Posted on 03/19/2013 6:53:32 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Rep. Bill Enyart might be a Democrat and Rep. Rodney Davis a Republican, but the two rookie lawmakers in Southern Illinois share one fear.
Sequestration could cost them their seats.
Enyart and Davis are three months into their new jobs — representing next-door districts — and constituents already are blaming them for not doing enough to stop the automatic spending cuts.
This week, 4,500 civilian workers at nearby Scott Air Force Base will receive furlough notices — a troubling reminder for Davis, who won his seat last fall by just 1,002 votes.
Enyart’s no better off: He pledged to protect Scott during his 2012 campaign, but at last weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in his hometown of Belleville, several people shouted, “Stop the sequester!” as he walked by tossing green beads to children.
“Certainly, in my district, we’re in crisis stage,” Enyart told POLITICO after marching in the parade.
This tale of two districts is a reminder for some in Washington who still think about sequester as an abstract political fight. On the ground, the cuts are real — and so are the political consequences.
(PHOTOS: How sequestration could affect you)
Davis, who holds a part of Abraham Lincoln’s old district and the state capital of Springfield — is considered one of the best pickup opportunities in 2014 for Democrats. After all, he had the narrowest margin of victory last cycle for any successful Republican.
To Democrats, the thinking is that Davis’s constituents in rural Illinois and the college towns of Champaign, Normal and Springfield will be so upset with Republican leadership over the spending cuts that they will send him packing next November.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Anyone who spews rhetoric about the cuts being "only" 2.4% are preaching falsehoods. The cuts are not across the board. The cut to the DoD is 13%, and since military pay is exempt, the cut to Operations and Maintenance for the US military is massive (up to 50% for some services).
The GOP has "embraced" Sequestration, and is now going about crowing about what a "victory" it is.
Besides the betrayal to our military, the Republicans have tied their leaky rubber boat to a 2 ton anchor.
The GOP now wants to launch "hearings" as to why Tuition Assistance for our heroes is being cut. Ummmmm...because THEY cut military by $46 Billion in the middle of a Fiscal Year.
The military isn't posturing. These cuts are real, destructive, and deep - and the Republicans do not want to lift a finger to stop them.
The GOP will lose the House in 2014 because of their stance on Sequestration.
Mark my words.
“The GOP will lose the House in 2014 because of their stance on Sequestration”
Bullcrap
The way the GOP has been ‘fighting’ on the sequestration is what’s the problem. As long as you have imbeciles like Boehner never challenging 0, you will lose the PR fight. All the cuts are because the President did not want to tackle true waste. That should be the message.
The GOP will lose the house with or without sequestration. Until and unless we have nationwide voter id, the repubs won’t win any more elections. JMO
No they won't.
You are blaming the wrong party.
“nationwide voter ID” and not “national ID”
just to be clear
What nobody is discussing here is (why) we need sequestration:
Our jobs are being outsourced to China, and elsewhere. That is what is not being discussed.
BRING. THEM. BACK.
We are nuts, if we believe sending US industry to China will solve anything.
China is a communist nation, and is cannibalizing US growth and safety.
Bring back US industry now.
“Furloughed”
The furloughed workers should be thankful they still have a job. Everyone should be able to get by for quite a while on 80% of their take-home pay.
Remember that the sequenteration isn’t reducing government expenditures — it’s just reducing their rate of increase, at least that’s what Hannity says.
Politicians who throw their constituents out of work can start polishing off their resume. The voters could pink slip them.
Correct, but ask anyone on the street and they will tell you otherwise. Many people seem to know that 0bama is a liar, but listen to him anyway, because the media reinforces him.
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This is a true statement but terribly misleading. Sequestration takes half of its cuts out of the military. 18% of the budget has to take half of the cuts. For the military it is an actual “cut” not a reduction of growth. The reduction of growth is only to the budget overall. The budget over all does not have cuts, in fact wekfare and entitlement spending increases at the same rate or more than in previous years. Sequestration is an awful deal that was made in bad faith by the democrats who always think that the military gets too much of the budget.
In the 50’s when I was a kid the military was 67% of the budget. Our congress need to grow a set of gonads and cut welfare spending. We will never get a handle on deficit spending until we get a handle on entitlements.
The Democrats are acting like they are crying about the sequestration but they are really laughing it up pretty good.
Democrats, they are the most ill-informed people I have ever met. I have friends that are Democrats, they are stupid. They only know about MSM sound bites that paint Republicans as old people death wishers, queer haters and single mother haters.
Over 70% of our prison population were raised in single mother homes. Queers have a normal life expectancy of 42 years, old people in this country will be required to go home and just die under Obama care. Somehow, with all the above Republicans still get the blame for what is wrong in society. Like I said, Democrats are idiots.
The problem is that too many of those dependent upon the military coffers think and act like Democrats.
IMO the GOP will lose the House in 2014 but not because of
Sequestration. There may very well be 20 million new Democrat voters with the passage of amnesty and Obamacare will be fully funded and operational.
So Davis is sitting on his hands wimpering?
Davis should be at every event in his state making three things clear:
1. Sequestration was Obama’s idea/brainchild/solution and
2. Obama played political games instead of leading.
3. Obama personally ordered these particularl cuts, the type that hurt the most.
Just say this over and over again and the sequester goes away, along with the Democrats that brought it.
Yes, but more importantly, the MEDIA is blaming the ‘Pubbies. That means that LIVs are probably going to take it out on the Republicans, in which case, SkyPilot is right.
The media always blames the pubbies.
The LIVs always vote for Democrats.
So what’s new about that???
The military should quit their whining and cut the fat and while they are doing it demand that the fat in the DOE, DOE, DOJ, DOL, and other departments do the same.
Are you suggesting the DOD budget is 13% LESS this year than last year?
simple question. No hidden meaning or agenda.
Absolutely.
I have discovered that most Freepers do not understand how deep or devastating these cuts really are. I can only imagine what that translates to for the general population of low information Americans, but I guarantee it is in the single digits.
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The military has been under a triple fiscal assault.
1. The $487 Billion in real cuts that began in 2011
2. The Continuing Resolution that froze funding and has left the services short Billions in funds
3. The final knife across the the throat - the Sequester, which cuts so deeply into Operations and Maintenance because other funding lines are exempt or off limits (i.e. military pay).
Look at these slides. Look at them well.
This is a factual presentation that only highlights the devastation to the Navy. I guarantee you that all the services are in the same or worse shape.
http://www.navyleague.org/files/sequestration_presentation.pdf
The problem I see is that too many Freepers and Conservatives are listening to people like this regarding the Sequester.
He knows less about Sequestration than my house cat.
And that is saying something.
This is one of the best articles I have encountered that spells out, in very direct terms, the evisceration of the military caused by the triple fiscal assault.
In sequestration, president and Congress undermining military
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