Obama caves- and here’s why

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obama head in hand

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

For all the criticism of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell we’ve witnessed over the last months, some congratulations are in order. Boehner and McConnell have Obama tied up in knots.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans’ unyielding stand against income tax increases has caught President Barack Obama and his allies off guard, resulting in the spending-cuts-only approach to deficit reduction that Democrats most wanted to avoid.

It also has dimmed hopes for broader efforts this year to start taming the costly and fast-growing “entitlement” programs of Medicare and Social Security.

The result is a new round of deficit reduction that tilts more toward Republicans’ wishes than many people would have expected after Obama won re-election with a campaign that called for higher taxes on the rich.

Democrats thought House Republicans would accept some new revenues last month to minimize military cuts and to pressure liberals to confront entitlement spending. Instead, Republicans seem more determined than ever to block tax increases on high incomes, whatever the political risk.

The scarequester strategy has failed. The Obama regime did its best to frighten America about the sequester.

Maybe more alarmingly, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget issued a press release earlier this month claiming that the cuts in federal spending “could” force reductions in food inspections, which “could” lead to outbreaks of more food-borne bacteria, such as E. coli. Administration officials and their allies are making similarly alarming claims regarding what “could” happen to workplace safety, law enforcement, and education.

Obama even canceled White House tours. The Easter Egg Roll could be on the chopping block and the Thanksgiving turkey might not be pardoned.

Yet a notable number of things will not be affected by the sequester, including Obama’s paycheck and the collection of taxes for Obamacare.

Meat inspectors will be furloughed but fine wines will continue to flow:

In its bid to make the sequester as painful as possible, the White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling all visitor tours of the White House “during the popular Spring touring season.” This fits President Obama’s political strategy to punish the eighth graders visiting from Illinois instead of, say, the employees of the Agriculture Department who will attend a California conference sipping “exceptional local wines” and sampling “tasty dishes” prepared by “special guest chefs.”

Yes, even as the White House warns that the modest automatic spending cuts will force the furlough of meat inspectors, two divisions of the Agriculture Department will underwrite the 26th California Small Farm Conference in Fresno next week.

The event will feature USDA speakers, field trips, a banquet and a tasting reception, according to the conference website. Conference organizers promise the tasting will be a “mouthwatering event” featuring “fine wines and exceptional micro-brews paired with seasonally driven culinary delicacies.” How can we sign up?

Indeed, the Obama regime is determined to make the sequester as painful as possible.

The Obama administration denied an appeal for flexibility in lessening the sequester’s effects, with an email this week appearing to show officials in Washington that because they already had promised the cuts would be devastating, they now have to follow through on that.

In the email sent Monday by Charles Brown, an official with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Brown asked “if there was any latitude” in how to spread the sequester cuts across the region to lessen the impacts on fish inspections.

He said he was discouraged by officials in Washington, who gave him this reply: “We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.”

“This email confirms what many Americans have suspected: The Obama administration is doing everything they can to make sure their worst predictions come true and to maximize the pain of the Sequester cuts for political gain,” said Rep. Tim Griffin, Arkansas Republican.

Obama predicted that Republicans would cave on taxes, but as a philosopher once said

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6_1Pw1xm9U[/youtube]

They did not cave and Obama has overplayed his hand. The fallout was not what Obama anticipated.

Whoops

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Less than two months into his second term, President Barack Obama’s approval rating has dropped and Americans blame him and his fellow Democrats almost as much as his Republican opponents for a fiscal mess.

A Reuters/Ipsos online poll released on Wednesday showed 43 percent of people approve of Obama’s handling of his job, down 7 percentage points from February 19.

So when the next images of Obama shanking a wedge with Tiger Woods pop up Americans will wonder why Obama’s leisure is not suffering in the least and Obama’s poll numbers will drop like a stone.

obama golf 1

Now Obama is doing something that few could have imagined. He’s reaching out to the GOP:

For most of his presidency, Barack Obama has viewed outreach to Congress as a chore rarely to be touched, and rank-and-file Republicans largely a contact point of last resort.

But the onset of across-the-board spending cuts and the refusal of Republican leaders to budge on new revenues to reduce the deficit has brought the president to Capitol Hill in a way few Republican senators say they can remember since he was a senator.

Since this weekend, Mr. Obama has spoken to at least a half-dozen Senate Republicans, trying to restart talks on a comprehensive deficit deal in the wake of the cuts, known as sequestration. In tone and detail, senators said Tuesday that they were hearing a president they had not heard in years.

“Maybe because of sequestration and frustration with the public, the time is right to act, and what I see from the president is probably the most encouraging engagement on a big issue since the early days of his presidency,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “He wants to do the big deal.”

Republicans have twice offered to give Obama flexibility on the cuts only to have that legislation killed in the Senate. The GOP has offered another plan:

House Republicans on Monday proposed legislation to keep the government running after the existing short-term spending plan expires on March 27.
The plan would freeze salary rates for federal employees but mitigate some of the impacts of the deep, government-wide spending cuts known as the sequester, which took effect on Friday. Overall, the $85 billion in reductions would still take place, but with slightly more flexibility.

And Obama has signaled that he would accept it.

He’s even going to meet with them.

They’ve got him.

Still, I bet there is something even more important motivating Obama.

Michelle’s vacations.

michelle-obama-vacation-endless-vegas-vail-aspen-sad-hill-news

Michelle Obama prepares for her next taxpayer-paid vacation

How would it look for America to be suffering the horrible things Obama promised would come to pass consequent to the sequester while Michelle is carving the slopes in Aspen, renting out a castle in Europe or chasing the dog down a beach in Oahu? She’s going nowhere until this mess is cleaned up.

