HAVE MANDATORY BUDGET CUTS CAUSED SECURITY RISKS?
by Col. Bob Pappas, USMC, Retired, ©2013, blogging at Gulf1
(Sep. 18, 2013) — Who proposed the Budget Control Act (Sequestration)? Answer: Mr. Obama. Who signed into law as part of the Budget Control Act (Sequestration) the requirement that Congress come up with a budget deal by creating a Super Committee to devise requisite budget economies? Answer: Mr. Obama. If sequestration is an underlying cause of the Navy Yard massacre as alluded to by D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, who initiated and was Sequestration’s main proponent? Answer: Mr. Obama.
As a result of the Budget Control Act, in August 2011 a Super Committee was created by Congress to come up with the requisite cuts, $1.2 trillion over ten years. On November 21st, 2011 the deadline arrived for the Committee to report its work, at which time Joint Chairmen, Democrat Murray of Washington, and Republican Hensarling of Texas, announced that the Committee was unable to reach agreement despite intense negotiations and pressure from all quarters.
When the Committee failed and Sequestration was triggered to go into effect January 1st, 2013, who declared that he would veto any action by Congress to change the law and thus avoid Sequestration? Mr. Obama said, “Already some in Congress are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts. My message to them is simple: No, I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending.” In the meantime, whose duplicitous position was it when he declared, “We need to keep the pressure up to compromise, not turn off the pressure,” and “Although Congress has not come to an agreement yet, nothing prevents them from coming up with an agreement in the days ahead”?
Over the course of the next thirteen months Obama gradually “evolved” to being anti-Sequestration and in a series of speeches began to blame Republicans. It reached its zenith during one of the Presidential Debates in the fall of 2012 when he declared that sequestration “will not happen,” wherein he effectively dismissed the possibility that the 10 percent cuts to federal spending would take place in January 2013.
Over the course of the next two months, he began a “full court press” to force Republicans to agree to raise taxes “on the wealthy” and thus avoid Sequestration. It is notable that Mr. Obama’s efforts were not effectively called out by his opponents, who could have cited promises in a dozen statements that he would not raise taxes, “not even one penny,” a statement that was disingenuous and proved to be deception for the purpose of gaining votes. The latter worked.
In a complete distortion of reality, Democrats blame Budget Sequestration as being a Republican initiative when the facts are that it is the bastard child of, and its malevolent implementation is that of the Obama Administration. The Administration’s Sequestration objective is to cause ordinary Americans the most pain possible and to pin that pain on Congressional Republicans for its existence. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Sequestration is variously blamed for everything from flight delays to global warming. Now, in its ugliest form, it is being indirectly blamed on Republicans for a madman’s massacre of a dozen people at the Navy Yard in Washington. The crown jewel of mendacity was uttered by Washington, D.C. Democrat Mayor Vincent Gray, “It’s hard to know,…We’re continuing this investigation. But certainly, as I look at for example, sequestration, which is about saving money in the federal government being spent, that we somehow skimped on what would be available for projects like this, and then we put people at risk. Obviously 12 people have paid the ultimate price for whatever — you know, whatever was done to have this man on the base.”
And not to miss a good crisis, Senator Feinstein of California has mounted her ubiquitous anti-2nd Amendment soapbox stating:
“This is one more event to add to the litany of massacres that occur when a deranged person or grievance killer is able to obtain multiple weapons—including a military-style assault rifle—and kill many people in a short amount of time. When will enough be enough? Congress must stop shirking its responsibility and resume a thoughtful debate on gun violence in this country. We must do more to stop this endless loss of life.”
By including the words, “deranged person” in her comments, Feinstein believes she has inoculated her remarks from rebuttal. To the unthinking, ignorant and deceived, her remarks may actually make sense. But to the thoughtful, her duplicitous statement reveals her disregard of the underlying source of violence, violent video games and mental illness. She chooses, rather, to blame inanimate objects for something perpetrated by Aaron Alexis, a person with a record of mental illness and obsession with video games.
In an Associated Press report, U.S. law enforcement officials said that a Navy contractor identified as the gunman in the mass shootings at the Washington Navy Yard had been suffering a host of serious mental issues, including paranoia and a sleep disorder. The officials said that Alexis had also been hearing voices in his head. If that is the case and it was known, which it was, what the heck was he doing with a security clearance? Is this another case of “we can’t fire him,” out of politically correct racial concerns?
During a news conference, D.C. Mayor Gray at first applauded virtually all law enforcement personnel as having effectively contained what could have been a larger tragedy. Then, while offering absolutely no connection to “Sequestration,” he cited it as being a possible underlying cause. Any person who actually gave thought to Gray’s remarks should point out that if he is “going down that road,” he should be reminded that Sequestration was Obama’s initiative and is its Chief Enforcer.