Not content to put on scare shows in Washington, the Obama Administration is now sending threatening letters all across the country, letting each state know how it will be affected by what the Washington Post calls “deep spending cuts” that actually amount to only 2.3 percent of the federal budget. And that’s not an actual cut in spending. It’s a reduction of the projected increase in spending. But I guess the Washington Post speaks Washingtonian, so they are going to be called “deep cuts” even though they are not.
It’s the same thing in every state. The administration warns darkly of teachers and teacher’s aides being laid off, of jobs being lost at military bases, of reductions in children’s vaccines – all the kinds of things the administration hopes will stir people’s emotions and demand that the cuts be stopped.
Well, if President Obama wants to stop this from happening, Republicans are ready to offer him several ways to do it. One would require the same amount of cuts – remember, it’s only 2.3 percent of the projected increased spending level – but would give Obama flexibility in deciding where to cut. Senator Rand Paul offered a very good proposal that would achieve the same level of savings through things like employee attrition and the elimination of things like travel budgets.
It’s really not that hard to find $85 billion to cut out of a budget of $3.6 trillion.
But Obama refuses to consider these ideas at all. The only thing he is interested in what he calls “balance,” but what the rest of us call tax increases. Obama does not want to cut spending. At all. Period. Ever. Even the sequester doesn’t really cut spending. It only reduces the increase. Obama will lead a national freakout if the GOP tries to force him to cut even the tiniest amount, which is why we sadly have little hope of achieving fiscal sanity during his presidency. He is simply not serious about solving the problem, and he will put on this carnival act all day long rather than do what a real leader would do.
