What the Disloyal, Unfaithful President Obama Has Done Now

What the Disloyal, Unfaithful President Obama Has Done Now
By Wendy Bidwell
Friday, February 08, 2013

As many of you know, on Tuesday, President Obama asked Congress to delay the sequester and pass a hybrid solution of spending cuts and tax increases. Whoa… Not so fast. 

 If you have been following the sequester in the news, you already know that approximately $1.1 trillion dollars in automatic cuts over the next decade are set to go into effect on March 1st. Half of the cuts are to discretionary spending (which doesn't include Medicare, Social Security, or Medicaid) and half are to defense. It is important to note these are not real cuts, but just cuts to future growth… 

 This sequester Obama now wants to cancel was part of the debt ceiling legislation that passed in July of 2011. The White House gave birth to the sequester to get fiscally conservative U.S. Representatives to agree to raise the debt ceiling. 

 Ideally, our lawmakers should be able to agree on $1.1 trillion dollars in spending cuts… They could start with Tom Coburn's suggestions in Wastebook 2012 and go from there. 

 However, the legislation was designed as automatic, across-the-board spending cuts over the next decade to prevent kicking the can further down the road. It was written in such a way so that if for some reason our lawmakers couldn't decide on cuts, both sides of the aisle would take a hit… The Democrats don't want cuts to discretionary spending, and the GOP doesn't want cuts to defense. 

 Charles Krauthammer says, "Of course, the sequester is terrible policy. The domestic cuts will be crude and the Pentagon cuts damaging. This is why the Republican House has twice passed bills offering more rationally allocated cuts. (They curb, for example, entitlement spending as well.)" 

 I agree with Krauthammer that this is bad policy. But that isn't really the point I'd like to make today… 

 The President came up with the sequester to offset the cost of raising the debt ceiling. Since the debt ceiling part has already gone into effect and cannot be reversed, the sequester should now take effect. As a wise man once told me, "There is a lot of gray area… but some things are simply black and white." 

 Also, the President has no intention of reforming the tax code, but he would like to raise taxes on hardworking Americans (even though he already got his tax increases in the fiscal cliff deal). If the GOP and Representatives from Obama's own party wish to exercise good judgment, they will stand firm on the sequester. 

 The negotiating on this issue took place over a year ago… It is time for the President to fulfill his side of his own compromise. If the sequester (or another mix of spending cuts that equal $1.1 trillion) doesn't go through, then our lawmakers are reneging on their commitments to us, the taxpayers. But there is also more than logic to factor into this argument… 

 According to today's Rasmussen Reports update, only 36% think the President and Congress should stop the cuts slated for March 1st. Our lawmakers thought voters would oppose any automatic, across-the-board spending cuts, but they were wrong.