<div dir="ltr">
<div class="">
<div class="">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif" alt="The New York Times" align="left" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0"></a>
</div>
<div class="">
</div>
</div>
<br clear="all"><hr align="left" size="1">
<div class="">February 22, 2013</div>
<h1>Dire Consequences and Denial</h1>
<h6 class="">By
<span><span>CHARLES M. BLOW</span></span></h6>
<div id="articleBody">
<p>
It’s crunch time. </p>
<p>
The sequester’s automatic, across-the-board spending cuts are set to go
into effect on Friday, and there is no plan as yet to stop it. </p>
<p>
America, this is your feeble government at its most ineffective and self-destructive. </p>
<p>
The White House favors a balanced plan that would include spending cuts
and some tax increases for the wealthy. Republicans reject any solution
that includes tax increases. </p>
<p>
These are two fundamentally different perspectives, only one of which is supported by a majority of Americans. </p>
<p>
A Pew Research Center/USA Today <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2013/02/21/if-no-deal-is-struck-four-in-ten-say-let-the-sequester-happen/">survey</a>
released Thursday found that only 19 percent of Americans believe that
the focus of deficit reduction should be only on spending cuts.
Seventy-six percent want a combination of spending cuts and tax
increases, with more emphasis on the former than the latter. </p>
<p>
But the impasse could have dire consequences. A<a href="http://www.aia-aerospace.org/assets/Fuller_II_Final_Report.pdf"> study</a>
last year by Stephen S. Fuller, a professor at George Mason University,
estimates that the sequester could cost 2.14 million jobs and add 1.5
percentage points to the unemployment rate. Fuller’s analysis was cited
in a Congressional Research Service report prepared for members of
Congress. </p>
<p>
What’s more, the sequester would reduce military spending by $42.7
billion; nonmilitary discretionary spending would drop $28.7 billion, in
addition to a mandatory $9.9 billion reduction in Medicare, according
to the Congressional Budget Office. </p>
<p>
In anticipation of the very real possibility that the sequester could
come to pass, some Republicans are leaning on the shoulder of an old
friend: denial. </p>
<p>
This week on CNN, Senator Rand Paul <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/02/20/rand_paul_sequester_a_pittance_that_nibbles_at_the_edges.html">pronounced</a>
the $85 billion in mandated cuts a “pittance” and a “yawn” that is
“just really nibbling at the edges.” He also called President Obama’s
warnings about the sequester’s impact “histrionics,” “ridiculousness”
and “emotionalism.” </p>
<p>
What a perfect segue to Rush Limbaugh, who took to the air this week to
denounce predictions about the sequester’s effects as a “manufactured”
crisis, <a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/02/21/for_the_first_time_in_my_life_i_am_ashamed_of_my_country">saying</a> that “for the first time in my life, I am ashamed of my country.” </p>
<p>
Limbaugh continued: </p>
<p>
“In truth, we’re gonna spend more this year than we spent last year.
We’re just not gonna spend as much as was projected. It’s all baseline
budgeting. There is no real cut below a baseline of zero. There just
isn’t. Yet here they come, sucking us in, roping us in. Panic here, fear
there: Crisis, destruction, no meat inspection, no cops, no teachers,
no firefighters, no air traffic control. I’m sorry, my days of getting
roped into all this are over.” </p>
<p>
Those not denying the crisis are hoping to exploit it. </p>
<p>
Karl Rove, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323549204578315781210543360.html">writing</a>
in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, called the president “a
once-in-a-generation demagogue with a compliant press corps” who will
subject the American people in the short term to a “slew of presidential
photo-ops with those whom he claims will lose jobs.” Mr. Rove advised
House Republicans to “pass a continuing resolution next week to fund the
government for the balance of the fiscal year at the lower level
dictated by the sequester — with language granting the executive branch
the flexibility to move funds from less vital activities to more
important ones.” </p>
<p>
Rove supports the steep cuts but wants to allow the president
“flexibility” in applying them. That Rove is as slick as an eel. In
other words, he wants to force the president to rob Peter to pay Paul
and take the flak for making all the tough choices. </p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.people-press.org/2013/02/22/as-sequester-deadline-looms-little-support-for-cutting-most-programs/">Another Pew Research Poll</a>
released this week found that although many Americans favor cutting
government spending in the abstract, most don’t agree with cuts to
specific programs. “For 18 of 19 programs tested, majorities want either
to increase spending or maintain it at current levels,” Pew found. “The
only exception is assistance for needy people around the world.”
</p>
<p>
Ah, foreign aid, the tired old whipping horse that would do virtually
nothing to reduce the deficit, as it accounts for a paltry 1 percent of
the federal budget. </p>
<p>
Rove’s plan to shift to the president the burden of choosing where to
bring down the ax is Rove’s way of getting Republicans “to win public
opinion to their side.” That is a roundabout way of acknowledging that
right now they’re losing. A <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-21/obama-rated-at-3-year-high-in-poll-republicans-at-bottom.html">Bloomberg poll</a>
released this week found the president’s job-approval rating at its
highest level and the Republican Party’s favorable rating at its lowest
since September 2009. </p>
<p>
Furthermore, the Pew/USA Today survey found that if a deal isn’t reached
in time, about half the public will blame Congressional Republicans
while fewer than a third will blame the president. </p>
<p>
And if the sequester happens, we’ll all lose. It will be a disaster for
the job market and the economy. But no one can accuse these politicians
and pundits of caring about such things as long as their own jobs are
secure. </p>
<div class="">
<p style="text-align:center">•</p>
<p>I invite you to join me on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/CharlesMBlow">Facebook</a> and follow me on <a href="http://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow">Twitter</a>, or e-mail me at <a href="mailto:chblow@nytimes.com">chblow@nytimes.com</a>. </p>
</div>
<div class="">
</div>
</div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br>
</div>