received an email from “a very senior person” at the White House. “It was said very clearly, ‘You will regret doing this.”” He did not disclose the Obama person’s identity, but another source, Ben Smith of Bu Feed, named White House Economic Council Gene Sperling. Woodward also received a tongue lashing over the phone for an hour about his reporting.
Interesting and quite telling is that Obama’s troops do not deny that the words were said and written; they just say there was no threat intended. Sure. Wolf Blit er invited a rep from the White House to come on the show with Woodward, but Obama’s side wouldn’t do it.
This president remains silent (or cowardly) on this issue of violating the First Amendment. His sycophants are heavily treading on the Second Amendment with their latest antics – and all of this with the recent U.S. Court of Appeals (D.C. Circuit) decision that declared Obama’s actions in 2012 as unconstitutional when he bypassed the U.S. Senate while it was still in session to make three appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
Americans need to wake up. When we are under the thumb of an administration in the White House with this degree of arrogance and dictatorship – to threaten a journalist – then we are descending to destruction as a once-free republic.
Betty Arenson has lived in the SCV since 1968 and describes herself as a conservative who’s concerned about progressives’ politics and their impacts on the country, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She says she is unashamed to own a gun or a Bible, couldn’t care less about the color of the president’s skin, and demands that he uphold his oath to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States in its entirety. Her commentary publishes Fridays.
The Danger of Arrogance | Commentary by Betty Arenson
