The propaganda mill for infinite government spending is revving up. How do you scare people this year when your scare tactics from last year are now revealed as gross exaggerations and distortions of the facts? Answer, you put the falsity of your previous claims “up front” in your news and pretend it only adds to your credibility this time. Thus, the AP teaser line of this story: “Automatic spending cuts largely barked about this year might bite in 2014.”
The first year of automatic, across-the-board budget cuts didn’t live up to the dire predictions from the Obama administration and others who warned of sweeping furloughs and big disruptions of government services. The second round just might.
Several federal agencies found lots of loose change that helped them through the automatic cuts in the 2013 budget year that ended Sept. 30, allowing them to minimize furloughs and maintain many services. Most of that money, however, has been spent.
Yeah, they really mean it this time. It is really going to be bad this time. The fact that they said it was going to be bad, and it wasn’t bad, only proves that this time, when they say it will be bad, they are telling you the sober truth. The sheep had better stampede to their shepherds to get them to increase spending.
The first factoid destroys all credibility this story could possibly have. “The Pentagon used more than $5 billion in unspent money from previous years to ease its $39 billion budget cut.” The Pentagon casually loses multiple Trillions (with a T!) dollars. It hasn’t passed a legal audit in years. They have enough “loose change” in their couches to fund a decade of sequesters. No responsible journalist should pass on such stupid claims as if they were news. They are nothing but Pentagon PR.
Of course, amid all the corruption and high salaries, the government is going to be sure to publicly torment hostages to make us all beg for the spending to open up again:
A drop in participation and lower-than-expected food prices allowed a widely supported food program for low-income pregnant women and children to get through this year without having to take away anyone’s benefits. A second round of automatic sequestration cuts could mean some women with toddlers lose coverage next year.
I’m no welfare statist but these should be the last cuts in a reforming government that is trying to reduce spending so to alleviate the burdens of taxation and debt. You can’t condemn the people (of both parties) who do this strongly enough. Some of the most powerful and wealth people in the nation are going to try to get their way by spreading misery to the lives of some of the poorest.
We need to be instituting budget cuts that are steeper than the sequester. People keep claiming that it is possible to make “smarter” cuts (it would be nice if they were real cuts). But it doesn’t seem politically possible. All the players are continuing to hope that the American people give up and ask the government to go faster into debt oblivion rather than demand that they act like grown-ups.
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