It will be a lot better for the American people if Sequestration kicks in and Barack Obama doesn't have our tax dollars to use against us!
ABC OTUS News
President Barack Obama
is pulling out all the stops to warn just what could happen if
automatic budget cuts kick in. Americans are reacting with a collective
yawn.
They know the shtick: Obama raises the alarm, Democrats
and Republicans accuse each other of holding a deal hostage, there's a
lot of yelling on cable news, and then finally, when everyone has made
their points, a deal is struck and the day is saved.
Still, for all the grim predictions, Americans seem
to be flipping the channel to something a little less, well, boring.
They wonder, haven't we been here before?
"It will get resolved. They will kick the can down the road," Biddle said.
Usually, that's exactly what happens. Even the cuts behind the current panic were originally supposed to kick in on Jan. 1 — part of the fiscal-cliff combo of spending cuts and tax hikes that economists warned could nudge the nation back into recession. For all the high drama, lawmakers finally acted on New Year's Day, compromising on taxes and punting the spending cuts to March 1.
And the blunt instrument known as the "sequester" that's set to deliver the cuts? That too was the progeny of another moment of government-by-brinksmanship, a concession that in 2011 made possible the grand bargain that saved the U.S. from a first-ever default on its debt.
Even if the current cuts go through, the impact won't be immediate. Federal workers would be notified next week that they will have to take up to a day every week off without pay, but the furloughs won't start for a month due to notification requirements. That will give negotiators some breathing room to keep working on a deal.
But you can only cry wolf so many times before people just stop paying attention.
"I know you guys must get tired of it," Obama told a crowd in Virginia on Tuesday. "Didn't we just solve this thing? Now we've got another thing coming up?"
Three out of 4 Americans say they aren't following the spending cuts issue very closely, according to a Pew Research Center poll released this week. It's a significant drop from the nearly 4 in 10 who in December said they were closely following the fiscal-cliff debate.
Public data from Google's search engine shows that at its peak in December, the search term "fiscal cliff" was about 10 times as popular as "sequestration" has been in recent days. Even "debt ceiling," not a huge thriller for the web-surfing crowd, maxed out in July 2011 at about three times the searches the sequester is now getting.
And
let's face it: When it comes to policy issues that can really put an
audience to sleep, "sequestration" is right up there with filibuster
reform, chained CPI and carried interest.
"I shrug my shoulders
because I don't believe any of those severe cuts will go through," said
Karen Jensen, a retired hospital administrator who stopped to talk in
New York's Times Square. "Life goes on as it has before."
But if the Obama administration hasn't managed to convince Americans these spending cuts could be the real deal, it's not for lack of trying.
The White House has circulated 51 reports — one
for each state, plus the District of Columbia — localizing the effects
of the cuts. On Tuesday, Obama took his cautionary tale to a
shipbuilding site in Newport News, Va., calling attention to how the
cuts could impede the military. The White House says in Virginia alone,
about 90,000 civilians working for the Defense Department would be
furloughed, for a nearly $650 million reduction in gross pay.
Both parties agree that if you're going to cut
spending, an indiscriminate mechanism like the sequester is the wrong
way to do it. After all, the whole point of the endeavor was to set in
motion ramifications so unbearable that lawmakers would be forced to
come together and hash out a better plan before the deadline.
Count James Ford of Louisville, Ky., among those still holding out hope.
"They'll come up with something to keep the thing going," he said. "They always do."
———
Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Jake Pearson in New York and Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.
———
Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
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Maybe
not this time. Two days before $85 billion in cuts are set to hit
federal programs with all the precision of a wrecking ball, there are no
signs that the White House
and Republicans in Congress are even negotiating. Both sides appear
quietly resigned to the prospect that this is one bullet we just may not
dodge.
It's like deja vu, says Patrick Naylon, who runs an audiovisual firm in San Francisco: "The same stuff, over and over again."
Texas native Corby Biddle,
53, isn't losing sleep over the cuts. No way the government will let
vital services collapse, he said as he visited tourist attractions this
week in downtown Atlanta.
Usually, that's exactly what happens. Even the cuts behind the current panic were originally supposed to kick in on Jan. 1 — part of the fiscal-cliff combo of spending cuts and tax hikes that economists warned could nudge the nation back into recession. For all the high drama, lawmakers finally acted on New Year's Day, compromising on taxes and punting the spending cuts to March 1.
And the blunt instrument known as the "sequester" that's set to deliver the cuts? That too was the progeny of another moment of government-by-brinksmanship, a concession that in 2011 made possible the grand bargain that saved the U.S. from a first-ever default on its debt.
Even if the current cuts go through, the impact won't be immediate. Federal workers would be notified next week that they will have to take up to a day every week off without pay, but the furloughs won't start for a month due to notification requirements. That will give negotiators some breathing room to keep working on a deal.
But you can only cry wolf so many times before people just stop paying attention.
"I know you guys must get tired of it," Obama told a crowd in Virginia on Tuesday. "Didn't we just solve this thing? Now we've got another thing coming up?"
Three out of 4 Americans say they aren't following the spending cuts issue very closely, according to a Pew Research Center poll released this week. It's a significant drop from the nearly 4 in 10 who in December said they were closely following the fiscal-cliff debate.
Public data from Google's search engine shows that at its peak in December, the search term "fiscal cliff" was about 10 times as popular as "sequestration" has been in recent days. Even "debt ceiling," not a huge thriller for the web-surfing crowd, maxed out in July 2011 at about three times the searches the sequester is now getting.
"We're
now approaching the next alleged deadline of doom. And voters, having
been told previously that the world might end, found it did not in the
past and are becoming more skeptical that it will in the future," said Peter Brown of the nonpartisan Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
For all the angst about layoffs, furloughs and slashes to government
contracts, the markets don't seem to be rattled, either. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average, after falling below 13,000 at the height of the
fiscal cliff debacle, has been buoyant ever since, spending the last
month hovering just below 14,000.
But if the Obama administration hasn't managed to convince Americans these spending cuts could be the real deal, it's not for lack of trying.
Each
day the cuts grow nearer sees a new dire warning from the White House
about another government function that will take a hit if they go into
effect — what White House chief of staff Denis McDonough has called a
"devastating list of horribles." Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
warned Monday that her agency will be forced to furlough 5,000 border
patrol agents.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said 70,000 preschool
kids could be removed from Head Start. Fewer air traffic controllers
could mean 90-minute delays or longer in major cities, and visiting
hours at all 398 national parks are likely to be cut, the administration
has said.
"The
president needs to stop campaigning, stop trying to scare the American
people, stop trying to scare the states," Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal
of Louisiana said Monday after governors from both parties met with
Obama behind closed doors. "Now's the time to cut spending. It can be
done without jeopardizing the economy. It can be done without
jeopardizing critical services."
The age-old Republican desire for a scaled-back federal government
makes it clear why, on the one hand, the GOP isn't scrambling to avert
the cuts — especially when Obama insists on more tax revenues in any
deal to turn them off. On the other hand, Obama is banking on polls that
show if the cuts go through, Republicans are likely to bear most of the
blame.
Count James Ford of Louisville, Ky., among those still holding out hope.
"They'll come up with something to keep the thing going," he said. "They always do."
———
Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Jake Pearson in New York and Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.
———
Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
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