Back in my teaching days, many years ago, one of the
things I liked to ask the class to consider was this: Imagine a
government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of
Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to
children. If this agency’s budget were cut, what would it
do?
The answer, of course, is that it would cut back on
the medications for children. Why? Because that would be what was
most likely to get the budget cuts restored. If they cut back on
building statues of Benedict Arnold, people might ask why they were
building statues of Benedict Arnold in the first
place.
The example was deliberately extreme as an
illustration. But, in the real world, the same general pattern can
be seen in local, state and national government responses to budget
cuts.
At the local level, the first response to budget
cuts is often to cut the police department and the fire department.
There may be all sorts of wasteful boondoggles that could have been
cut instead, but that would not produce the public alarm that
reducing police protection and fire protection can produce. And
public alarm is what can get budget cuts
restored.
The Obama administration is following the same
pattern. The Department of Homeland Security, for example, released
thousands of illegal aliens from prisons to save money — and
create alarm.
The Federal Aviation Administration says it is
planning to cut back on the number of air traffic controllers,
which would, at a minimum, create delays for airline passengers, in
addition to fears for safety that can create more public
alarm.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have
offered to pass legislation giving President Obama the authority to
pick and choose what gets cut — anywhere in the trillions of
dollars of federal spending — rather than being hemmed in by the
arbitrary provisions of the sequester.
This would minimize the damage done by budget cuts
concentrated in limited areas, such as the Defense Department. But
it serves Obama’s interest to maximize the damage and the public
alarm, which he can direct against Republicans.
President Obama has said that he would veto
legislation to let him choose what to cut. That should tell us
everything we need to know about the utter cynicism of this glib
man.
The sequester creates more visible damage and more
public alarm than if the president were given the authority to trim
a little here and a little there in the vast trillions of dollars
spent by the government, in order to make a relatively small “cut”
that still leaves total federal spending higher than last
year.
Only in Washington is a reduction in the rate of
growth of spending called a “cut.” Moreover, costly boondoggles not
covered by the sequester can continue and grow.
Obviously Obama wants public alarm, which he can use
to help defeat the Republicans in the 2014 elections, so that
Democrats can take back control of the House of
Representatives.
When Obama was offered the authority to make the
spending cuts wherever he chooses, anywhere in the government’s
multi-trillion dollar budget, it was the only power that this
power-grabbing president has rejected.
Why? Because with this new power would go
responsibility for the consequences of his choices. And
responsibility for consequences is precisely what both the Obama
administration and the Senate Democrats have been avoiding for
years, by refusing to pass a federal budget, as required by the
Constitution of the United States.
Democrats prefer to get the political benefits from
handing out goodies, while Republicans can be blamed for not
subsequently raising enough taxes to pay for the Democrats’
spending spree.
If Obama succeeds in maneuvering the Republicans
into positions that cause them to lose control of the House of
Representatives in the 2014 elections, then as a president who
never has to face the voters again, he would be in an ideal
position to create a big spending liberals’
heaven.
But it will be far from heaven for the economy, with
Obama-appointed bureaucrats burying businesses in red tape and
job-killing costs, while expanding the size and arbitrary powers of
government. We could become the world’s largest banana
republic.
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