Obama was ready and willing to go over the fiscal cliff at the end of 2012, and the last-minute fiscal cliff deal on January 1, 2013 merely delayed sequestration for another 2 months. Now that March 1, 2013 is approaching and out-of-control government spending continues under Obama, our national security is at stake: “The Pentagon notified Congress on Wednesday it will be furloughing its civilian workforce of 800,000 employees if sequestration goes into effect March 1. Defense officials have warned lawmakers that sequestration will devastate the military and lead to a hollow force.”
Update: How comforting: The White House has raised the terror threat and warned that illegal immigrants could flood the borders due to sequestration. Of course, Republicans have pointed out that Obama ”is setting up “a false choice” between tax increases and security. They said the other alternative is to make $85 billion in spending cuts in other parts of the budget, rather than the across-the-board cuts that make up the sequester.” Obama apparently believes that U.S. national security should be sacrificed so that he can continue wasting American taxpayer dollars (giving paid time off to federal employees so they can spend their time helping unions instead, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on lavish “conferences”, refusing to use $45 billion in unspent taxpayer dollars to offset the $85 billion in sequester cuts, spending money to “find advancements in beef jerky from France” and conduct research to determine “what lessons about democracy and decision-making could be learned — from fish”, and so many other ridiculous things) while maintaining his own paycheck.
Update #2: And just to show they aren’t kidding: “The sequester is officially still three days away, but the Obama administration already is making the first cuts, with officials confirming that the Homeland Security Department already has released several hundred illegal immigrants from detention“– they’re refusing to confirm “how many immigrants were released or how they were selected.” However, it was subsequently revealed that Obama’s Department of Homeland Security plans to release 5,000 illegal immigrant detainees due to sequestration. Obama’s Department of Homeland Security is also planning to furlough 5,000 border patrol agents. Now, the Obama’s U.S. Federal Aviation Administration says it will furlough air traffic controllers (because clearly, Obama’s urge to spend is more important than air safety). It’s now been revealed that 149 air-traffic control towers will be shut down on April 7, 2013. According to the House Armed Services Committee and Army Chief of Staff, the Marine Corps will lose 57,000 soldiers, ”by the end of calendar year 2013, less than half of our ground units will be trained to the minimum readiness level required for deployment,” the Army will lose 143,000 soldiers, 78% of Army units will “significantly curtail training,” the Navy will delay the deployment of an aircraft carrier, and there will be a 20% pay cut for 800,000 civilian employees working for the Department of Defense. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder claims “the Justice Department will be handicapped in some of its most vital missions to prevent terrorist attacks and crime” with furloughs of FBI agents, ATF agents, DEA agents, prosecutors. The infamous Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters claims that 170 million jobs could be lost in America– a ludicrous claim, considering that the total U.S. population (including children and the elderly) is 315 million as of February 2013. Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been caught lying about teachers getting pink slips because of the looming sequester. Obama himself was caught lying about U.S. Capitol janitors and security guards getting a pay cut.
Update #3: There’s a very interesting editorial based on former Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano’s commentary about the above: “… you see the strategy: Apply the sequester in the most panic-inducing ways possible so as to confirm Obama’s predictions of Armageddon and create a backlash against Republicans. In other words, intentionally pursue a strategy of making the federal government’s performance the worst it can possibly be, all to demonstrate how horrible it is to cut 2.3 from the projected increase in federal spending. That, the judge argues, is a dereliction of Obama’s duty as president, and “almost an impeachable offense”… Napolitano is right. Obama is not trying to keep things running well in the face of a budget shortfall. He is trying to do the opposite. He is deliberately making decisions that will make the federal government’s performance worse, and hurt the country, as a way of proving his point… he prefers to release prisoners, furlough border patrol officers and generally go down the path of sabotaging the country to make a political point, since he’s confident the media will not only let him skate, but help him blame his political opponents for it.”