Back in January, Glenn shared that his New Year’s resolution for 2013 is to avoid saying President Obama’s name and playing any audio of his remarks. Anyone who breaks this rule is fined $20 per offense. While there have certainly been some bumps in the road – very expensive bumps – Glenn, Pat, Stu, and Jeffy have really seemed to take the challenge to heart and are feeling much better for it.
Last week, Glenn intentionally broke his own rule, saying “that guy’s” name three times, when he proclaimed: “Socialism is not my religion, government is not my church, and President Obama is not my god.”
Glenn went on to say the line two more times, costing him $60. But he it was $60 well spent. “And I said it gladly and I put $20 in,” Glenn said on radio this morning. “And then I said it again and I put $20 in and I said, ‘You know what? I'm going to give you 40 because I'm going to say it again.’ And it felt good. Now Pat has come to us and said, ‘I have to play the audio from that guy.’”
“I sent this to Pat last night,” Stu said. “And I said to him, ‘I don't know that we could play this because we're going to get fined if we play it, but it's so good.’”
With the automatic spending cuts set to kick in on March 1, Pat and Stu dug up some audio that shows President Obama’s blatant about-face on the issue.
Up first, Present Obama had this to say about the sequester in November 2011:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Already some in Congress who are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts. My message to them is simple: No. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts of domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off ramps on this one.
Based on these comments, Obama’s stance is pretty clear: there is no getting out of the automatic spending cuts, but 15 months later, the President is singing quite a different tune. During a press conference yesterday at the White House, Obama had this to say about the effects of the sequester:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: …Emergency responders like the ones who are here today, their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded. Border patrol agents will see their hours reduced. FBI agents will be furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. Airport controllers and airport security will see cutbacks which mean more delays in airports across the country. Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings.
“Wait a minute. So hold on just a second,” Glenn said. “This is making my blood boil. This is why we don't play this guy.”
The hypocrisy is astounding, even for this president, but perhaps the most ironic part of Obama’s recent remarks is how he keeps referring to the layoffs that will supposedly target firemen, teachers, and educators. Unless circumstances have changed in the last 24 hours – firemen and teachers do not work for the federal government.
“How many federal teachers and educators do we have? How many teachers are on the federal payroll? I want to know the number,” Pat said. “I want to know the exact number because it's zero! Federal teachers? There's no federal layoff of teachers.”
“But this is a strategy from this president, which is, when he makes these big speeches and public policy pronouncements, it comes out and he targets the things that only the people on the right care about,” Stu countered. “You know, again the border patrol, FBI agents, crime; federal prosecutors, crime; letting criminals go, more crime; airport security, terrorism; teachers and educators, family; child care for your kids, family. He goes after the rightwing catch phrases, the rightwing care groups, and he targets them to get them on board because he knows he's already got [Democrats]. They blindly follow.”
At the end of the day, the sequester is not substantial enough to actually prevent a credit downgrade or get government spending anywhere near under control, but it is a start –a start conservatives and Republicans should stand behind.
“It was [Obama’s] idea. He came up with it. So let's use this to our advantage,” Glenn said. “[Be] for sequester. Say, ‘Yeah, it's about time.’ And if it means that it's hard cuts on our side, we will go in there and we will target those cuts. Because you can't tell me that we can't cut 10% even out of the Pentagon and not survive. We'll take those cuts, and we urge the president to make more cuts across the board. We want another 10% sequester straight across the board. And after that one, we'll take another straight across the board 10% cut.”
“They could win that argument with the American people,” Glenn concluded. “But [Republicans] will not do it because they're big government progressives just as much.”