She’s probably steamed at him right now.

UDATE

Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) introduced an amendment to the fast-moving continuing resolution spending bill that would bar funding for President Obama’s golf outings until the White House reopens for public tours.

White House Dossier

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Sequestration has caused the White House to shut its doors to tourists coming through Washington, but not to cut the salaries of these three people:

Patricia A. Blair, who has an annual salary of $96,725,
and her two deputies,
Debra S. Brown, who gets paid $85,953 per year,
and
Richard T. Muffler, who gets paid $94,372 every year.

Despite sequestration, there’s been no announcement of the White House scaling back on calligraphers.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/chief-white-house-calligrapher-gets-paid-96725-year_706521.html

She’s probably steamed at him right now.

Oh, I don’t think so. She is probably in the midst of one of those “unproud” moments where her country is concerned.

@Nan G:

And let us not forget the $50,000,000.00 now set aside for new uniforms for the TSA (who are being furloughed) agents to a company that admits that those uniforms will be made mostly in Mexico. Nevermind that the uniform allowance for our Border Patrol was reduced last month, and that Border Patrol agents are now seeing their overtime cut. If you have Achmed in custody, but it will require you to work overtime to process him, too bad. You’re off shift and you can either hand him over to another BP who appears magically at the scene or let him go. Or, you can process the illegal on your own time.

And was it yesterday that the government had an add for 400 more employees? Damn that sequester. We can furlough existing employes, who would have been well dressed, but hire more? And what about those additional staff members that some Congress critters are requesting? Gee, the sequester surely put a crimp in that right? Wrong.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced Wednesday he was returning $600,000 to the Treasury, while Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) said he was giving back more than $160,000 from his House budget.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/284207-rand-paul-mick-mulvaney-return-office-budgets-to-treasury#ixzz2MmPvsNV5

What if every government agency did the same?
Problem solved!

RE: “Obama even canceled White House tours. The Easter Egg Roll could be on the chopping block and the Thanksgiving turkey might not be pardoned. … Still, I bet there is something even more important motivating Obama. Michelle’s vacations.”

You pegged it.

The President cannot hop on Air Farce One and travel when thousands of illegal aliens are being freed, the elderly aren’t getting meals-on-wheels, food inspections are being skipped, the TSA isn’t keeping us safe, and the plague of frogs is due any second. If he did so, he’d look even worse than he already is. And if he’s grounded, then Michelle is grounded, too. It’s been, what, almost six weeks since she went on vacation? She’s certainly told him, “I’ve haven’t been shopping in Europe with my gal pals in weeks… *WEEKS*!! You end this **NOW*! I’m not going to be stuck in this town all spring.”

I wonder when the next White House pizza party will bring in take-out pizza from Chicago — again.

Cripes……does this mean obama can’t afford anymore “long” weekends with Reggie Love????

Saying ‘no’ to the Government and making it stick is the essence and definition of freedom. Since at least the 1930’s the bastards have done whatever they could to keep this from ever happening.

All of the “crises” have the intent of winning the House for the Dems in 2014. That’s the plan.

None of Obama’s followers will be upset that he’s out golfing during these spats–far from it. Instead, they will be elated to see him rubbing elbows with Tiger Woods and Oprah while Boehner is making statements about . . . well, they don’t know about what, beyond the fact that those pesky, obsolete Republicans are sore losers and spoiling the “hope” and “change” that will make the US a paradise. They need to go away. The solution? Win the House the same way he won the White House–with money and electioneering.

Obama has failed time and time again. The cure? Go on the View and be a celebrity. It mollifies all of his transgressions.

Obama’s campaign organization is still in business (Why?) and has pledged to share that magic database with House dems and prospective runners. It’s over.

Obama’s perfected the art of getting people who don’t vote to vote. He’s waiting for 2014–all of these other conflicts are building to that. The Dems will take the House by a landslide and he’ll finish what he started in 2008 to 2010.

And, perhaps, it will be time to make that third term happen . . . another miracle from a candidate that simply shouldn’t be anywhere near the White House? We’ll see.

@Nathan Blue: That may very well be the Obama plan,but there will be some speed bumps in the road to complete Congressional assimilation. The public has yet to feel the full weight of the ACA and its attendant taxes AND penalties. States have time to reopen their challenges to Holder’s DoJ on the Voter ID and purging of the voter rolls.Two actions that would true the vote in 2014. The Obama WH has always been at the extremes in its actions,either overreaching or abdicating its duty. The WH cannot afford to be seen as the bottleneck preventing the actual recovery and be shown prolonging the recession with business and job killer policy. Some on the Left will never see Obama as the overmatched and undergunned amateur political hack/organizer, whose only talent is the stump speech and a 24/7/365 campaign mode, with that being his default resolution to every issue. At some point as Dr.J points out, he has to come the table an at least attempt to meet the Right on spending.This far into it,Obama owns this economy, sink or swim. At some point governance must take place and that means addressing the imbalance in spending and revenue. Personally, I hold little hope that BHO can make the cuts necessary to bring the debt and deficit numbers back to a sane level.

No worries.
The gay families “Easter Egg Roll,” is still on.
Odd, too, since the Christian Easter is a borrowed celebration from FERTILITY goddess Ashtarte.
So, how do homosexuals fit in?
I know they can keep custody of children from before.
They can be inseminated and have a baby or two.
I guess they can even adopt.
But FERTILITY?

he might be impeach by then,
many demands for it on the table,