Obama’s Chickens Come Home to Roost in 2013

SEQUESTRATION BEGINS AT MIDNIGHT ON MARCH 1

by Sharon Rondeau

(Feb. 27, 2013) — If Congress fails to pass a budget by midnight on Thursday, “the sequester” is scheduled to take effect, which signifies that budgets which would normally be increased will remain at current levels.  The sequester will affect discretionary rather than mandatory spending such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Obama signed legislation which included sequestration which was passed during the summer of 2011 following bitter arguments over raising the debt ceiling.  Sequestration was written into the bill in the event that Congress could not devise a budget at the suggestion of the White House to end the impasse.

Although this past weekend, Obama called upon state governors and himself to “do some governing,” he has been campaigning to sway public opinion in the days before the sequester is scheduled to take effect.  He has warned of cuts in Head Start, child care, military employment, airport security workers and education if the $85 billion reduction in spending begins, although it is scheduled to affect the various government departments over a period of time rather than immediately.

Obama increased Head Start funding in the stimulus bill of 2009 by more than $1 billion.  The Washington Post reports that Head Start would not actually lose funding even given the sequester.

Obama reportedly will meet with Republican leaders at some point on Friday before he is obligated to announce cuts in military, homeland security, defense and other budgets before midnight.

Reliable Obama supporter Robert Schlesinger at U.S. News & World Report states that “it doesn’t matter” whose idea the sequester was.  Correctly, Schlesinger maintains that Congress had to agree to the bill before it went to Obama’s desk.  However, now that Republicans have not made concessions to raise taxes as Obama wishes, Obama is exhibiting what veteran reporter Bob Woodward of Watergate fame has described as “madness.”

Before the sequester arguments began, others questioned if Obama was insane for suggesting a second stimulus bill.  Obama has increased the federal deficit to more than $16 trillion since taking office.  In 2010, one writer referred to Obama’s “growing inability to deal with the real world.”

Last year, a psychologist asked if Obama were mentally ill.

Obama has claimed that “carriers will sit idle” if nothing is done by the Friday deadline.

The budget cuts have been described by The Washington Times as “puny.”  In a piece which is more of an editorial than news, an Associated Press reporter who covers the White House has written that “rather than figuring out a way to work with Republicans, Obama is largely ignoring them, trying instead to build public support for his approach to averting automatic budget cuts — and perhaps overplaying his hand if the dire consequences he’s warning of are not quickly felt by many Americans.”

The Democrat Senate Finance Chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, claims that Obama originated the idea of the sequester, although Obama said during the third presidential debate that Congress introduced it.

At the unveiling of a statute of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, Obama did not appear particularly happy.  Was he tired, ill, or just pensive?  Where was Michelle?

Five days after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., Obama’s then-pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, told his congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ that “America’s chickens have come home to roost.”

Obama has echoed the anger expressed by Wright by attempting to explain it rationally prior to abandoning Wright and reportedly offering him $150,000 in 2008 to remain silent until after the election.  The relationship between Wright and Obama was broken by writer and commentator Erik Rush, who The Post & Email interviewed last week.

Black civil rights activist Malcolm X had said the same thing after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  Malcolm had not believed that Kennedy had done enough for blacks during his presidency and had referred to white people as “white devils” and “blue-eyed devils.”  Following the controversial comments, the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, ordered Malcolm to remain silent, an order which Malcolm ignored before officially breaking ties with “The Black Muslims” to form his own Organization of Afro-American Unity and Muslim Mosque, Inc.

Is there a resemblance here?

Republicans have not bowed to Obama’s wishes this time.  Have Obama’s “chickens come home to roost?”