RUSH: This whole weekend was bizarre in terms of reporting on the sequester. Here’s Lori Montgomery in the Washington Post: “As deadlines go, the March 1 sequester lacks punch. Nobody’s taxes will go up; the US Treasury won’t run out of cash. Government offices won’t immediately turn out the lights and lock the doors. Most federal workers wonÂ’t face furlough for at least 30 days.” Ms. Montgomery here doesn’t seem to be the hysterical reporter that her paper is known for.
“So Washington felt little need to cancel the Presidents’ Day holiday break. On Friday, President Obama flew to Florida for a long weekend of golf. And Congress left town for nine days, with scant hope of averting deep cuts to the Pentagon and other agencies in the short time remaining when lawmakers return.” So the Washington Post complained here there isn’t enough hysteria. That’s what they’re really saying. Lori Montgomery’s upset there’s not enough hysteria about this, despite their nonstop series of articles on the upcoming apocalypse. You’ve seen these stories.
You’ve heard Democrats claim that food will be taken from the mouths of babies, that we will not have a nuclear arsenal, that we will not be able to defend ourselves. CNN steps in. They claim: “Unless Congress steps in, some $85 billion in massive spending reductions will hit the federal government, doling out furloughs to much of the nation’s 2.1 million federal workforce, experts say,” but only in the bizarre world of our one-party news media would a cut of $85 billion from a budget of $3,800 billion be called “massive spending reductions.” Let me give you the proper perspective.
The sequester features $85 billion of cuts, and because of this $85 billion in cuts, you’ve heard what’s gonna happen. “Federal workers thrown out of jobs! The sleigh ride at Jellystone Park canceled! Food for kids will be not provided! No school lunch, no school breakfast, no school this or that!” It’s the same thing as the budget battle of 1995. We’re talking $85 billion. We’re not even talking about real cuts. I don’t even know why I go through this anymore. You all know it. We’re not cutting anything. We’re just reducing the rate of growth. The baseline says that defense and Medicare are gonna go up eight to 10%.
So instead, they’re gonna go up six to eight percent, and that’s called a Draconian cut. But, look, $85 billion. The sequester will reduce the budget by $85 billion. The relief package for Sandy aid, Hurricane Sandy relief aid, cost $50 billion. The extension of federal unemployment benefits costs $30 billion. Congress passed those without batting an eye! Right there is $80 billion that we’re spending. Nobody blinked. It’s not a big deal. But $85 billion in cuts? “Why, the world is gonna come to an end!” There aren’t any cuts. Now, what the White House is doing, by the way… I’ve got some companion stories here.
CNNMoney.com: “Federal Worker Furloughs Could Start in April.” That’s right! because this $85 billion in cuts, we are gonna have to lay off two million federal workers! From the Washington Times: “Budget-Busting Burgers: Beef, Chicken Supply Could be Casualties of Congress, Obama Sequester Fight — Food shortages may be one effect.” There may be national food shortages if the sequester happens! We may have to shut down the Pentagon and 2.1 million federal workers might be furloughed. It is irresponsible. None of this is going to happen, because there aren’t any cuts. All there is, if the sequester happens, is reduction in the rate of growth.
I, for one, doubt the sequester is going to happen. Do you notice a pattern here? Everything’s the same. If it’s the debt limit deal, it’s the same thing. “If we don’t get this done, Oh, my God, we can’t pay our bills! Oh, my God, what’s gonna happen to our credit rating? Oh, my God, we’re gonna be the laughingstock of the world! Oh, my God, we’re not gonna be able to pay our bills! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” Then at the last moment a deal is struck, and everybody goes, “Ahhhhh, good.” After the debt limit, then we got the fiscal cliff, and it’s the same pattern: “If we don’t get it done, it’s over!”
It was the same pattern in 2008 with TARP and the automobile bailout. “If we don’t spend $800 billion right now, the economy of the world will collapse,” and there’s still $200 billion from TARP that’s not been spent yet. It’s the same pattern, and now it’s the sequester. What this is is an ongoing, concerted effort to ensure as best they can that no massive majority public support for any reduction in the size of government will ever happen. That’s the objective here, is to so poison people’s minds. That $85 billion out of a budget of $3-1/2 trillion? Not spending $85 billion wouldn’t even be noticed!
It would be the equivalent of you earning $100,000 a year and losing a quarter, or the equivalent of people telling you that you’ve gotta give somebody a quarter. What impact would losing 25¢ have on you if you earn a $100,000 a year? We have $3-1/2 trillion, and there’s all this panic and apocalypse over $85 billion? So the point here is to make sure the public never, ever supports spending cuts ’cause even a dollar will ruin something for somebody. From The Politico.com: “House Democratic leaders are urging their rank-and-file members to use next weekÂ’s recess to hold press conferences and other events humanizing the negative effects of sequestration alongside senior citizens, small business owners, police officers and teachers.”
So it’s the same thing. “If we do this, your town’s gonna lose its cops! If we do this, your town’s gonna lose its firefighters!” Even though your town and your cops and firefighters are not paid by the federal government. “It doesn’t matter! Your teachers, your senior citizens, they are gonna lose their Social Security, and they’re gonna lose their Medicare, and they may never get it back!” We’re talking $85 billion. Folks, let me just tell you something. To ever get serious about this — serious about it to the extent that we make changes that will matter and prevent us from becoming Greece — we’ve gotta be talking trillions of dollars in cuts, not $85 billion.
That $85 billion is irrelevant. It is chump change. It’s insignificant. We are headed for an utter, total collapse. We’re gonna have to cut trillions of dollars. We are $17 trillion in debt, and it’s gonna be $22 trillion by the time Obama leaves office in 2016, and there’s no end in sight for this. The federal government currently spends $10.5 billion dollars a day. We’re talking about less than ten days’ worth of spending! One week! One week of government spending we’re talking about being cut, and with one week’s worth of cuts, all of this apocalypse is gonna happen? As usual, you’re being lied to and “extremed” to death, pummeled, and beaten up. They’re not even letting you up to breathe, you are being so immersed in this stuff.
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