Was it a coincidence that our Vice President awarded medals to public safety employees¹ while the president threatened us with the consequences of losing public sector jobs because of sequester cuts? Mr. Obama is good at the propaganda game (see: Tricks From the Obama Disinformation and Propaganda Mill), but his condemnation of a “meat-cleaver approach”² to budget cuts has nothing to do with the jobs that will move the country forward and that most unemployed Americans are seeking.
Obama threatens Americans with government workers.
The White House is still beating the dead horse of unaffordable public sector jobs. We are being threatened with the loss of teachers, first responders, air traffic controllers, and federal attorneys,³ just like we have been threatened each and every time the president is forced to confront the inevitability of federal budget cuts. We even heard a threat that “hundreds of thousands” of Americans would lose their health care,4 a big government red flag considering that our government is in the process of taking away control of America’s health care system from the private sector.
Threats of teacher layoffs never go away.
In 2010, before we knew what sequester cuts were, we had already spent lots of money to prevent teacher layoffs. Nevertheless, we continually heard threats about the loss of teacher jobs:
And it’s why, through our recovery efforts, we’ve provided emergency aid that saved the jobs of more than 400,000 teachers and other education jobs -– and why I believe these efforts must continue. (Applause.) I believe these efforts must continue as states face severe budget shortfalls that put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk.5
In 2013 we know all about sequestration budget cuts and are still being threatened with more devastating teacher layoffs:
Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find childcare for their kids.6
The numbers of public sector jobs we are threatened with losing are always vast, the consequences horrendous, but no suggestions are offered on how to make these employees affordable. Perhaps we shouldn’t blame the president. Being from Illinois, the land of big public sector pensions, he doesn’t know any better and owes too much to the loyalty of public sector unions that helped put him in office.
Are we slaves to big government in Obama’s America?
Don’t think for a moment that the battle over sequester cuts has anything to do with rescuing us from debt. This war is about being slaves to big government Democrats who subordinate the private sector to Washington because their leader claims business owners “didn’t build that.”
One month before he came up with that gem, President Obama professed his belief that the private sector was doing just fine (see: Do We Owe Public Sector Workers a Guaranteed Salary?) despite meager hiring, dismal prospects for the unemployed, and no hope for the long-term jobless. Where does that leave the economy?
The role of big government is to get bigger.
The naïve calculation that America can subsist on a diet of government service workers, state and local public employees, bureaucrats, and politicians creates big budget problems when those politicians back public sector unions that demand the highest imaginable wages and benefits for members during a shaky recovery. There is a reason teacher layoffs are essential to rescuing state budgets. Teachers cost too much.
Big government doesn’t innovate. It doesn’t create. It stubbornly resists change. Instead, big government relies on growing itself because lack of innovation demands more manpower. It also means more money for public sector unions trying to stay fat and happy while private sector unions scrabble for members despite the best efforts of Washington Democrats.
Barack Obama has forced a showdown on Capitol Hill over the direction our country will take. Will we spend on big government and public sector jobs or rely on private sector prosperity to move this nation forward? Anyone who thinks Republicans and Democrats are fighting over budget cuts and government spending is a fool. They have set their sights on an ideological struggle while the spending and debt that dooms our future go untouched.
Civil Candor says
February 23, 2013 at 5:00 pmNot having any money certainly makes it easier to save.
Frederick says
February 23, 2013 at 4:55 pmThe so called sequestration cuts are like a flea on an elephant’s back, because the base line budgeting that produces automatic budget increases each year will far out weigh the $40+ billion dollars involved this year. Government as we see it is like perpetual motion as it has never stopped increasing the spending of the taxpayers dollars and borrowing more money in order to get reelected by buying votes. I wonder what they would do if on April 15th. every taxpayer refused to make their payment. The treasury would dry up fast the politicians would have empty pockets how great that would be (Empty pocket politicians). WOW!!!!