Barry's Sequester Scare Tactics

[chiefst2000]

“[Do Republicans] protect investments in education, health care and national defense or do they continue to prioritize and protect tax loopholes that benefit the very few at the expense of middle and working class Americans?”
-- White House statement on pending, automatic spending cuts.
Would Republicans rather your house burn down than raise taxes on rich people?
Today, president Obama is certainly suggesting that they would. He is appearing with firefighters and other first responders to renew his call for tax hikes on top earners to offset part of automatic spending cuts set to kick in two weeks hence.
Obama’s argument is that Janet Napolitano and her team at the Department of Homeland Security will have no choice but to cut off subsidies for local fire departments once the cuts take effect, forcing layoffs at firehouses.
Now, Napolitano presumably could cut other parts of her agency, ammunition orders, for instance. But it wouldn’t be so dramatic for the president to pose with a case of shotgun shells as it would to appear with people who run into burning buildings for a living.
Taxes went up for every American worker this year, and Obama won a special targeted tax rate hike on high-income households. The size of the targeted tax hike that Obama spent most of post-election political capital on was about the same size as what will be vacuumed out of federal spending this year: about $85 billion.
While Obama argued that the economy was strong enough to weather the tax hikes, he says that it cannot endure spending reductions of the same size. In fact, he says more taxes would be preferable to any reduction in federal outlays. The president, after all, would like to see yet more taxes to finance yet more spending.
But aside from the economic argument, Obama is warning that unless Republicans agree to more taxes, people will die.
The emergency personnel with the president today are the embodiment of Obama’s preferred form of economic stimulus: government workers (who, not coincidentally, are the most important part of his political base).
But aside from the economic argument, Obama is warning that unless Republicans agree to more taxes, people will die. Obama warns of understaffed fire departments, furloughed food inspectors and vacancies in the agency that tracks loose nuclear material. He says he is for having the wealthy pay “their fair share” while Republicans, must prefer raging infernos, tainted food and radioactive waste.
Bipartisan budget mavens Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson have put on offer today an updated version of their debt reduction plan. It’s a broad-spectrum fiscal reform that includes cuts, taxes and changes to entitlement programs.
This is the kind of plan that moderates have been begging for. Rather than crashing over fiscal cliff after fiscal cliff, Simpson and Bowles are proposing a decade-long plan to set things on a sustainable course.
Obama, though, torpedoed any hope of a big plan with his tax January tax hikes. Obama had the chance to do what Simpson and Bowles propose when House Speaker John Boehner came to him with an offer of higher taxes through lower deductions for the rich.
Obama flatly refused, insisting on a rate hike, and now wants the deduction money. This exhausted the Republican capacity for compromise on their ideological core issue of keeping tax rates low.
But Obama bets that if he frightens voters with firefighter layoffs, etc., Republicans can be shamed into raising taxes again or at least set themselves up for a midterm defeat.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...#ixzz2LNv8iTws

Its interesting to note that Democrats have such a chub for government spending that even cutting a few percentage points off the rate of growth of the MILITARY budget is too much for them. I keep hearing that the CBO predicted 750K job losses as a result of the sequester. Coincidentially that is the same number of job losses they predicted due to Obama's fiscal cliff tax hike yet then liberals ignored it.

Look at the bolded part of the article. The tax loopholes Barry proposed closing will raise 85Billion over 10 years. I don't have a problem with the proposal as part of a larger tax reform bill but to use it to offset spending reductions? Thats not a serious proposal.

If we had a real leader at the helm he would have been pushing the new modified Simpson Bowles plan. That won't happen because it appears that the true ideologues are the Extreme Left Wingers in charge of the Democrat party that are literally averse to any cut in spending for any reason ever.

[cr726]

I just signed my furlough notification.

[chiefst2000]

Originally Posted by cr726

I just signed my furlough notification.

Unfortunately elections have consequences. I don't believe that anyone will get furloughed though. It's just scare tactics. That said I would advise you to call your senator and ask they they support the new Simpson Bowles plan.

[Tucker134]

Originally Posted by chiefst2000

Unfortunately elections have consequences. I don't believe that anyone will get furloughed though. It's just scare tactics. That said I would advise you to call your senator and ask they they support the new Simpson Bowles plan.

Obama loves the sequester...all part of his grand plan to take the house in 2014. He doesn't have the countries best interests in mind....just his social justice agenda.

[chiefst2000]

Originally Posted by cr726

I just signed my furlough notification.

Incidentally, here are some examples of expenditures Democrats refused to cut in order to keep you from being furloughed:

$3,000,000,000 to provide a free new cell phones every month to anyone on any government assistance program

• $75,000 to promote awareness about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees & poinsettias.

• $15.3 million for one of the infamous Bridges to Nowhere in Alaska.

• $113,227 for video game preservation center in New York.

• $550,000 for a documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

• $48,700 for 2nd annual Hawaii Chocolate Festival, to promote Hawaii’s chocolate industry.

• $350,000 to support an International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy.

• $10 million for a remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan.

• $35 million allocated for political party conventions in 2012.

• $765,828 to subsidize “pancakes for yuppies” in the nation’s capital.

• $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking.

See the whole list here:
http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/...3-c25a5e194365

[cr726]

Or how about the costs of the Iraq war?

