{"id":17625,"date":"2013-02-23T20:26:46","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T01:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=17625"},"modified":"2013-02-23T20:26:46","modified_gmt":"2013-02-24T01:26:46","slug":"separating-truth-from-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=17625","title":{"rendered":"Separating Truth From Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sequestration will take effect on Friday, March 1.To hear President Obama<\/a> describe it, sequestration will be the end of life as we know it in America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There were two articles posted in the Washington Post on Friday–one written by George Will<\/a> and one written by Bob Woodward<\/a>. George Will describes sequestration as a manufactured crisis, and Bob Woodward states that sequestration was initiated by Jack Lew<\/a>, Rob Nabors<\/a>, and President Obama (contrary to the claims of the President that it was the Republican’s idea).<\/p>\n

George will reminds us that that USS Truman<\/a> was delayed in deploying to the Persian Gulf. He is not convinced that this was necessary. He states:<\/p>\n

The Defense Department\u2019s civilian employment has grown 17\u2009percent since 2002. In 2012, defense spending on civilian personnel was 21\u2009percent higher <\/a>than in 2002. And the Truman must stay in Norfolk? This is, strictly speaking, unbelievable.<\/strong><\/p>\n

George Will reminds us of previous crises that never quite materialized:<\/p>\n

Remember when \u201ca major cooling of the climate\u201d was \u201cwidely considered inevitable\u201d (New York Times, May 21, 1975) with \u201cextensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation\u201d (Science magazine, Dec. 10, 1976) which must \u201cstand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery\u201d (International Wildlife, July 1975)? Remember reports that \u201cthe world\u2019s climatologists are agreed\u201d that we must \u201cprepare for the next ice age\u201d (Science Digest, February 1973)? Armadillos were leaving Nebraska, heading south, and heat-loving snails were scampering southward from European forests (Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 27, 1974). Newsweek (April 28, 1975) said meteorologists were \u201calmost unanimous\u201d that cooling would \u201creduce agricultural productivity.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

We’ve been here before.<\/p>\n

Bob Woodward reports:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sequester was something that was discussed,\u201d Carney said. Walking back the earlier statements, he added carefully, \u201cand as has been reported, it was an idea that the White House<\/a> put forward.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was an acknowledgment that the president and Lew had been wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why does this matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, months of White House dissembling further eroded any semblance of trust between Obama and congressional Republicans. (The Republicans are by no means blameless and have had their own episodes of denial and bald-faced message management.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Second, Lew testified during his confirmation hearing that the Republicans would not go along with new revenue in the portion of the deficit-reduction plan that became the sequester. Reinforcing Lew\u2019s point, a senior White House official said Friday, \u201cThe sequester was an option we were forced to take because the Republicans would not do tax increases.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, the final deal reached between Vice President Biden<\/a> and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell<\/a> (R-Ky.) in 2011 included an agreement that there would be no tax increases in the sequester in exchange for what the president was insisting on: an agreement that the nation\u2019s debt ceiling would be increased for 18 months, so Obama would not have to go through another such negotiation in 2012, when he was running for reelection.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So when the president asks that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts. His call for a balanced approach is reasonable, and he makes a strong case that those in the top income brackets could and should pay more. But that was not the deal he made.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Make no mistake–the purpose of all this panic is to create an atmosphere where Americans are willing to raise taxes–even on the middle class. The tax increases will be on everyone. The panic over sequestration is necessary to pave the way for those taxes.<\/p>\n

As I said, we have been here before.<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sequestration will take effect on Friday, March 1.To hear President Obama describe it, sequestration will be the end of life as we know it in America. There were two articles posted in the Washington Post on Friday–one written by George … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[97,3112,3226,1275,2150,734,562,164,3653,4473,211],"class_list":["post-17625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-bob-woodward","tag-defense-sequestration","tag-george-will","tag-jacob-lew","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-obama","tag-republican","tag-sequestration","tag-tax-increases","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17625"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17627,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17625\/revisions\/17627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}