Sequestration: White House summit begins

Politico ^

[Sub-Driver]

Sequestration: White House summit begins By: Jake Sherman March 1, 2013 10:49 AM EST

The nation’s top four lawmakers arrived at the White House Friday morning, pessimistic they will be able to resolve the impasse over $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts that begin at midnight.

The meeting began at 10:18 — just a smidge more than 12 hours before the sequester was scheduled to begin.

This fiscal dilemma has played out differently from the previous ones in the sense that the chief players — Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — have not met at all throughout it. There have been virtually no negotiations between the White House and Congress, as both sides have fiercely clung to their starting points —Obama has insisted that a solution include a balance of spending cuts and new revenues, while Boehner has dismissed any tax hikes out of hand.

And with the sequester set to hit at 11:59 pm. on Friday night, not much is expected to happen at the White House meeting Friday morning. Republicans even said as much before the meeting happened.

The mood on this gray Friday was encapsulated before the meeting by Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican leader of the Senate.

“There will be no last-minute, back-room deal and absolutely no agreement to increase taxes,” McConnell said in a statement, adding that he was “happy” to discuss other options to reduce spending.

That’s precisely where the disagreement lies. Boehner and McConnell are opposed to Obama’s plan to close what the president describes as tax loopholes to help offset the cuts, which will disproportionally hit the Pentagon and other military spending. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) favor raising more revenue to blunt the cuts.

[cuban leaf]

I’ve just about given up on participating in the rigged game we call national politics.

---

If they cave, I will give up. For reasons stated in my previous posts. I was pretty close to it any way. This would just be the action that would remove all doubt.

[cuban leaf]

There’s only one way that I can see to do that, and I honestly believe it’s coming.

---

It is not a matter of if. It is a matter of when. And it too will be involuntary. Pretty much all “violence” carried out by former “law abiding citizens” will be carried out in self defense. There is a reason I moved from my long time home of Seattle to a small farm in central KY in 2011. The ground is beautiful, surrounded by wonderful neighbors, and it is far from the unwashed urban hordes that will be needing to leaveve their hell-hole cities when this goes down.

I’m not saying it will get that bad. But I think it could. I do think that the future world presented in the movie “looper” is fairly close to what we have to look forward to - sans loopers.

[Democrat_media]

I’m for the repealing of laws that authorize this big government. repeal the laws that authorize the EPA, repeal Obamacare and so on. If we elimninate just one government agency the EPA the economy will expand. repeat for other gov agencies. I don’t see anyone saying this not any politicians , not Rush , not Levin , not commentators of course never the news media. but that’s what needs to be done. concentrating on the dollar ammounts that are inflated etc. is not as effective as repealing laws. laws are the problem . every day more laws which cause more regulations and agencies

that being said sequester is still a good thing and GOP and boner must not cave , let the cuts happen

[Democrat_media]

I’m for the repealing of laws that authorize this big government. repeal the laws that authorize the EPA, repeal Obamacare and so on. If we elimninate just one government agency the EPA the economy will expand. repeat for other gov agencies. I don’t see anyone saying this not any politicians , not Rush , not Levin , not commentators of course never the news media. but that’s what needs to be done. concentrating on the dollar ammounts that are inflated etc. is not as effective as repealing laws. laws are the problem . every day more laws which cause more regulations and agencies

that being said sequester is still a good thing and GOP and boner must not cave , let the cuts happen

[Windflier]

...sequester is still a good thing and GOP and boner must not cave , let the cuts happen

For the last time - there are NO cuts.

The sequester amounts a to .02 cents on the dollar reduction in the federal government's expected pay RAISE. That isn't going to affect a bloody thing in government, whether they do it or not.

This is all an enormous dog and pony show for Obama. He gets to grandstand and make the Republicans look bad by scaring the bejeezus out of low info voters and leftoid zombies.

Apparently, it's working on some Republicans too.

[Gabrial]

A friend of mine runs a small bank and says Dodd Frank will wipe him out while rewarding the “too big to fail” banks that are in cahoots with FedGov.

