Sequestration Circus

Thanks to picking up a friend way too late last night, this post may ramble a bit here and there.  But Sequestration is a circus anyway.  So here goes.

Think I was too gloomy yesterday when I said Americans will let Obama skate on his Sequestration antics?  Think again.  According a Pew Poll, 31% blame Obama for the Sequestration situation, whereas 49% blame Republicans in Congress.

Lemme get this straight.  Obama proposes and insists on Sequestration.  House Republicans pass a reasonable bill to avoid it.  Obama proposes nothing but yet more taxes to avoid it.  And instead of negotiating with Republicans, he’d rather travel around to demagogue and smear them (when he’s not playing golf, of course):

. . . he didn’t open a line of communication with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell until Thursday, a week before the spending ax hits. And when they did finally hear from Obama, the calls were perfunctory, with no request to step up negotiations or invitations to the White House.

That’s because Obama’s all-in on an outside strategy, doing just about everything other than holding serious talks with Republicans. In the last two days alone, he’s courted local TV anchors, called in a select group of White House correspondents to talk off-the-record, chatted up black broadcasters, and announced plans to stump next week at Virginia’s Newport News Shipyard.

BUT about half of the American people blame Republicans.

Well, about half of the American people are idiots now. There, I said it.  However, Guy Benson sums it up a bit more nicely than I do:

This is a great gig, if you can get it. You conceive of a bad idea, demand that it be given the force of law, sign it into existence, and adamantly oppose efforts to alter or undo it — then when it no longer serves your fleeting political purposes, you drop the whole thing in the lap of your adversaries, and most people buy it. Let’s face it: Average people don’t know what sequestration is, what it would do, or why it even exists. If they were briefed on the very basics, these numbers would probably shift a bit, but most Americans have no appetite for following Washington’s endless political brinksmanship. So what do they do when a pollster calls to ask about the latest impending crisis? They use shortcuts. Although he’s not especially popular, the president is viewed much more favorably than Republicans in Congress these days. Between this reality and the supine posture of his battered-spouse media supporters, Obama occupies the public opinion high ground in most of these battles, even before he begins his tendentious bullying. On broad and intuitive issues like guns and Obamacare, his powers of persuasion are limited. But on easily-demagogueable budget minutiae with baffling names like “sequestration,” a lot of people don’t quite understand what’s going, nor do they really want to know. So they pick the guy they like better.

But I would still add that the stupidity of Americans is on the rise.  Most Americans in the 80’s were not idiots like this.

And the stupidity has infected Republicans as well.  Some just want to let the Obama regime choose where to cut spending.  They think that is a smart move politically – let Obama be blamed for the spending cuts.

Let’s see.  You have a demagogue and tyrant.  But to solve supposed problems, you pass an enabling act to let him do whatever he wants.  Hmm.  Where have I seen that before?

O. K. maybe I am being a bit overwrought.  But to just give away the power of the purse to Obama would be the height of irresponsibility.  And God knows what it would lead to.

Why can’t Republicans simply tell it like it is?  Sequestration would only slow the rate of increase in spending and not by much.  It is not a crisis at all, and Obama is only trying to make it one because he is committed to growing the size and the power of the federal government as fast as he can.  Republicans should tell Obama “NO!” and to quit his whining when he doesn’t get his way.

But if Republicans instead cave yet again, I may go Third Party.  I mean it.  And I was a Republican Precinct Chair for 8 years.  I am that fed up with Republicans enabling Obama and Democrats in growing the federal beast. 

But I’m mean.  I support Sequestration because I want to kill pitiful cute doe-eyed seals.