Barack the Brainwasher - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Barack the Brainwasher
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There aren’t many nice things that can be said of President Obama, but since I am one to give credit where credit is due, I will grant that the man is a master of manipulation.

Over the weekend I visited Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee memorial mansion overlooking Arlington National Cemetery. My mother was excited to visit one room in particular, a period kitchen accessed from outside the house, but a sign informed us that the kitchen was closed and off-limits, with that dreaded phrase of death, “due to sequestration cuts.”

Mother was disappointed. I rolled my eyes, reminded of some of the other things that have been affected “due to THE SEQUESTER.” There’s the grounding of the Blue Angels, the Navy’s precision flying team, the termination of Fleet Week in New York, and of course an end to White House tours.

Barry made the “tough” cuts, but he didn’t have to. Let’s remember a month ago, when the cuts were just impending:

House Republicans have been virtually begging administration officials to ask for permission to move money around. If one program could be more easily cut than others, those Republicans say, just ask us, and we’ll let you do it.

Instead Obama and friends made darn sure to make cuts to programs that would affect people in the most obvious ways, in ways that would make news, in ways that would force a sign to go up so that people associate the words “sequester cuts” with disappointment and negative feeling. Pavlov’s dogs, American public version.

The famed Blue Angels flight squadron has been providing aerial demonstrations since 1946, and the Navy and Marine Corps rely on the flight shows as a key tool in enhancing recruitment. The team’s high speed acrobatics attract spectators from all across the country, and any person who has been fortunate enough to witness the impressive stunts can attest to how thrilling and moving the whole show is. Fleet Week, another historic event aimed at strengthening morale and boosting pride and respect for our nation’s military, is sunk this year too.

Obama has been able to use even the budget cuts, something he was loathe to do, to his advantage. Rather than tighten his belt on his $20 million Hawaii vacations or lessen Joe Biden’s expense account (one night in Paris cost us taxpayers $585,000), he has chosen to take the ax to enjoyable traditions that inspire love of country. No progress has been made toward our serious spending problem, or our welfare disease. The only result that has come from defunding these programs has been to sour people to the thought of cutting in general.

Like any good brainwasher, Obama starts his indoctrinating while they’re young. What will teachers tell their young students when they ask why they can’t visit the White House like previous classes had done? “It’s because of the sequester cuts, children.” Sequester cuts = no field trip = BAD! Cutting the budget, in naive logic, must be about the worst thing in the world. And of course the president is on the kids’ side. “I tried hard to get the Republicans to adopt a balanced approach, but they wouldn’t budge,” he told them. “They had to protect Big Oil and corporate jets. You are left holding the bag. I can see you standing on Pennsylvania Avenue peeking through the locked gates. Sorry.”

Turns out the sequester cut of White House tours equals the cost of operating Air Force One for two hours.

It’s hypocritical, deceptive, and devious, and oh-so typical of B.O.  

Paul Kengor
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Paul Kengor is Editor of The American Spectator. Dr. Kengor is also a professor of political science at Grove City College, a senior academic fellow at the Center for Vision & Values, and the author of over a dozen books, including A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Communism, and Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.
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