The White House is out with its Sequester Doom & Gloom - but what does the chart really say? - Granite Grok

The White House is out with its Sequester Doom & Gloom – but what does the chart really say?

Ah yes, Obama hoisted on his own petard.  How “smooth” is it for the White House to start hauling out these “the Sequester is going to hurt children and old people” stats, but fail to note “Oh yeah, our boss was the one that first suggested this with his last self-serving hissy fit on the last debt ceiling fight”:

  • Some 600,000 poor women and children will no longer get free milk and cheese
  • 2,100 fewer food inspections will take place if federal budget cuts expected to kick in March 1 actually take place.
  • federal agencies notified hundreds of thousands of federal workers that furloughs could be around the corner
  • 70,000 children would get kicked out of early childhood intervention programs that help poorer children catch up to middle-class peers, heading into kindergarten.
  • 1,000 fewer criminals would be prosecuted due to furloughed federal prosecutors.
  • 4 million fewer “Meals on Wheels” would be delivered to the elderly.
  • 1,000 fewer research grants would be awarded, cutting research and laboratories for some 12,000 scientists and students.

Oh, the horror of it all – this PROGRESSIVE policy of “try to trick the Republicans” – Obama set this up to take a hard toll on the Military, believing that the Republicans would cave before letting that happen.  Seems, however…

that in this game of Chicken, Obama is blinking because the House Republicans are doing the reverse political jui-jitsu of “look, we’re in the briar patch”.  Oh the other hand, how much money are we REALLY talking about:

sequester-savage

These are large and arbitrary cuts, and will have severe impacts across government,” said Danny Werfel, federal controller of the Office of Management and Budget.

Severe?  Really?  There’s not much of a spit’s difference between pre- and post-sequester amount spent, right?  As my friend Doug used to say all the time when it comes to Government spending our money “Every Dollar is sacred” – no, not when it is in your wallet but in theirs – and it doesn’t stay there long!

(H/T: image at Hot Air)

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