Gosh, I hate to be cynical. But, working in Washington, it’s just hard to avoid.
We are about to get sequestered right over the head because that’s how Obama wants it. Despite all the nonsense, despite all the displays of nightmare scenarios, the sequester is exactly what Obama seeks.
Once the sequester begins, get ready for the drip, drip, drip of Horrible Things. Each of the Horrible Things that happen as a result of the sequester will be trumpeted by the White House like a lion announcing another kill.
And with each glorious new tragedy, the White House will be able to increase pressure on Republicans to raise taxes. Obama’s hope is that as the public pressure to do something grows and Republicans become increasingly mortified, he’ll get an even larger tax hike out of them than he would if they caved today.
And then there’s the joy of pounding the GOP, a gleeful task that will be refreshingly reenacted every day. Obama can choose a different room for each Horrible Thing he announces – one for the East Room, one for the State Dining Room, one for the Green Room, and so on.
But apart from the fun, there will be serious work getting done. Because every day that Republicans are demonized is a good day for Democrats and a bad day for the GOP brand, which Obama wants to make mincemeat of by Election Day 2014, when he hopes to claim the House from them.
So get ready for much sequester fanfare at the White House. Come one, come all – step right this way: Witness the Parade of Crocodile Tears, the Greatest Show of Outrage on Earth, and sublime displays of tragic acting.
The stage is all set for one of Obama’s best performances yet.
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So will Michelle award him the Oscar?
Prob’ly; if she doesn’t either try to eat it or pierce it thru her nose.
What amazes me is that the Republicans have YET to figure out how to get the better (or at least draw even) in these over-dramatized events. Obama has figure out (with the help of the press, Unions, Hollywood, and his “organizers”) about 3 dozen ways to bludgeon the Republicans for anything that happens. And their response is to sit and take beating, after beating, after beating. Granted, I don’t have the solution but I’m not getting the crap kicked out of me every day – I’m merely getting abused by proxy.
Watching this GOP is like watching the same guy lose a game of chicken with a brick wall, day after day after day…
agreed, why they keep rolling over and exposing the soft underbelly is beyond me!! It is time to start fighting just as dirty as the liberals.
I’m surprised there’s no one replaying the bill’s signing ceremony or obie’s positive comments about it back when it happened. Not on Limbaugh; not on FauX news; here; nobody.
I couldn’t have said it better Rod
Whatever the outcome, the Republicans need to move forward. If they cave, they’re through. They have to prove with results that cutting spending is good for the country. So far, the stock market likes it.
And I for one am sick and tired of half the country living off the other half of us like parasites. Private sector jobs have been through the grinder, you forget, and now it’s time for the public sector to see what it’s like.
Keith commented: “The stage is all set for one of Obama’s best performances yet.”
I suggest a canvas roof for the three-ring circus.
How about Sea World? Underground aquarium?
The only way to shut Obama’s trap is if the MSM “journalists” get furloughed. Let them lose their platform to spew crap and let them get a taste of Obamanomics. They are the reason he has been so effective in conning the American people.
The other thing is this. Since the coin of the realm is demonization of the right by Obama and his circus clowns, why can’t the GOP do the same thing? We need to be more effective in demonizing King Craptastic.
Bob Woodward’s book let information about Obama’s authorship of the sequester into the air. The GOP needs to use it to full advantage.
Problem is the GOP is not united. The GOP leaders are a bunch of Wussicrats who can’t get off the fence and stand for the opposite of what Obama stands for.
The President and the cast of Doom and Gloom players are going to have to walk a fine line to make the public think that only higher taxes from their wages and investments will solve the hurt instituted on purpose to shame the Repubs.
The 47% who live off of government largess will not care if taxes are raised to 99% of working people’s wages, or if all of millionaires and billionaire’s wealth is confiscated as long as the goodies keep coming.
Without an honest and unbiased press, most people won’t know that the sequestration isn’t about cutting current budgets, but rather slowing the growth of spending in the future. If they did know, then instead of calls for higher taxes, the calls would be for impeachment of a sitting President who would hurt all of his constituents to get his own way.
The GOP needs to drop the gloves, and start throwing kidney punches.
IT. IS. WAR.
Whether the GOP wants it to be or not, it is. They need to fight like it. And since Obama fights dirty, the GOP needs to give him a taste of his own medicine.
First thing, they need to bring a couple of long-term unemployed people to the Hill, put them in front of the camera, and demand that Obama explain why his anti-growth policies are keeping these people out of work.
Next up, they need to get some people up there who are having trouble paying for essentials because they’re having to choose between food and gasoline. They then need to demand that Obama explain why he’s being so anti-fossil-fuel when many, many Americans are feeling genuine pain at the pump.
And then, they need to get the families of the people who were murdered in Benghazi up there, and pound the podium to demand that Obama explain what he knew, when he knew it, where he was, and what he was doing on September 11th.
