Obama’s Cowardly Mendacity Over Sequestration
In August 2011, Obama hatched a deal to grant himself a free $2.1 trillion increase in debt, which would take him past the 2012 elections, thereby sparing him the embarrassment of another debt limit request during the campaign season. He knew that such a request was so bold it needed to be ensconced in a deal that would give voters the impression he was committed to cutting spending. To that end, the Budget Control Act called for the creation of a super committee to identify $1.2 trillion in baseline cuts and tax increases. Given that the committee would be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, Obama knew that this would trigger the sequestration. And that is exactly what he wanted.
Nobody could accuse Republicans of designing the sequester. Only a leftist like Obama would ensure that the one mechanism to actually cut spending would disproportionately cut defense. For example, this year’s sequester will cut $42.7 billion from defense, $28.7 billion from non-defense discretionary spending, and $14 billion from mandatory spending, most notably, to healthcare providers. Obama figured that Republicans would be so scared of the defense sequester that they would come to him begging for a reprieve. That way Obama would be saved from cutting one penny of spending from any account, and could possibly leverage more tax increases in exchange for letting them off easy with defense spending cuts.
A free $2.1 debt limit increase in exchange for nothing but defense cuts and possible leverage to raise taxes…..sounds like a nice plan, doesn’t it?
In 2011, Republicans went along with this insane plan. As a result, we burned through the $2.1 trillion in new debt in just 17 months. We actually increased spending during that time period. Now the time to pay the infinitesimal price of spending cuts has come due. Conservatives decided to draw a line in the sand and not fall into Obama’s trap. While we don’t like the fact that 50% of the cuts will come from the most important part of the budget, which only represents 20% of total outlays, we will not pass up an opportunity to cut non-defense discretionary spending; nor will we be suckered into more tax hikes.
In August 2011, Obama hatched a deal to grant himself a free $2.1 trillion increase in debt, which would take him past the 2012 elections, thereby sparing him the embarrassment of another debt limit request during the campaign season. He knew that such a request was so bold it needed to be ensconced in a deal that would give voters the impression he was committed to cutting spending. To that end, the Budget Control Act called for the creation of a super committee to identify $1.2 trillion in baseline cuts and tax increases. Given that the committee would be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, Obama knew that this would trigger the sequestration. And that is exactly what he wanted.
Nobody could accuse Republicans of designing the sequester. Only a leftist like Obama would ensure that the one mechanism to actually cut spending would disproportionately cut defense. For example, this year’s sequester will cut $42.7 billion from defense, $28.7 billion from non-defense discretionary spending, and $14 billion from mandatory spending, most notably, to healthcare providers. Obama figured that Republicans would be so scared of the defense sequester that they would come to him begging for a reprieve. That way Obama would be saved from cutting one penny of spending from any account, and could possibly leverage more tax increases in exchange for letting them off easy with defense spending cuts.
A free $2.1 debt limit increase in exchange for nothing but defense cuts and possible leverage to raise taxes…..sounds like a nice plan, doesn’t it?
In 2011, Republicans went along with this insane plan. As a result, we burned through the $2.1 trillion in new debt in just 17 months. We actually increased spending during that time period. Now the time to pay the infinitesimal price of spending cuts has come due. Conservatives decided to draw a line in the sand and not fall into Obama’s trap. While we don’t like the fact that 50% of the cuts will come from the most important part of the budget, which only represents 20% of total outlays, we will not pass up an opportunity to cut non-defense discretionary spending; nor will we be suckered into more tax hikes.