Obama’s Machiavellian Sequestration Pain Game: Putting Politics Over Public Safety
By: LaborUnionReport ( Diary) | March 5th, 2013 at 10:30 PM | 14
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“The ends justify the means.”
Niccolo Machiavelli
I’m going to just state what is on a lot of people’s minds (and lips) these days regarding the Obama Administration’s handling of the sequestration cuts:
If I didn’t know any better–I don’t, by the way–I would wager a bet that the current occupants of the West Wing and their DNC accomplices are hoping that, as a result of certain sequestration cuts made, someone somewhere will die.
This way, they can blame, as they always do, the tragedy on their opponents vis à vis “ Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Relatedly, Bill Clinton’s former Labor Secretary Robert Reich would have people to believe: Sequestration is a secret plot hatched by the Tea Party. [No, really.]Since sequestration officially went into effect on March 1st, the Administration is doing all it can to scare the public.
Moreover, it has become abundantly clear that Obama & Co. are using targeted cuts that, as opposed to cutting countless and needless bureaucrats, are using targeted cuts that may endanger public safety in order to make the American public bleed–then turn get angry at Washington.
Should a tragedy occur, Obama & Co.—always the consummate campaigners—will have a cause célèbreto predictably shift the blame on those “Eeevil” Republicans.
If you think about it, it is truly a brilliant diabolical strategy.
To begin with, Obama started a fear campaign nearly a month ago, making dire predictions of what would happen if sequestration occurred.
His threats encompassed nearly every pressure point he and his team could muster.
via a Feb. 8th White House press release:
Threats to cut education (v)Threats to cut food inspection (v)Threats to reduce law enforcement (v) and first responders (v)Threats to cut workplace safety inspections (v)Threats to cut senior citizens’ meals (v)Threats to cut the amount given to the long-term unemployed (v)Threats to cut nutrition assistance for 600,000 women, infants and children (v)Threats to put 100,000 formerly homeless people out on the streets (v)…and more.Although the President was caught in an outright lie, Obama’s team has gone on a messaging campaign to ensure the cuts would “maximize the pain of the Sequester cuts for political gain,” according to Rep Tim Griffin.
Though it was later rewritten, on Tuesday, Politico’s Jennifer Epstein [initially] reported:
As the Obama administration tries to make sure its agencies stays on-message about the damaging effects of sequestration, the Agriculture Department’s budget office offered guidance Monday instructing an official to frame cuts in particularly onerous terms.
Unless it is “updated” again, Politico’s current re-written version states:
The Agriculture Department said Tuesday that an email interpreted as instructions to stay consistent in messaging on sequestration was just a restatement of already-established facts.
The Obama Administration’s message is clear: Unless sequestration is repealed and funding restored, we will make this as painful as possible for the American public.
In one egregious example of the Administration moving beyond scare tactics and actually putting the American public’s safety at risk, Janet Napolitano’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has developed plans to release roughly 5,000 “low risk” illegal immigrant detainees.
As the Examiner’s Joel Gerhke notes:
The New York Times profiled a “low risk” detainee released by ICE. The detainee was taken into custody “when it was discovered that he had violated probation for a conviction in 2005 of simple assault, simple battery and child abuse, charges that sprung from a domestic dispute with his wife at the time.” NRO’s Jim Geraghty asked, “If convictions for ‘simple assault, simple battery and child abuse’ make you ‘low-risk,’ what do you have to do for Janet Napolitano to consider you ‘high-risk’?”
Obama’s release of “low risk” detainees does not bode well for the American public, according to a 2011 Examiner article:
Statistical studies regarding illegal aliens and criminal activity are few and far between. But in a 2007 Government Accountability Office study of a sample population of 55,322 illegal aliens, analysts discovered that:
* They were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. Nearly all had more than one arrest. Thirty-eight percent (about 21,000) had between 2 and 5 arrests, 32 percent (about 18,000) had between 6 and 10 arrests, and 26 percent (about 15,000) had 11 or more arrests. Most of the arrests occurred after 1990.
For its part, the White House feigned ignorance of the detainee release.
In another egregious example, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak re-emphasized that he would be cutting meat inspectors:
The statement comes after some lawmakers and industry groups questioned whether USDA needed to furlough inspectors and argued that the department had a legal obligation to provide meat inspection.
When it comes to meat inspection, “there will be disruption in that process,” said Vilsack, in remarks at the Commodity Classic, a convention of corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum farmers. “Make no mistake about it, there is not enough flexibility in the sequester language for me to move money around to avoid furloughs of food inspectors.”
Right, Tom.
As the sequestration squabble continues to grow, Obama & Co. are playing a familiar card: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”
Unfortunately, for many Americans, Obama, in his Machiavellian way, is putting politics over public safety.
“Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.” Niccolò Machiavelli__________________
“Truth isn’t mean. It’s truth.”
Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012) |
