Who’s to blame for sequestration?

Who’s to blame for sequestration?

The sky is falling, the sky is falling. That’s the message shrieked by President Obama about those mandated federal spending cuts called “sequestration.”

In Washington, baseline budgeting is the presumption that every item in the budget will automatically increase between 3 and 10 percent depending on what the item is, every year, regardless what happened in the previous year.

Just the facts, ma’am:

Ÿ The idea originated in the White House and was promoted by the president and included as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011.

Ÿ It was passed through Congress, the GOP-majority House and the Democrat-majority Senate.

Ÿ The House vote was 269 to 166, with 95 Democrats and 174 Republicans supporting it.

Ÿ The Senate vote was 74 to 26, with 45 Democrats, 1 independent (who always votes with Democrats) and only 24 Republicans supporting it.

Ÿ The Democratic president then signed it into law on Aug. 2, 2011.

Let’s get it straight. A Democrat in the White House proposed it. Democrats in the House supported it, a Democratic majority in the Senate passed it, and a Democrat president signed it into law.

But the Republicans are to blame for “sequestration”; according to the media that rarely acknowledges that this administration has added over a trillion dollars every year to the national debt.

Sadly, the cuts represent 2.7 percent of the budget or just $85 billion out of a $3.8 trillion budget. If Obama is shrieking over a small reduction in spending, what can be expected when America is Greece?

Robert Meale

Woodstock