If you thought the election was over and Obama would get down to the business of running the nation-think again. While he plays golf with Tiger Woods and makes speeches in front of groups forecasting the collapse of the world if sequestration kiks in, his hacks are still trying to raise money.
This morning, liberal guy Bob Edgar from Common Cause was interviewed by Fox's Megan Kelly. Common Cause has issued a letter criticizing Obama for trying to raise money for his agenda via Organizing for America -Obama for America. There is something to this because I still get e-mails from Jim Messina and our old friend Stephanie Cutter.
Remember Stephanie Cutter, the gal who organized the campaign on Mitt Romney being responsible for a Kansas City man's wife's death and told us she didn't know anything about the man-even though she interviewed him?
Well, here are a couple of e-mails I have recently received from Steph, hard at work in the White House boiler roiom.
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"Friend --
I hope you had a lovely holiday and all is well. I'm writing with a quick update on the "fiscal cliff" and how you can get involved.
Right now, President Obama is asking you to think about what $2,000 a year means to you and your family -- because Congress needs to hear it.
The Senate has passed a bill that stops taxes from going up for 98 percent of American families, and asks those who can afford it to pay a little more. If the House follows suit, President Obama is ready to sign it as soon as it hits his desk.
If they fail to do so, a typical middle-class family of four will see their taxes go up by $2,000 in just a few short weeks.
President Obama is asking Congress to do the right thing and act before the New Year, but he needs our help. We've got a good track record here: When we make our voices heard and urge Congress to take action -- whether it's about health care, student loans, Wall Street reform, or "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- they listen.
Watch this new video about the President's tax plan, and take a moment to share your story: What does $2,000 a year mean to you and your family?
For more than 19 months, President Obama campaigned on the idea that if we're going to be successful, every American has to do their part and pay their fair share.
A centerpiece of his platform, and the campaign you built, was that income taxes should not go up on the middle class -- that the responsible way to pay down the deficit, while investing in education, job training, research, and science, is to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more.
None of this is a surprise to anyone in Washington. They heard the same arguments we did -- they paid attention to the campaign, and then they saw a clear majority of voters deliver a verdict on November 6th.
If and when the House passes this bill, 98 percent of American families and 97 percent of small businesses will not see a tax increase.
Your story matters and Congress needs to hear it.
Think about what $2,000 a year can do for you, or your family, or someone you know, and submit it here:
http://my.barackobama.com/Share-Your-2k-Story
Thanks for speaking out. More soon,
Stephanie
Stephanie Cutter
Deputy Campaign Manager
Obama for America
P.S. -- We've got to make our voices heard in this debate. Share what $2,000 means to you, and then ask your friends and family to do the same."
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"Friend --
Prepare yourself for job layoffs, reduced access to early education, slower emergency response, slashed health care, and more people living on the street.
This Friday is the final deadline for congressional Republicans to stop disastrous automatic spending cuts (known as the "sequester") that will hurt everyday Americans -- including you.
These budget cuts will take a sledgehammer to the budget, and indiscriminately cut critical programs vital to economic growth and middle class families.
If Congress fails to act, we'd see budget cuts pretty much across the board to critical services that teachers, first responders, seniors, children, and our men and women in uniform rely on every day.
It sounds bad because it is. And with all these cuts on the line, why are congressional Republicans refusing to budge?
Because to do so, they'd have to close tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires, oil companies, vacation homes, and private jet owners. I'm not kidding.
It's on each of us to speak up. Share what these budget cuts could mean to you -- or someone you know -- today. Congress needs to hear it.
President Obama has offered a balanced plan to reduce our deficit, asking the wealthy to pay their fair share so that we can protect programs that are incredibly important for working and middle-class Americans.
But congressional Republicans so far are refusing to compromise.
Here are some of the consequences if Congress fails to act by Friday:
-- 10,000 teachers would be laid off, $400 million would be cut from Head Start, the program that makes sure at-risk preschoolers are ready for kindergarten, and 70,000 kids would be kicked out of the early-education program completely.
-- The budget for firemen and other first responders to react when natural disasters strike would be cut by $35 million.
