Obama"s Plan to Win Shutdown Charade: Your Pain, His Gain
When the GOP forced President Barack Hussein Obama to put up or shut up about his threat of €sequestration€, i.e., budget sequestration and automatic federal government spending cuts which finally went into effect on March 1st, Obama had a not-so-secret plan to make those cuts as painful as possible on the American people in order to create a backlash against the Republican Party.
With approximately $85.4 billion in cuts during fiscal year 2013 through fy2021, under sequestration a total of $1.2 trillion in spending cuts would occur over the next decade, (CBO estimate), resulting in a 5% reduction in spending based on Washington's current outlays of taxpayers' bucks.
The Sequesterer in Chief cut defense programs by $454 billion over that period, non-defense programs by $294 billion, Medicare by $123 billion (in 2013), plus incidental expenditures - saving $169 billion in debt-service costs in the process.
Knowing that the reductions would have little to no direct and immediate effect on average Americans and desperate to cause as much direct and immediate pain, aggravation, and fury as possible, Obama closed the gates and doors to America's White House effective last March and blamed budget cuts.
(More precisely, our president closed our White House to tours and tourists; lobbyists, Democrat politicians, and unidentified visitors would still be welcome.)
A recording on the call line for White House visitors advised callers: €Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House tours will be canceled effective Saturday March 9th, 2013 until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours. We very much regret having to take this action particularly during the popular spring touring season.€
(That has now turned into the summer and autumn tourist seasons as well.)
Rep. Candice S. Miller (R-MI), chairwoman of the Committee on House Administration which oversees the tour program, urged the president €to stop trying to deflect blame, stop trying to justify the unjustifiable, and reopen the doors of the White House to the American people.€ Donald Trump offered to fund the tours himself. Fox News' Sean Hannity and Eric Bolling pledged to pick up a week's worth of the $74,000 cost, which might be excessive since Jonathan Karl did the math and figured the White House is only saving $18,000 a week by turning away unwanted visitors.
Whether it costs $18,000 or $74,000 per week to allow American tourists to see what they're paying for or foreign tourists to see what they wish they had and kids to experience what might be the thrill of a lifetime, as the Washington Post characterized the inane move, it's a €kind of bureaucratic hostage-taking€ and the blowback will be €a proper come-uppance.€
However, Obama doesn't much care about costs or kids or come-uppances, proper or otherwise, when it comes to putting the screws to the GOP and hoping those screws bring Republicans to their collective knees and join him in bankrupting the country.
What America - and the world - are witnessing today with the €shutdown€ by the federal government of all non-essential services is nothing more than an extrapolation of Obama's infantile sequestration tactics intended not to comply with the requisites of the first, partial, federal shutdown in 17 years but to use it as an excuse to again pummel the GOP for not acceding to his demands of running the nation into and beneath the fiscal ground.
If the president were intent on minimizing the effects of the federal shutdown, which should only cause delays in processing passport and visa applications, issuing gun permits, continuing U.S. bankruptcy court cases and approving mortgage applications but, as with the sequestration €crisis€, he would negotiate his differences with the opposing party as all other presidents have done in the past.
But Obama and his Senate refuse to negotiate anything. They have grandiose designs on our republic that are non-negotiable.
Yogi Berra and Yogi Bear Mimicking Yogi Berra's memorable observation that €It's d©j vu all over again€ but apparently oblivious of Yogi's remonstrances that €It ain't over 'til it's over€ and €You can observe a lot by watching,€ Obama and his appointed lackeys have been pursuing policies not aimed at saving precious dollars but apparently to push the public to the point of revolt.
A few days ago, Breitbart.com compiled a semi-definitive list of the extent to which the Obamians are going in order to inflict the greatest pain, the greatest harm, and the greatest insults on the American people.
They include: Denying experimental cancer treatments for desperate children, threatening punishment for military chaplains if they dare to perform their duties, even to say Mass for free, closing all national memorials and monuments and access roads to places like Mount Rushmore, removing the Amber Alert website until, as CNN reported, bad press persuaded Obama to restore it, blocking sports and entertainment programs intended for our overseas troops and closing commissaries, denying death benefits to families of dead soldiers, expelling people from private residences, etc.
(Since the president's mainstream media will dutifully ignore all but the most unavoidable stories on the above, see Breitbart's listing at http://tinyurl.com/nqky5ve.)
Testimony to Obama's devious purposes in this whole shutdown charade was provided by a D.C. Park Service Ranger who frankly admitted, €We've been told to make life as difficult for people as we can€ because €It's a cheap way to deal with the situation.€
The Ranger concluded, €It's disgusting,€ which was kind.
The Daily News reported € €Gestapo' Tactics Meet Senior Citizens at Yellowstone.€ As despicable as those tactics were, seniors should be prepared for the latest threat to their welfare: Tuesday, the Social Security Administration warned them it can't guarantee full benefit payments unless the debt ceiling is raised.
The €why€ of what Obama and his administration are doing under the guise of a federal shutdown - doing unnecessarily and sometimes brutally - can be explained only by two related possibilities: Either they have zero concerns for people and their rights and dignity (almost a given) or they are intent on provoking civil disruption in America on such a scale that the president has no other option than to declare martial law.
