In the latest round of battles on Capitol Hill the finger
pointing about the upcoming Sequestration is mind-boggling. The looming
sequester has everyone blaming everyone else for how we got to this point. It
seems everyone was for it before they were against it, or were they against it
before they were for it? I think my head may explode trying to figure it out!
Let’s take a step back and look at the history of our debt
that led to Sequestration being placed on the table.
At 1:09 p.m on February, 25, 2013 our debt looked like this:
On this same day on 2008 our debt looked like this:
The calculator on my Dashboard will not let me enter these
kinds of figures to calculate the difference! Using a web calculator the debt
increased by…
$7,132,936,383,814!
In 2004, on this same day the debt looked like this:
And this in 2000:
(All screen shots taken from http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
During the Bush Administrations two terms the debt increased
$3,689,837,934,826.
Now, I don’t think any debt is acceptable, but the fact that
President Obama has increased the debt nearly twice as much as his predecessor
in only one term is outrageous. What is even more outrageous is the fact that
in order to keep spending levels the same, the cry for more revenue is going
unchallenged by the majority of Americans. I get no one wants their pet project
to go on the chopping block when it comes to funding. However, when we are in
such steep debt to nations like China, the time has come to make some difficult
decisions, regardless of whether or not you may lose votes.
In 2011, President Obama needed Congress to increase the
debt limit. This was something he himself said was irresponsible when President
Bush asked for the same thing. On March 16, 2006, on
the floor of the US Senate, then Senator Barack Obama said this:
Mr.
President, I rise today to talk about America’s debt problem.
The
fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of
leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own
bills.
He goes on to say:
Every
dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in
America’s priorities. Instead, interest payments are a significant tax on all
Americans—a debt tax that Washington doesn’t want to talk about. If Washington
were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we would see an effort to
reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies.
Vice President Joe Biden agreed with Obama:
Over $3
trillion in debt, foreign debt and debt held by Americans, has been piled up by
this administration.
When he
set out on the course that brought us to this sorry state, the President was
clearly and repeatedly warned that massive tax cuts would leave us vulnerable
to natural disasters, economic slowdown, or threats to our national security.
‘‘Don’t worry,’’ the President told us. ‘‘I know what I am doing.’’
I have to say, I agree with both then Senators Obama and
Biden – who both voted against raising the ceiling. Where is this commonsense
thinking today? Wait, they are in power so the game has changed and their
adding $7,132,936,383,814 to the debt is
justified.
The hypocrisy is disgusting and ALL Americans should be
outraged. Unfortunately, half of the population voted for this hypocrisy and
bought into the premise of raising taxes on the wealthy. Well, that happened in
December, along with a raise in the payroll tax for every working American. Now
to end the threat of mandatory spending cuts on specific government agencies
through the Sequestration, who Bob
Woodward documents as being proposed by non other than Jack Lew, President
Obama’s current nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, President Obama is on
the road telling the American people how awful it will be if Republicans do not
agree to more revenue to avert the Sequestration.
Enter the continuation of what I call…
Governing by Fear!
Standing in front of some of our finest first responders, President
Obama lectured:
Now, Congress, back in 2011, also
passed a law saying that if both parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reach that
$4 trillion goal, about a trillion dollars of additional, arbitrary budget cuts
would start to take effect this year. And by the way, the whole design of
these arbitrary cuts was to make them so unattractive and unappealing that
Democrats and Republicans would actually get together and find a good
compromise of sensible cuts as well as closing tax loopholes and so
forth. And so this was all designed to say we can't do these bad cuts;
let’s do something smarter. That was the whole point of this so-called
sequestration.
If I am not mistaken, Democrats control the White House and
Senate. So, let me ask the inconvenient question of why they have waited until
the 11th hour to find the solution to this “unattractive and
unappealing” law HE signed? Republicans passed two bills in the house to avoid
this mess! The Democrat leading the Senate has refused to allow them to come up
for a vote.
Therefore, my conclusion is this…President Obama governs
by fear.
He fails to lead by putting good ideas on the table, and
then points the finger at everyone else, especially Republicans, when failure
shows up on the doorstep. When the nation is put in a state of panic because
his party truly lacks solutions to effectively solve the problems our nation
faces, he thrives on it. If he can put the fear in American’s hearts, then he
can get what he wants. And he knows it.
Unfortunately, this type of leadership never ends well. My real
fear is it will be too late to really solve our financial crisis before the
note is called by China. President Obama prefers to annihilate anyone who
disagrees with his methods than lead with the respect and dignity the office of
the President deserves.
Sources:
Kessler,
Glenn; Obama’s fanciful claim that Congress ‘proposed’ the sequester, Wasington Post, 10/26/2012; http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/obamas-fanciful-claim-that-congress-proposed-the-sequester/2012/10/25/8651dc6a-1eed-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_blog.html
