America, let's call President Obama's sequester bluff

Fox News.com ^ | February 07, 2013 | Charles Krauthammer

[haffast]

WASHINGTON – For the first time since Election Day, President Obama is on the defensive. That's because on March 1, automatic spending cuts ("sequestration") go into effect -- $1.2 trillion over 10 years, half from domestic (discretionary) programs, half from defense.

The idea had been proposed and promoted by the White House during the July 2011 debt-ceiling negotiations. The political calculation was that such draconian defense cuts would drive the GOP to offer concessions.

It backfired. The Republicans have offered no concessions. Obama's bluff is being called and he's the desperate party. He abhors the domestic cuts. And as commander in chief he must worry about indiscriminate Pentagon cuts that his own defense secretary calls catastrophic.

So Tuesday, Obama urgently called on Congress to head off the sequester with a short-term fix. But instead of offering an alternative $1.2 trillion in cuts, Obama demanded a "balanced approach," coupling any cuts with new tax increases.

What should the Republicans do? Nothing.

[haffast]

So what will they do? Hint:

Some in GOP want sequester deal
Politico ^ | 6 Feb 13 | JAKE SHERMAN
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2986421/posts

[bigheadfred]

2013 budget $1.8 trillion

2014-—????

my mama had 4 kids the first was 8.5 and the last was 10.5 and the doc said the next one will kill ya.

I have one sister and 2 brothers....

hahaha

[ClearCase_guy]

1) I strongly support Defense: it is essential.
2) There is no question that we could cut $60B in waste from each annual Defense budget over the next 10 years. So much of the spending is just done stupidly.

Bring on the sequester. I wouldn't hesitate for a second.

[DrDude]

Agreed. This is a no brainer. We are going down anyway. Might as well take the enemy down with you and hope to salvage something.

[GeronL]

Vichy GOPe seems to want to surrender AGAIN

[SkyPilot]

I love Dr. Charles Krauthammer, I really do. He is usually the most reasonable man in the room.

But his entire premise is: "OK, the criminal is holding a gun to our hostage's head....quick, get our snipers to kill the hostage first so the criminal won't get the satisfaction."

If you let the Sequester take place, you gut the military and break faith with our men and women in uniform. It wasn't the Dept of Defense that came up with this jack assery formula whereas 17% of the budget (Defense) takes 50% of the Sequester cuts.

The GOP singed up to that, and during the 2012 campaign told us all the cuts would be "devastating." And they will.

Now it is 2013 and the same GOP is walking around the Sunday shows telling everyone the cuts are really wonderful things, because Obama and Reid treated them bad during the Dec/Jan negotiations, and they want their mommies.

Look, if the cuts were horrible to Defense last year, they are horrible this year. The GOP should stop with it's own spin.

Our military leaders are screaming to anyone who will listen what these cuts will do.

No one is listening.

[RitaOK]

Not with this bunch in power, and I mean the R’s, will they let sequestration out of the shute. They are scared to assume
an upper hand, to have the ONE in a corner, finally, and beside that, everyone already knows that military s& defense spending is trumped by ObamaCare spending, and even Oahu weekends & Michelle’s wardrobe. The priorities around the joint have been well known, since November 6, 2012.

[flaglady47]

I’m for going ahead with the sequestration cuts. We can fix and build up the military 2-4 years from now, but this is the ONLY chance we have on God’s green earth of ever getting spending cuts on the social programs. This is it, our one chance. Go for it. We’ll fix the military after Obama’s regime is over, if not before, because Obama doesn’t really want the military to turn on him, and they will, bigtime.

[babygene]

” Our military leaders are screaming to anyone who will listen what these cuts will do. Our military leaders are screaming to anyone who will listen what these cuts will do. No one is listening.”

B.S. Bring on the cuts... Start by closing our foreign bases. And stop buying $800 toilet seats.

[blueunicorn6]

They will cut the defense budget and increase spending to buy Democrat votes.

