Stop The Nonsense: Sequester Won’t Hurt
[Stop The
Nonsense: Sequester Won’t Hurt by Dick Morris] "President Obama and his media
allies are pushing the notion that sequester will destroy Western Civilization.
States are saying that the cuts will devastate the economy; the Pentagon insists
they will “hollow out” the military. Eight hundred thousand civilian DOD
employees will have to take a 20% pay cut. Head start is at risk. All manner of
chaos will descend if we trim the Discretionary Budget from 1,034 billion to 950
billion!
Don’t believe it for an instant.
Start with Defense spending. The US now spends 19% of its budget on Defense. The
sequester would drop it to 18%. Big deal! That’s the same percentage it was in
2000. Under Obama, the Defense budget has risen from $545 billion to $605
billion. Sequester will reduce it back to $563 billion — still more than when
Obama took office.
It is absurd to suggest that this cut will endanger American security. Under
Reagan, defense rose to 29% of the budget. But since the early 1990s, it has run
between 18 and 20 percent and these cuts would leave it still within this range.
The domestic non-defense cuts are even less likely to cause major damage. Non
defense discretionary spending has risen under Obama from $468 billion to $514
billion. Sequester would drop it back to the same level as it was when Obama
took office. As a percent of the budget, this category has dropped from 18% of
the budget when Clinton took office to 16% now. Sequester would drive it down to
15%. Again, big deal!
To pretend that driving spending down to pre-Obama levels will be a disaster is
on its face ridiculous.
But, of course, under the ground rules of sequester — approved by Obama — the
president decides where to cut. Congress only specifies the amount. Of course,
like any big city mayor pleading for more state aid, the president is projecting
the worst possible cuts, maintaining that core programs will have to be
jettisoned.
Obama is like a person going on a diet who proposes amputation of a limb as
opposed to eating less to reach his weight goal.
Don’t buy any of it. Sequester will have only minimal effect on government
services.
Obama’s contention that it will devastate the economy is even more ludicrous.
The president has just signed almost $300 billion of tax increases into law for
2013 — about 2% of our GDP. To pretend that these are OK, but an $85 billion cut
in spending will cause the economy to collapse is just absurd.
Sequester is a process Obama agreed to. Republicans would be quite willing to
cut entitlements rather than government spending or defense. But Obama won’t
hear of it. Obama, for his part, would be happy to see $85 billion in more taxes
with no spending cuts. But the Republicans won’t go along. So let both sides
stop pretending that sequester is the end of the world. The Republicans should
back off their contention that it would collapse our defenses and the Democrats
from
Their argument is that it would destroy poor people and ruin our so-called
economic recovery.
All sequester would do is to undo the spending excesses of the Obama years."
Stop The Nonsense: Sequester Won’t Hurt
Am 8:5
Related:
Woodward: Obama Not Telling Truth on Sequester
Woodward To Hannity: Not ‘Threatened’ By White House, But Still Concerned About Intimidation
Response to comment [from a Pinko Commie]: "Is Dick Morris the world's worst political pundit?..."
Ad hominem. What do you think about the sequester?
"...Dick Morris says it there's a 80% chance he's wrong..."
Ad hominem. What do you think of the sequester?
Obama’s first sequester move: Releasing “waves” of illegal
immigrants from detention centers
