This isn’t how the threat of sequestration was supposed to shake out. The idea was presented to the president last August as a bluff with no downside, a surefire strategy to force Republicans in Congress into accepting more tax increases on the wealthy. But now that the reality of massive spending cuts — not only to the military but to “essential government services” — looms, the administration finds itself between a Barack and a hard place.
That is why Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan was dispatched to a Congressional hearing last Thursday on the sequester portion of the Budget Control Act of 2012, where he grimly announced:
Cuts to our office of healthy homes and lead hazard control and related programs would result in more than 3,000 of the most vulnerable children not being protected from lead poisoning or other hazards in their homes.
Donovan was one of several members of the president’s cabinet to appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee. All were on hand to detail the damage that would be done if the law were permitted to take effect. And unless preemptory action is taken, the sequester will kick in on March 1, imposing automatic spending cuts in the federal budget.
Donovan also warned that the cuts, if triggered, would affect “125,000 individuals and families, more than half of whom are elderly or disabled, losing assistance provided through the Housing Choice Voucher Program and becoming at risk of homelessness.”
One wonders if the president now regrets affixing his signature on Aug. 2, 2012 to the law that opens this Pandora’s box.
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There will be a lot of these dire predictions coming. What Obama is trying to say (without saying it) is that he had his fingers crossed behind his back last fall. It works on any playschool playground.
The dictionary defines it as “renege”.
So if I understand you, teejk, you’re calling Obama a reneger? I’m telling.
You said that Howard, not me (I swear it never even entered my mind…an just an observation is that it hard to type with one hand behind my back, fingers crossed).
The sequester cuts are also going to force people to eat puppies and kitties! All thanks to the mind control rays coming from the Tea Party.
the “spin doctors” are already working…Obama never asked for this!!! Paul Ryan is sitting back smiling right now…the GOP will probably cave but Obama is going to get the hot-foot before they do (it is one of the few things that actually has his fingerprints all over it).
Obama never asked for this? How will they persuade the American public of that? Te man’s John Hamhock is right there on the Aug. 2 bill.
I alrEDY told you that ist hard to tipe with one hand…
but you are showing some racist signs…Hamhock??? (they are very good with chitlins and gravy I hear whatever that is) but only when the watermelons are in season.
Ham hocks (despite my flippancy it’s actually two words) are delicious as a seasoning for greens and are also wonderful in navy bean soup. Chitlins (or “chitterlings”) are pig intestine and taste pretty much the way you would expect pig guts to taste.
You have access to my last name Howard…you know that the only part of a hog to go to waste is the squeal???
I know that our Kool-aid guy will get his way on this…but finally we have his signature on something that he will have to say was a mistake…
I never ate crow personally…
And you to mine. Not seeing the relevance, I fear.