[blueunicorn6]

The politicians are more afraid of losing elections than they are of losing American lives. Look at Benghazi.

[SkyPilot]

$800 toilet seats? so now we are repeating mainstream media lies and hyperbole from the 1980’s? These cuts are deep, harmful, and real to our military. If enacted, they will break faith with the force. They are already sapping morale. This nonsense about a “quick reset” is simply that.....nonsense. It will take time to recover the force posture, provided we have forces that remain and still trust our civilian leaders not to abandon them again so that entitlements could increase exponentially.

[Shery]

Remember that it was Obama who put out he terms in that budget process that ended in the sequester. It was HE who said that if no agreement was reached that the sequester would go into action. WE ALL know exactly why he wanted this...to put pressure on the GOP to give him what he wanted. Was it even constitutional for him to put such a binder on it? He HAD to know that the democrats were not going to budge. The GOP should have refused to enter ANY kind of budget talks that were so set to fail. Seems as if they could have refused to enter talks with any such terrible end result. I’ve heard so many people say that these are our brightest, or they’d never be elected. PHOOEY! That is absurd! I think many of us are a lot more capable, simply because we can see and understand common sense ideas and don’t feel the need to pander to any lobbyists to get the job done.

[RitaOK]

I concur. The Senate may not have a role in March 1st Sequestration, to stop it. The House seems to be sitting on GO, for sequestration. It must happen.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Obama and the Democrats have to come up with an alternative solution. With more tax hikes the public will go nuts.

If the GOPe was smart(but they’re not) Boehner would hold a press conference saying that on January 1, we gave Obama his take hikes. Now it is time for the spending cuts.

Put a lot of kids in the shot and talk about how more tax hikes will hurt the middle class. Tell the media how Obama’s tax hikes hurt working families where they have to choose between buying gasoline at its highest prices or buy food.

Offer a trade. Since Obamacare is going to drive up insurance rates, in some cases 190%, kill Obamacre and that will pay for the sequester.

That my friends is how you win wars.

[bigdaddy45]

How does cutting $50B from a $700B budget “gut” the military. Enough with the lib demagoguery.

[babygene]

“$800 toilet seats? so now we are repeating mainstream media lies and hyperbole from the 1980’s?”

Perhaps... But I was in the Navy and I recall dumping hundreds of pieces of VERY expensive electronic equipment over the side of the ship... Hundreds of thousands of dollars of stuff. Just because we had excess.

Maybe that ended when I got out. I doubt it.

[onyx]

Aye

[SoFloFreeper]

The idea had been proposed and promoted by the White House during the July 2011 debt-ceiling negotiations.

This is what I was wanting to scream all day yesterday listening to Rush Limbaugh!

The FACT is that Obama signed this deal into law...HE was the one who wanted this deal....backfire this entire DAMN deal on HIM--because HE promoted it.

So when Barbara Lee goes on to the floor of the House and claims the budget will kill people with HIV, the designated Republican to speak in the debate ought to say, "The bill was signed by Barack HUSSEIN Obama, mmm mmm mmm."

This is Obama's tar baby, so you ought to make it stick to HIM.

[SkyPilot]

Thank you for your service - and I mean that. I am a veteran myself.

The DoD does spend money - sometimes better than others. During war and hell breaking loose, it sometimes is not an efficient enterprise. My father told me of aircraft being dumped off the side of the aircraft carrier because of minor damage during battle.

The DoD acquisition process is hamstrung sometimes by too many wish list "requirements" that cause weapon systems to be too expensive and to take too long to field.

But that does not mean the military is cry wolf regarding Sequestration. I have never seen uniformed flag officers sounding the alarm as boldly as this. Ever. We are in real trouble.

However, the military has already been cut deeply. Obama started these cuts during Obama I, and they are now getting much worse, to the point where our military is literally going to be degraded.

We can't let this happen. Ronald Reagan would not have let it happen.