Posted on 02/24/2013 5:20:41 AM PST by Servant of the Cross
Even during this desultory economic recovery, one industry thrives — the manufacture of synthetic hysteria. It is, however, inaccurate to accuse the Hysteric in Chief of crying “Wolf!” about spending cuts under the sequester. He is actually crying “Hamster!”
As in: Batten down the hatches — the sequester will cut $85 billion from this year’s $3.6 trillion budget! Or: Head for the storm cellar — spending will be cut 2.3 percent! Or: Washington chain-saw massacre — we must scrape by on 97.7 percent of current spending! Or: Chaos is coming because the sequester will cut a sum $25 billion larger than was just shoveled out the door (supposedly, but not actually) for victims of Hurricane Sandy! Or: Heaven forfend, the sequester will cut 47 percent as much as was spent on the AIG bailout! Or: Famine, pestilence and locusts will come when the sequester causes federal spending over 10 years to plummet from $46 trillion all the way down to $44.8 trillion! Or: Grass will grow in the streets of America’s cities if the domestic agencies whose budgets have increased 17 percent under President Obama must endure a 5 percent cut!
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Scripted? Yeah. Ever since the end of the Obama Care episode....you can sense that each single piece of the script is carefully crafted, handed to the right people to say the right things at the right time.
In essence, it’s like WWE-wrestling. You know the winners months ahead of time.
Some administrations prior to this one had some scripted episodes....but this is like Dallas’s “Who Shot JR?” script....on a weekly basis. With the exception of the Benghazi episode, their script has never been challenged.
The GOP could force the democrats off script if they ever went on the offense and threw something at the democrats that they didn’t expect. Unfortunately the GOP has gotten pretty comfortable with the fetal position.
S E Q U E S T E R
We should SEQUESTER each and every “representative” /sarcasm and cut their pay, their medical, their retirement, their staff, their travel, their face-time, their lobbyists, their contributors, their benefits, etc., etc.
S E Q U E S T E R
Bureaucratic Rule #1: “When budget cuts come, offer to cut the meat, not the fat”, is now being invoked across the board.
The disingenuousness involved in doing this is impressive, and is one of the ugliest sides of bureaucracy.
But it can be stopped, with an even graver threat.
Tell the bureaucrats that if the meat is cut, their jobs are gone. Suddenly they will come up with more fat they are willing to reduce than about anyone though they even had.
Because they will make their agency run like a fine tuned machine, if their phoney-baloney jobs are on the line.
It’s an old story; when budgets get tight and the population isn’t coughing up sufficient monies, close the parks, the swimming pools, etc.
Never a thought to trim the number of government employees...
It’s not a cut.
It’s a reduction in the rate of growth.
It is the old Air Force joke: the Air Force when building a new base builds the golf course first then when they run out of money they claim the runway is not done!
My mother worked for head start for some 20 years and part of her job was writing grant requests and proposals.
The game was to ask for 10x what they needed and then look good when they receive only 5x what they needed. Then when they ask for more money in the future, they claim they only got half of what they needed in the first grant.
Who is worse - those who make this crap up, or those who continue to let them get away with it?
It is the heighth of BS that this even gets news coverage as if it's a legitimate debate!
What the GOP has gotten comfortable with is the luxuries of incumbency. Their fight is not with the left or Obama or the democrats. Their fight is with any conservatives who might challenge them in a primary. The country can go hang, those perks are worth fighting for.
Obama’s economic plan for America detailed here...http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/11/dont-cry-for-me-america.html
That’s a different bureaucratic rule, and there are several more besides. Some even befuddle the bureaucrats themselves, at least those with a modicum of ethics.
Others that come to mind:
Inefficiency, failure and waste are rewarded, because those sections need “recovery” money. Excellence is punished with cutbacks, “because they don’t need the money”.
“Realistic” estimates are reached by estimation, which is then doubled and two-thirds added. There will still be sticker shock.
Once a desired plan is finalized, it is set in concrete, and it must not be changed by anyone, or it will invoke Cheops Law (”Nothing is ever done on time or under budget”.)
Budgets are reached by taking last years budget and adding about 10%. Nobody reads budget analysis.
etc.
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