-- Nutrition programs that help make sure seniors don't go hungry would be cut by $43 million.
-- A program that helps provide housing for the formerly homeless, including many veterans, would be shuttered, putting them at risk of going back on the street.
There will be chaos in the streets (my words, not Steph's)
-- A number of programs that help the most vulnerable families and children would be slashed -- including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children dropping 600,000 women alone.
Right now, each of us has a responsibility to step up and make sure Congress hears our voices.
Whether you'd be directly affected by these sequester cuts, or whether they'd affect a senior, veteran, or teacher you know, please share what they mean to you:
http://my.barackobama.com/Share-Your-Sequester-Story
Let's keep the pressure on congressional Republicans to do the right thing.
Thanks,
Stephanie"
Stephanie Cutter
Organizing for Action
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Let's finish what we started. Chip in $25 or more to Organizing for Action, the grassroots movement that will get the job done.
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Contributions or gifts to Organizing for Action are not tax deductible.
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Hey Steph! Don't forget those thousands of illegal aliens who will be released by DHS if the Republicans don't act.
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Is he ever going to stop campaigning and start working as President?
ReplyDeleteThis whole sequestration mess could/would be humorous if it was not so sad.
ReplyDeleteI believe many, perhaps even most, people do not actually realize that real spending cuts are not involved; rather, what we have is a reduction in the GROWTH of spending over the coming years. Even with sequestration as now enacted (if in it really happens), the Federal government will still spend more in FY-2013 than it did in FY-2012 (an actual INCREASE, not a decrease, in spending). That fact will also be true for the succeeding years, with annual defecits hovering around $1 trillion, give or take a little.
This means, of course, that all the Federal government in general, and any agency in particular which had anything around a 2.0%- 2.4% (or more) budget increase from last year, has to do is simply not to spend some or all of the “new” money for hiring personnel or new “initiatives”/programs, or whatever. This should mean that virtually without exception, and despite the rhetoric/class warfare/scare tactics, Federal governance could continue essentially as it has in the past with very little if any dimunition of services and thereby no significant deleterious effects from sequestration except for a reduction in the growth of government, which is actually not deleterious in the slightest in the view of many.
Obama Himself quite recently made a statement (I will paraphrase) that sequestration and across-the-board cuts were “not a smart way” to address the problem. If that statement is true, then its inescapable corollary is that a Republican-controlled House, a Democratically-controlled Senate, and a Democratic president all managed to act “dumbly” in 2011, no?? Except that we all know that while Obama is many things to many people, “dumb” is not among the descriptors usually applied to him by anyone, to include conservatives, Republicans, or even me, so he undoubtedly thought he acted “smartly” at the time and probably still does. Bob Woodward calls it “madness”, in which there is sometimes, and particularly in this instance no doubt is, method.
And of course both sides, but almost exclusively Dems, are going through nonsense relative to having targeted rather than across-the board reductions in spending growth.
Republicans have offered (at least one account has it that their proposal requires) Obama the opportunity to pick and choose where to cut. Obama has declined, obviously because neither side, particularly him, wants to be responsible for the political heat generated from having to make those decisions. I can discern no other obvious or probable reason for Obama to reject this offer/award of additional power.
In that regard, at least theoretically, who better to determine where to spend and where to cut in the executive branch than the executive, advisors, cabinet members, agency heads, etc., since they are presumably in the best position to internally prioritize operations than is the legislature.
Finally, I note with some humor that in the last day or two, Obama has significantly softened (some might say in a chicken---t, gutless manner) his stance to one closer to what I said in the third paragraph herein. Where formerly the sky would fall and the world as we know it would essentially and effectively end, now sequestration is “only” a downhill “tumble” rather than a “cliff”. Just the other day he was quite strident, and that certainly has toned down temporarily, at least for the present, subject to change.
President Obama's own words were:
ReplyDelete"This won't be armageddon. It's just stupid. Right as usual."
Bob Woodward said it was "stupid" that the president was complying with a law passed by congress, rather than ignore the law and do what he wants (as many of his predecessors have done). Republicans should be praising the president for understanding that he can only spend money, or incur debt, that is allocated by congress.