$408 million spent by the federal government per hour...
Despite weeks of dire warnings, Barack Obama has admitted that the effects of sequestration would be a gradual easing vice the apocalyptic scenario that has recently been painted, as reported by USA Today on Feb. 28, 2013.
Technically known as sequestration, as of midnight Friday an automatic $83 billion cut (2%) will be made to a $4 trillion budget unless the White House and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives can reach an agreement, which looks increasingly unlikely as the minutes tick by.
Obama Just Blinked...
Speaking before The Business Council last Wednesday, Obama toned down his previous sequestration "fiscal cliff" warnings:
"This is not a cliff, but it is a tumble downward."
Yet the Chief Executive managed to simultaneously back off and still throw darts at the GOP:
"It's conceivable that in the first week, the first two weeks, the first three weeks, the first month -- that unless your business is directly related to the Defense Department, unless you live in a town that is directly impacted by a military installation, unless you're a family that now is trying to figure out where to keep your kids during the day because you just lost a Head Start slot -- a lot of people may not notice the full impact of the sequester."
According to conservatives, Obama and many other Democrats have been ratcheting up the fear-mongering if and when the sequestration takes affect.
As cited by the National Review Online, just a few of the examples of Democrats "scarequestron" rhetoric:
- "This meat-cleaver approach . . . will jeopardize our military readiness [and] eviscerate job-creating investments in education and energy and medical research."
- 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.
Fox News is also reporting that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is walking back his recent claim that teachers are "getting pink slips" as the sequester looms ever closer:
"There are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips, who are getting notices that they can't come back this fall."
When pressed for specifics, Duncan backpedaled "when holes in the story started to appear. Duncan said 'most haven't happened yet,' but he knew of one district in West Virginia that had 'issued notices.'"
Pressed even further, Duncan finally admitted that the notices were in "Kanawha County, but that it dealt with 'Title I teachers and Head Start teachers' whose funding sources are being cut. He conceded: 'Whether it's all sequester related, I don't know,' before claiming again that 'these are teachers who are getting pink slips now.'"
The Sequestration Has Nothing To Do With After All, Mr. Secretary...
As reported by the Washington Post, the that "transfer notices" went out to at least 104 employees.
But Pam Padon, director of federal programs and Title 1 for the Kanawha County public schools, stated that the notices had nothing to do with sequestration.
Furthermore, Padon also said that "most of those teachers were being notified that they could move to a different position -- only five or six positions would ultimately be eliminated."
As quoted by the WaPo:
"The major impact is not so much sequestration.
Those five or six jobs would already be gone regardless of sequestration."
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