Come that eventuality, they may come to appreciate the wisdom of Yogi Berra when he profoundly said, €It ain't over 'til it's over.€
With approximately $85.4 billion in cuts during fiscal year 2013 through fy2021, under sequestration a total of $1.2 trillion in spending cuts would occur over the next decade, (CBO estimate), resulting in a 5% reduction in spending based on Washington's current outlays of taxpayers' bucks.
The Sequesterer in Chief cut defense programs by $454 billion over that period, non-defense programs by $294 billion, Medicare by $123 billion (in 2013), plus incidental expenditures - saving $169 billion in debt-service costs in the process.
Knowing that the reductions would have little to no direct and immediate effect on average Americans and desperate to cause as much direct and immediate pain, aggravation, and fury as possible, Obama closed the gates and doors to America's White House effective last March and blamed budget cuts.
(More precisely, our president closed our White House to tours and tourists; lobbyists, Democrat politicians, and unidentified visitors would still be welcome.)
A recording on the call line for White House visitors advised callers: €Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House tours will be canceled effective Saturday March 9th, 2013 until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours. We very much regret having to take this action particularly during the popular spring touring season.€
(That has now turned into the summer and autumn tourist seasons as well.)
Rep. Candice S. Miller (R-MI), chairwoman of the Committee on House Administration which oversees the tour program, urged the president €to stop trying to deflect blame, stop trying to justify the unjustifiable, and reopen the doors of the White House to the American people.€ Donald Trump offered to fund the tours himself. Fox News' Sean Hannity and Eric Bolling pledged to pick up a week's worth of the $74,000 cost, which might be excessive since Jonathan Karl did the math and figured the White House is only saving $18,000 a week by turning away unwanted visitors.
Whether it costs $18,000 or $74,000 per week to allow American tourists to see what they're paying for or foreign tourists to see what they wish they had and kids to experience what might be the thrill of a lifetime, as the Washington Post characterized the inane move, it's a €kind of bureaucratic hostage-taking€ and the blowback will be €a proper come-uppance.€
However, Obama doesn't much care about costs or kids or come-uppances, proper or otherwise, when it comes to putting the screws to the GOP and hoping those screws bring Republicans to their collective knees and join him in bankrupting the country.
What America - and the world - are witnessing today with the €shutdown€ by the federal government of all non-essential services is nothing more than an extrapolation of Obama's infantile sequestration tactics intended not to comply with the requisites of the first, partial, federal shutdown in 17 years but to use it as an excuse to again pummel the GOP for not acceding to his demands of running the nation into and beneath the fiscal ground.
If the president were intent on minimizing the effects of the federal shutdown, which should only cause delays in processing passport and visa applications, issuing gun permits, continuing U.S. bankruptcy court cases and approving mortgage applications but, as with the sequestration €crisis€, he would negotiate his differences with the opposing party as all other presidents have done in the past.
But Obama and his Senate refuse to negotiate anything. They have grandiose designs on our republic that are non-negotiable.
Yogi Berra and Yogi Bear Mimicking Yogi Berra's memorable observation that €It's d©j vu all over again€ but apparently oblivious of Yogi's remonstrances that €It ain't over 'til it's over€ and €You can observe a lot by watching,€ Obama and his appointed lackeys have been pursuing policies not aimed at saving precious dollars but apparently to push the public to the point of revolt.
A few days ago, Breitbart.com compiled a semi-definitive list of the extent to which the Obamians are going in order to inflict the greatest pain, the greatest harm, and the greatest insults on the American people.
They include: Denying experimental cancer treatments for desperate children, threatening punishment for military chaplains if they dare to perform their duties, even to say Mass for free, closing all national memorials and monuments and access roads to places like Mount Rushmore, removing the Amber Alert website until, as CNN reported, bad press persuaded Obama to restore it, blocking sports and entertainment programs intended for our overseas troops and closing commissaries, denying death benefits to families of dead soldiers, expelling people from private residences, etc.
(Since the president's mainstream media will dutifully ignore all but the most unavoidable stories on the above, see Breitbart's listing at http://tinyurl.com/nqky5ve.)
Testimony to Obama's devious purposes in this whole shutdown charade was provided by a D.C. Park Service Ranger who frankly admitted, €We've been told to make life as difficult for people as we can€ because €It's a cheap way to deal with the situation.€
The Ranger concluded, €It's disgusting,€ which was kind.
The Daily News reported € €Gestapo' Tactics Meet Senior Citizens at Yellowstone.€ As despicable as those tactics were, seniors should be prepared for the latest threat to their welfare: Tuesday, the Social Security Administration warned them it can't guarantee full benefit payments unless the debt ceiling is raised.
The €why€ of what Obama and his administration are doing under the guise of a federal shutdown - doing unnecessarily and sometimes brutally - can be explained only by two related possibilities: Either they have zero concerns for people and their rights and dignity (almost a given) or they are intent on provoking civil disruption in America on such a scale that the president has no other option than to declare martial law.
Come that eventuality, they may come to appreciate the wisdom of Yogi Berra when he profoundly said, €It ain't over 'til it's over.€
