The debt goes up $4 billion per day. Ho-hum. I know my congressman is working diligently on it. Why, just the other day, he was reading the Constitution aloud on the House floor. In today’s paper, he was shown visiting local school students and telling them what Congress needs to do. Funny; why isn’t he doing those things? Easier to talk about it than to do anything, I suppose.
If the witch was talking to an Obama Dorothy, I would find the cartoon more apropos., especially if congress was depicted as the lion, scarecrow, and tin man running away to leave their ‘leader’ in the clutches of the witch.Dorothy needed to be part of a team to defeat the witch. But congress lacks the brains, courage, or heart and stand like Oz behind the curtains moving levers and putting on a show; causing fear in order to keep in power.^The most probable outcome is one where sequestration is ‘kicked down the road’ a few months or another year leaving businesses, ‘job creators’, and the military awaiting another artificial disaster. However… there are a lot of conservatives and even a few liberals who say, let it happen. The gov’t will also owe billions in fines and penalties to companies who are contracted for work that will no longer be done. If sequestration does occur we face an uncertain future.^If conservatives are right, the deficit will drop rapidly, the debt clock will slow or even reverse. Jobs will be created, the economy will improve, and people who have been trained to be dependent on the gov’t will pull themselves up by the bootstraps and find pride in new jobs and opportunities.^If the majority of businessmen, military leaders, gov’t agency management, and small business owners are right, this is going to be an unmitigated disaster that will leave us weaker militarily, cause the housing market to stop its recent growth, cause the stock market to go from hovering at 14k to the levels prior to Obama’s first term, and that doesn’t include the tens of millions of Americans from school children, to first responders who will see cuts that will change life as they’ve known it.^If liberals are right, it will be worse even than that.^I do not see a positive outcome from this self inflicted wound. I fear at best it will create such a backlash against the GOP that the Dems will have the majorities they’ve wanted for decades and will fail to show restraint or bipartisanship. We need a second party to keep a single party from overreaching. And both of our parties tend to overreach.At worst, I see riots like those in the 60s and children dying from hunger and deprivation as food programs for schools and poor families are cut. I see national forests burning with no money for the planes and men to fight fires, and homes burnt to the ground. I see insurance costs rising and disaster assistance reduced or cut entirely. I see our military unprepared for a serious war, our veterans deprived of necessary services, and our enemies encroaching on our friends overseas. This and more are part of my worst case scenario.If the conservatives are right, and sequestration ‘saves’ the nation, they will deserve the praise and votes they get in 2014. If they are wrong, they will deserve the blame and seats they lose. But I seriously doubt they will ever admit they were wrong, no matter what the outcome may be.Sadly,C.
When the Republicans PASSED it, Paul Ryan took the credit for them on sequestration. When it comes to Republican policies, they’re all like a cattle rancher buying a prize bull, then “improving his herd” by submitting the bull to castration.
You’re an idiot. “Sequestration” didn’t happen while Obama was a Senator.,“Now, Congress, back in 2011, also passed a law saying that if both parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reach that $4 trillion goal, about a trillion dollars of additional, arbitrary budget cuts would start to take effect this year. And by the way, the whole design of these arbitrary cuts was to make them so unattractive and unappealing that Democrats and Republicans would actually get together and find a good compromise of sensible cuts as well as closing tax loopholes and so forth. And so this was all designed to say we can’t do these bad cuts; let’s do something smarter. That was the whole point of this so-called sequestration..Unfortunately, Congress didn’t compromise. They haven’t come together and done their jobs, and so as a consequence, we’ve got these automatic, brutal spending cuts that are poised to happen next Friday. ".http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/19/remarks-president-sequester
I Play One On TV about 11 years ago
The debt goes up $4 billion per day. Ho-hum. I know my congressman is working diligently on it. Why, just the other day, he was reading the Constitution aloud on the House floor. In today’s paper, he was shown visiting local school students and telling them what Congress needs to do. Funny; why isn’t he doing those things? Easier to talk about it than to do anything, I suppose.
chazandru about 11 years ago
If the witch was talking to an Obama Dorothy, I would find the cartoon more apropos., especially if congress was depicted as the lion, scarecrow, and tin man running away to leave their ‘leader’ in the clutches of the witch.Dorothy needed to be part of a team to defeat the witch. But congress lacks the brains, courage, or heart and stand like Oz behind the curtains moving levers and putting on a show; causing fear in order to keep in power.^The most probable outcome is one where sequestration is ‘kicked down the road’ a few months or another year leaving businesses, ‘job creators’, and the military awaiting another artificial disaster. However… there are a lot of conservatives and even a few liberals who say, let it happen. The gov’t will also owe billions in fines and penalties to companies who are contracted for work that will no longer be done. If sequestration does occur we face an uncertain future.^If conservatives are right, the deficit will drop rapidly, the debt clock will slow or even reverse. Jobs will be created, the economy will improve, and people who have been trained to be dependent on the gov’t will pull themselves up by the bootstraps and find pride in new jobs and opportunities.^If the majority of businessmen, military leaders, gov’t agency management, and small business owners are right, this is going to be an unmitigated disaster that will leave us weaker militarily, cause the housing market to stop its recent growth, cause the stock market to go from hovering at 14k to the levels prior to Obama’s first term, and that doesn’t include the tens of millions of Americans from school children, to first responders who will see cuts that will change life as they’ve known it.^If liberals are right, it will be worse even than that.^I do not see a positive outcome from this self inflicted wound. I fear at best it will create such a backlash against the GOP that the Dems will have the majorities they’ve wanted for decades and will fail to show restraint or bipartisanship. We need a second party to keep a single party from overreaching. And both of our parties tend to overreach.At worst, I see riots like those in the 60s and children dying from hunger and deprivation as food programs for schools and poor families are cut. I see national forests burning with no money for the planes and men to fight fires, and homes burnt to the ground. I see insurance costs rising and disaster assistance reduced or cut entirely. I see our military unprepared for a serious war, our veterans deprived of necessary services, and our enemies encroaching on our friends overseas. This and more are part of my worst case scenario.If the conservatives are right, and sequestration ‘saves’ the nation, they will deserve the praise and votes they get in 2014. If they are wrong, they will deserve the blame and seats they lose. But I seriously doubt they will ever admit they were wrong, no matter what the outcome may be.Sadly,C.
Dtroutma about 11 years ago
When the Republicans PASSED it, Paul Ryan took the credit for them on sequestration. When it comes to Republican policies, they’re all like a cattle rancher buying a prize bull, then “improving his herd” by submitting the bull to castration.
Yontrop about 11 years ago
You’re an idiot. “Sequestration” didn’t happen while Obama was a Senator.,“Now, Congress, back in 2011, also passed a law saying that if both parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reach that $4 trillion goal, about a trillion dollars of additional, arbitrary budget cuts would start to take effect this year. And by the way, the whole design of these arbitrary cuts was to make them so unattractive and unappealing that Democrats and Republicans would actually get together and find a good compromise of sensible cuts as well as closing tax loopholes and so forth. And so this was all designed to say we can’t do these bad cuts; let’s do something smarter. That was the whole point of this so-called sequestration..Unfortunately, Congress didn’t compromise. They haven’t come together and done their jobs, and so as a consequence, we’ve got these automatic, brutal spending cuts that are poised to happen next Friday. ".http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/19/remarks-president-sequester