Originally Posted by chiefst2000

Incidentally, here are some examples of expenditures Democrats refused to cut in order to keep you from being furloughed:

$3,000,000,000 to provide a free new cell phones every month to anyone on any government assistance program

• $75,000 to promote awareness about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees & poinsettias.

• $15.3 million for one of the infamous Bridges to Nowhere in Alaska.

• $113,227 for video game preservation center in New York.

• $550,000 for a documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

• $48,700 for 2nd annual Hawaii Chocolate Festival, to promote Hawaii’s chocolate industry.

• $350,000 to support an International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy.

• $10 million for a remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan.

• $35 million allocated for political party conventions in 2012.

• $765,828 to subsidize “pancakes for yuppies” in the nation’s capital.

• $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking.

See the whole list here:
http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/...3-c25a5e194365

[OCCH]

Originally Posted by cr726

Or how about the costs of the Iraq war?

You don't have to agree with the war, but it doesn't make "pancakes for yuppies" any more acceptable . . .

[DDNYjets]

Didn't Obama promise in the debates that this would never happen?

[AlwaysGreenAlwaysWhite]

Originally Posted by DDNYjets

Didn't Obama promise in the debates that this would never happen?

Sure did... Also promised middle America would never see their taxes increased... The latter being far bigger on the broken promise scale.


But hold up! Blame the House!!! Why the **** not? It helped him get re-elected...

[cr726]

Originally Posted by OCCH

You don't have to agree with the war, but it doesn't make "pancakes for yuppies" any more acceptable . . .

Soldiers dying and it costed us billions. Pancakes? Great comparison.

[AlwaysGreenAlwaysWhite]

Originally Posted by cr726

Soldiers dying and it costed us billions. Pancakes? Great comparison.

So... Iraq is why you're furloughed, eh?

[cr726]

Originally Posted by AlwaysGreenAlwaysWhite

So... Iraq is why you're furloughed, eh?

Nah, those billions spent bombing the sand had zero impact on the deficit.

[Tucker134]

[QUOTE=cr726;4816004]Nah, those billions spent bombing the sand had zero impact on the deficit.[/QUOT

Get a clue, It's 2013. Bush/Iraq derangement syndrome lives on. Obama has run $1 trillion plus deficits every yr of his administration....liberal monkeys still blaming Bush. The economy is stagnant, there has been a very tepid recovery. Enuff w the Bush sh*t.

[MnJetFan]

How about the losses in Afghanistan under Obama, the killing of innocent civilians using drones all under Obama. Lets not forget Egypt, Syria and Libya.

[chiefst2000]

Originally Posted by cr726

Or how about the costs of the Iraq war?

I agree we should definitely be thinking about getting out of Iraq as some point soon.

[chiefst2000]

Originally Posted by cr726

Nah, those billions spent bombing the sand had zero impact on the deficit.

So your contention is that a war that cost 600Billion or so over 10 years but ended 3 years ago is why you are being furloughed? We have a 17Trillion dollar debt and 1 trillion yearly deficits but the interest on that particular $600 Billion is what bothers you? Not the yuppie pancakes or Pakistani sesame street?

[cr726]

Originally Posted by chiefst2000

So your contention is that a war that cost 600Billion or so over 10 years but ended 3 years ago is why you are being furloughed? We have a 17Trillion dollar debt and 1 trillion yearly deficits but the interest on that particular $600 Billion is what bothers you? Not the yuppie pancakes or Pakistani sesame street?

Did we pay for either war with cash or credit? The wars created massive debt, so you tell me did these wars add billions to our debt?

[cr726]

[QUOTE=Tucker134;4816035]

Originally Posted by cr726

Nah, those billions spent bombing the sand had zero impact on the deficit.[/QUOT

Get a clue, It's 2013. Bush/Iraq derangement syndrome lives on. Obama has run $1 trillion plus deficits every yr of his administration....liberal monkeys still blaming Bush. The economy is stagnant, there has been a very tepid recovery. Enuff w the Bush sh*t.

Ignorance is bliss. Too big to fail did not help either.

[chirorob]

Originally Posted by cr726

Did we pay for either war with cash or credit? The wars created massive debt, so you tell me did these wars add billions to our debt?

Regardless of how the war was paid for, people need to go through the budget and look at all of these stupid expenditures. When you add up all the little losses of 50,000 to 3 million dollars, you get huge amounts of money. I do it for my office every couple months. Go through the bank statements with a fine tooth comb, $10 a month here, $30 a month there, save $50 with a better cleaning service. At the end of the month I have an extra $500 to $1000 saved. At the end of the year, it's like a free vacation.

Personally, I'm glad the I can work my ass off, so I can be taxed more, so Hawaii can have a freakin chocolate festival. Or so Obama and his family can take 2 jumbo jets on vacation instead of just 1.

[cr726]

Originally Posted by chirorob

Regardless of how the war was paid for, people need to go through the budget and look at all of these stupid expenditures. When you add up all the little losses of 50,000 to 3 million dollars, you get huge amounts of money. I do it for my office every couple months. Go through the bank statements with a fine tooth comb, $10 a month here, $30 a month there, save $50 with a better cleaning service. At the end of the month I have an extra $500 to $1000 saved. At the end of the year, it's like a free vacation.

Personally, I'm glad the I can work my ass off, so I can be taxed more, so Hawaii can have a freakin chocolate festival. Or so Obama and his family can take 2 jumbo jets on vacation instead of just 1.

Let me know when your office gets an Army.