From there, they need to find some people from Mexico who have lost family members to Fast and Furious weapons, and demand that Obama explain to the world why his administration was conducting an illegal international gunrunning operation, strictly to score domestic political points.
They’d better not be done, because they then need to bring up some college students who have gotten degrees they can’t get jobs in, but who still have student loan debt they can’t pay off, and hammer Obama AGAIN on an economy that has had unconscionable levels of youth unemployment.
But wait, there’s more. They need to get some gun owners who have successfully defended their lives and property with some of the very weapons the Democrats are trying to confiscate, and demand that Obama explain why he would take away the very guns that have saved these people’s lives.
And then, they need to get some doctors up there, who can explain why they’re getting out of business completely because of Obamacare. They also need to bring up some of these doctors’ patients, have them explain what it means to them to have to find a new doctor DESPITE WHAT OBAMA PROMISED, and ask the president why he lied about his health care law.
There are many, many more groups of people in this country who are suffering, but that’s enough for one press conference.
They then need to have the camera zoom out, pan across all of these victims of Obama’s failed policies, and very sweetly ask Obama why he’s played 116 rounds of golf when all of the people on the stage are suffering while he lives high on the taxpayer hog.
Speaker Boehner, MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Prequel: They need to hire you or some pr people like you. Do they have any? : – D
Alas, I’m not on their payroll. Heck, I’m not on ANYONE’S payroll right now–I’ve been out of work for a year–but that’s another story.
You and I need to talk. Email me or drop a comment on one of my web posts. You are SPOT ON.
I agree
Well said!
That strategy simply wouldn’t work. There’s a reason they haven’t tried doing that yet. You think out of the thousands of professional advisers — none of them have thought to drudge up to the Hill a few people who’ve been hit by Obama’s political agenda?
Look — the fact is — Jay Carney and the President would spin this back so easily against the Republicans. For a simple example — let’s talk about the first set of people you would bring to the Hill:
“First thing, they need to bring a couple of long-term unemployed people to the Hill, put them in front of the camera, and demand that Obama explain why his anti-growth policies are keeping these people out of work.”
I could see EXACTLY how the White-House would play this: They’d say FIRST and FORE-MOST the deep recession that Obama Inherited in 08′ is still a cause for the slow-recovery. They would then point to the jobs numbers over the last three years, over the last year and even talk about the last few months in terms of Job Growth. They’d paint the picture of progression — one that the republicans continually try to disrupt by not even agreeing to any type of compromise. Then they’d work a spin with the Sequester and say, ‘last Month we had a dramatic drop in employment numbers which at-least partly has to do with the Sequester.’. They would talk about all the negative aspects of the Sequester and then focus in on the fact that republicans were open to certain ideas BEFORE the Sequester was implemented and during the weeks leading up to it’s implementation and that the Sequester was never supposed to even take effect due to the just overall BAD arbitrary cuts in the annual budget.
I could drag out the point and be like Jay Carney (who is a master at this — works the Press Briefing room like he is the Professor and the reporters are students) but the point is, it would be a LOSING effort — on so many fronts to bring those people out and give them a micro-phone.
You want to bring those people out? Great — do it — give the democrats another way to attack you on everything you voted against. There is a reason the Republicans have been labeled by the Democrats as the party of ‘NO’. The republicans have voted no on pretty much any legislation the democrats have tried to pass and to bring those people up would only further wound the republican party. The political damage could NOT be overstated here. I would CRUSH the republicans by beating those reporters over the head with just how the republicans have hurt those same average Americans by their legislative tactics as a party.
I would HAMMER the republicans for their efforts if they attempted something like this. If used in the right context — an Average Citizen’s plea on national television could do a great deal in helping your cause — but if used in the wrong way — it could spell disaster for you. In this case — on a political stand-point, the republicans would be all scrambling for cover.
You want to know how you hit the President and his tactics? Speak the truth about their policy’s. You have to win the war of words and put the White-House and particularly Jay Carney and the like on the defensive.
You want to talk about the Sequester? Okay Mr Carney, how about the fact that the Sequester was the President’s idea! I would spin that and ask why would the President or his staff deliberately draw up a plan that would definitely HURT the average American, and the overall economy? And why is it that your response boils down to, ‘because we didn’t think congress would let it be implemented’ — how could you not take that into consideration when drawing up said plan?
You want to talk about your job employment numbers? Why don’t we talk about the unemployment numbers — you know the people who’ve all-together stop looking for work. Let’s talk about the fact that 50 million people are on food-stamps. What are you doing to get those people off food-stamps Mr. President?
I could keep going on and on and on. You want to win this war against this well-run media-driven campaign? Beat them at their own game. That’s the only way the republicans draw a victory against the Democrats/Obama. I would have a spoke person, every day rail against those topics I’ve laid out and more. I would hammer key political people within the Obama Administration and in general the democratic party with question after question.