He says he may stay in business a bit longer because sequestration is likely to slow down writing the Dodd Frank regulations. Without sequestration he would be laying off his 40 employees later this year.

A great example of sequestration saving American jobs.

[Democrat_media]

This is from FOX news. looks pretty good to me a 9% cut adDed to the inflation of 3% and you get huge cuts at a lot of government agencies including the Epa

Sometime today the Office of Management and Budget will order all federal agencies to cut their budgets by around nine percent, except for the Pentagon which needs to cut defense programs by 13 percen

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/01/sequestration-when-will-feel-pain/#ixzz2MKxTcS

[Democrat_media]

This is from FOX news. looks pretty good to me a 9% cut adDed to the inflation of 3% and you get huge cuts at a lot of government agencies including the Epa

Sometime today the Office of Management and Budget will order all federal agencies to cut their budgets by around nine percent, except for the Pentagon which needs to cut defense programs by 13 percen

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/01/sequestration-when-will-feel-pain/#ixzz2MKxTcS

[Cvengr]

They are calling all Itemized Deductions as “loopholes”. In other words, they want to not only tax your income, your materials, but all transactions required for any business to produce and operate. On top of that, they still want to doubly tax with sales taxes and then tariffs and permit fees.

[rktman]

Well I certainly don’t feel like I’m doing my share. NOT! Folks are finding more and more to be pissed off about.

[Windflier]

...a 9% cut adDed to the inflation of 3% and you get huge cuts at a lot of government agencies including the Epa

If you honestly believe that any federal agency will undergo a cut in their budget that steep, you're smoking funny tobacco. No such thing is going to happen while Obama is in office. Guaranteed.

[Rockitz]

The only thing that concerns me is that this “ends justifies the means” administration will purposely crash the economy with the sole purpose of blaming the GOP.

[Windflier]

Here's a little chart from the U.S. Congressional Budget Office that might help to illuminate what I've been saying:

[Democrat_media]

My research showed as this article does that many government agencies even the EPA will get 9% cut even before inflation. with inflation that is even a greater cut.
The following is a quote from this Fox news article .

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/01/sequestration-when-will-feel-pain/#ixzz2MKxTcS

Obama formally notifies government agencies that sequestration is in effect.

Sometime today the Office of Management and Budget will order all federal agencies to cut their budgets by around nine percent, except for the Pentagon which needs to cut defense programs by 13 percent.

Once Obama issues the sequestration order, Treasury Department officials will take offline the computers that process payments for school construction and clean energy bonds to reprogram them for reduced rates. Payments will be delayed while they are made manually for the next six weeks.

Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency will get e-mails notifying them that a forced furlough of up to 13 days lies ahead

At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, officials will spend the weekend mailing out letters to governors in all 50 states showing how much their grants will be reduced in the coming days and weeks.

Programs that dole out funding as an intermediary — like public rent assistance, farm loans and food programs — will see immediate cuts

Even if the budget for some of these gov agencies stayed the same that would be a cut because of inflation. see the military will get a 13% cut but those dollars will have even less value because of inflation so then they will be able to buy less tanks etc. because those dollars have less value even if budget stayed the same. I'll trust my research over your “beliefs”. .

[Democrat_media]

GOP didn’t cave . so what do you say now?

I actually will send them thanks by email and twitter.

[Windflier]

Buy into Obama’s Chicken Little rhetoric if you must, but you’re gonna feel lied to, when you see that NO federal agency had a single dime ‘cut’ from their budgets.

The Sequester does not mandate a ‘cut’ in any federal agency’s budget. It mandates a mere 2% reduction in the projected rate of INCREASE in federal spending. That’s it.

If Obama decides to order actual budget CUTS to certain agencies, departments, or branches, that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish. Look for him to do just that, so he can turn around and blame the pain on the Republicans.

They’re only allowing him to have 98% of the projected increase in federal spending, so he’ll slash and burn the budgets of critical areas to punish them. He doesn’t give a damn who gets hurt.

[cuban leaf]

I gave a binary proposition, explaining what each action by them would mean.

if A
then C
else B
end-if

Looks like we ended up with B. :-)