Let sequester begin

Well, I was shocked to turn on the TV today and see John Boehner and other House Republicans giving a brief press conference to state that they aren't going to do anything to stop the sequester. Boehner suggested that the president get off the campaign trail and talk to Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, who's done absolutely nothing for the last four years except read a little cowboy poetry.

See, a couple years ago over one or another budget crisis, the Comrade suggested guillotine-like cuts to the federal budget if congress couldn't come up with a better plan. This was in trade, I believe, for raising the debt ceiling.

Well, over the years the Republicans have developed and passed seveal bills that cut the federal budget in thoughtful ways. They even managed to gain some support for these bills from democrats in the House.

The bills went up to the Senate, and there they sit. Harry Reid won't even allow them to be introduced on the floor, and the Comrade promised to veto them, anyway.

Meanwhile, the Comrade cranks up the propaganda machine -- including ABC, CBS, and NBC tv networks, and blasts the Republicans for doing nothing about the budget.

OK... well the Comrade was on the campaign trail for the last couple years, and apparently he's been on vacation and/or golfing since then, so maybe he never heard about those House budget proposals. Or maybe the Comrade was so preoccupied preparing for the Inauguration and recycling his State of the Union address ("Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the greatest of them all?") that he totally forgot about that two-year-old proposal for across-the-board budget cuts.

'Cause over the last week or so, he's been gallivanting across the country, waving his arms and shouting like Jeremiah Wright about how the Republicans are about to steal the bread from the mouths of babes, and the like.... shut down airports, lay off police, firemen, and teachers, stop meat inspections. He seems to have forgotten that the sequester was his idea -- his and John Loo's -- the guy he's just nominated for Treasury Secretary, and also that he promised to veto any alternate plans.

Well, not only Boehner, but Eric Cantor and espeically Kevin McCarthy, House Whip, have gone to great lengths today to explain that the sequester cuts amount to about 2.5% of the federal budget. And the USA borrows that much every four weeks. In addition, the cuts would maintain the federal govt at levels approximating 2009 federal spending. Yet somehow we managed to keep the airports open and teachers in the classroom, etc., in 2009.

But bigger and better than this -- THE REPUBLICANS FINALLY GREW A SET!!

Stand tall, ye boys in Washington.We shall not be moved, etc. and any more hokey slogans you can think of.