The entire point is you want to built up a cloud of doubt in the average person’s mind. The only way to do that effectively is to driven it home by repeating it over and over and over, every day for weeks on end. Make the conversation be about WHAT you want to talk about, not what the reporters or the other side wants to talk about.
I mean, so yeah, that’s what I would personally do /shrug. Winning the media-war would go a long way in the next presidential election. You want to be able to use Obama against the next Democratic Nomination. You want to pretty much paint the democrats as the ‘bad guys’ for what’s wrong with this country.
Pretty much your plan has to be just as much for the long-term as it is for the short term. Think ahead with your plan. By hurting Obama now, you potentially hurt the Democrats later.
That’s just my two cents though — I apologize everyone for the long rant!
But in all likelihood the only tragedies that will occur will be those like the early release of immigration inmates. I would almost hazard to guess that the ‘Career Director’ only got the date wrong on the email from Big Sis as to when the release was actually to take place.
While I agree with everything you’ve written, and have no doubt that Obama is just skipping over the Oval Office couches in excitement over this Oscar worthy role, I sense a dimming coming for the Great One’s halo.
And the one with the finger on the switch is none other than Mr. “I brought down a Presidency” Bob Woodward himself.
Woodward may have spent his 40 years post Watergate on the liberal msm side of the media but I’m sensing he’s now thinking Obama just might be the bookend to Nixon.
If I’m right, we’re in for the political/press battle of the ages.
Old school liberal press journalist against the social media wannabe’s of the White House.
Obama’s one helluva campaigner and a Chicago community organizer to boot but my money’s on Woodward. Just a thought.
Agree. I commented on another thread on WHD that I hope Woodward sees another Pulitzer with his name on it in the future.
My money is on Woodward also. He has opened the door let’s see who is brave enough to walk through it and seize the opportunity.
Obama is proving to be quite the chess player (especially because he’s got the media to help him cheat . . . er, play the game). Meanwhile, Republicans are proving that they’re still trying to figure out the intricacies of Chutes and Ladders.
…and the reactive public will buy it when they should be focusing and calling the blame where it belongs–on Obama.
And Obama et al, will sit back and laugh at the stupidity of the people.
Releasing criminals into society is a common act for dictators and totalitarian regimes world wide. I call BS on the WH denial that it knew nothing of the release from detention of illegal aliens.
I agree. At least one of the illegals released had enough of a criminal record that they deployed law enforcement officers to find him and arrest him again. Obama has angered the liberals who now know that he’s arresting/detaining illegal aliens and in some cases deporting them. And he’s angered the conservatives by releasing criminals back onto the streets with little, if any, supervision.
You people that are criticizing Obama for sequestration and encouraging Republicans to “fight” him know nothing about the origins of sequestration and how President GW Bush lied to avoid it in order to cut taxes and pay for two wars off budget. What follows is referenced and verifiable history of the issue.
Sequestration is the latest buzz-word being used in the deficit and debt blame game; but it is not a new economic concept. The Balanced Budget and Emergency Control Act of 1985, sometimes referred to as “Gramm-Rudman-Hollings…” created deficit targets to balance the federal budget in 6-years. If the targets were not met, then automatic sequestration spending cuts would occur. It was signed into law by President Reagan in Dec. 1985.
In 1986 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled portions of the 1985 law unconstitutional in Bowsher v. Synar on the basis that it violated the separation of powers. In response Congress revised the sequestration procedures to comply with the ruling, and in Sept. of 1987 President Reagan signed the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987.
The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 was another attempt to combat growing budget deficits and debt that began escalating during the Reagan Administration. It created “pay-as-you-go” (PAYGO) rules for taxes and certain entitlement programs, and was signed by President GW Bush 11/05/90.
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 made changes to discretionary spending limits and to the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 “to assure that any legislation enacted before October 1, 2002, affecting direct spending or receipts that increases the deficit will trigger an offsetting sequestration.”
Another mechanism for taming the deficit and debt is the Senate’s Byrd rule, adopted in 1985 and amended in 1990, which allowed senators during Reconciliation to block deficit increasing legislation.
But the legislation could not stop President Bush from creating deficits with his 2001-2003 tax cuts, prescription drug program, two wars paid for off budget with supplemental appropriations; all of which far exceeded what would be allowed under the Balanced Budget Acts, PAYGO rules, and the Senate Byrd rule.
To overcome the obstacles Bush used a “Sunset” provision to limit his tax cuts to ten years, thus removing $100s of billions from amounts that would have triggered PAYGO sequestration. Thus, deficits began again when “…Republicans in the Senate, at the quiet but intense urging of the White House, massaged their own budget accounting rules to fit a $400 billion tax cut through a $124 billion hole;” according to a 5/19/2003 Wall St. Journal article.
Jesus! Just gag me with a spoon! We’re screwed if we do and screwed if we don’t.
In the meantime Ringmaster Husein’s Circus keeps rolling from town to town, bankrupting us all.