by George Rodriguez
While President Obama is lobbying the public to stop the Sequestration, he forgets that it is his law. It was passed by Congress and he signed it in 2011 at the height of the “raising the debt limit” debates.
Sequestration was Obama’s idea and recommendation because he was not willing to honor any of the “reduced spending” recommendations from Simpson-Bowles committee. He convinced certain Republican House members to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for more time to debate on how to reduce spending and what should be cut.
However, in this law there are specific items like a $500 billion reduction in the Defense Department budget which is a “Republican sacred budget cow” in addition to others. Apparently, Obama felt safe that the Sequester would never happen and he played political “chicken” with House Republicans.
Since 2011, Obama has continued to show his bad faith by not proposing meaningful spending cuts, and we have had one legislative crisis after another including “the fiscal cliff” drama last December. In the meantime, some GOP House members have caved to Obama by raising taxes and getting very little in spending cuts, by agreeing to avoid the Fiscal cliff, and by deferring to March 1st 2013 the issue of Sequestration.
NOW Obama is again playing “chicken” and he does not want to reduce spending unless House Republicans raise taxes or eliminate more deductions on the “rich” which will ultimately affect the middle class.
Obama never expected the House Republicans to play poker with him, as they are now forcing him to come up with “meaningful spending cuts” or let the Sequester Law become effective March 1st.
We support the Tea Party legislators that have held the line and said “let the Sequester happen”. Unfortunately, this is the only way Obama will be forced to make the spending cuts that are the law, and which are needed to avoid another down grade in the government debt rating.
If the Sequester does happen, and if Obama does NOT start making the spending cuts called for in the law, then he will be breaking his own law. Obama and his supporters are trying to scare the American public, specifically the uninformed voters, in hopes that they will panic and put pressure on the House Republicans to cave again to Obama.
The Sequestration is Obama’s law and he should deal with it. He can give government agencies authority to move money around for priorities. But apparently he prefers to play politics and scare people instead governing.
George Rodriguez is president of the South Texas Political Alliance and can followed on Facebook at “El Conservador”.
