The Patriot Post Chronicle 2-27-2013

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 2-27-2013
From The Federalist Patriot
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Apocalypse Now

February 27, 2013

The Foundation

"No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable." --James Madison, Federalist 62

Editorial Exegesis

"And when the Republicans opened the seventh seal of the sequester, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black and the stars fell unto the Earth; and our nation's ability to forecast severe weather, such as drought events, hurricanes and tornados, was seriously undermined. Lo, and the children were not vaccinated, and all the beasts starved in the zoos, and the planes were grounded. Or so President Obama and his Cabinet prophets have been preaching ahead of the automatic budget cuts due to begin Friday. The bit about the weather is a real quote from the White House budget director. ... The truth is that the sequester already gives the White House the legal flexibility to avoid doom, if a 5% cut to programs that have increased more than 17% on average over the Obama Presidency counts as doom. According to Mr. Obama and his budget office, the sequester cuts are indiscriminate and spell out specific percentages that will be subtracted from federal 'projects, programs and activities,' or PPAs. ... Not so fast. Programs, projects and activities are a technical category of the federal budget, but the sequester actually occurs at the roughly 1,200 broader units known as budget accounts. Some accounts are small, but others contain hundreds of PPAs and the larger accounts run to billions of dollars. For the Pentagon in particular, the distinction between PPAs and accounts is huge. This means in most cases the President has the room to protect his 'investments' while managing the fiscal transition over time. ... This White House has never been fussy when a statutory text or even the Constitution interferes with its political ambitions. ... Could it be that Mr. Obama is exaggerating the legal stringency of the sequester in a gambit to force Congress to shut it off? ... Neither the legal details of the sequester nor the practical work of reforming government are as interesting to the media as Mr. Obama's invocations of plagues and pestilence. The real revelation is that if the world does end, it will be Mr. Obama's choice." --The Wall Street Journal1

Upright

"Even during this desultory economic recovery, one industry thrives -- the manufacture of synthetic hysteria. It is, however, inaccurate to accuse the Hysteric in Chief of crying 'Wolf!' about spending cuts under the sequester. He is actually crying 'Hamster!' As in: Batten down the hatches -- the sequester will cut $85 billion from this year's $3.6 trillion budget! Or: Head for the storm cellar -- spending will be cut 2.3 percent! Or: Washington chain-saw massacre -- we must scrape by on 97.7 percent of current spending! Or: Chaos is coming because the sequester will cut a sum $25 billion larger than was just shoveled out the door ... for victims of Hurricane Sandy! ... Or: Famine, pestilence and locusts will come when the sequester causes federal spending over 10 years to plummet from $46 trillion all the way down to $44.8 trillion!" --columnist George Will

"If the Senate had followed the law and produced normal-order budgets, we wouldn't have the sequestration at all. The budget resolutions of both chambers would have gone to conference committee, which would have hashed out the differences. Obama would have signed the budgets, and we would have avoided nearly four years of crisis funding for the federal government. Reid and Obama haven't used normal order because they want to keep using continuing resolutions as a means to keep the inflated FY2010 spending levels as the baseline going forward, and especially because they want to keep House Republicans from having a real voice on spending and budgeting." --blogger Ed Morrissey

"We have moved the bill [to replace the sequester] in the House twice. We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something." --House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

"Obama can not enact his second-term agenda without significant help from outside groups. Those outside groups can channel resources through Obama's old presidential re-election apparatus, which has now been rechristened 'Organizing for America,' an IRS 501(c)4 tax-exempt 'social welfare' organization. The sole purpose of OFA will be to advance Obama's policy agenda, and to that end, Obama will meet personally with OFA's national advisory board in the White House at least four times a year. And, here is the money part: You too can become a member of the national advisory board for the bargain basement price of just $500,000. ... If that isn't selling access, then we don't know what is. And it's also a clear case of hypocrisy -- of Obama doing precisely the thing for which he harshly criticized others, and with which he formed the very core of his political identity as a candidate of 'change.'" --The Washington Examiner

"Think about the First World War, from which nations on both sides ended up worse off than before.... Think about the Holocaust, and about other government slaughters of even more millions of innocent men, women and children under Communist governments in the Soviet Union and China. ... The Great Depression of the 1930s, in which millions of people were plunged into poverty in even the most prosperous nations, was needlessly prolonged by government policies now recognized in retrospect as foolish and irresponsible. One of the key differences between mistakes that we make in our own lives and mistakes made by governments is that bad consequences force us to correct our own mistakes. But government officials cannot admit to making a mistake without jeopardizing their whole careers." --economist Thomas Sowell

Insight

"The freedom now desired by many is not freedom to do and dare but freedom from care and worry." --American writer and historian James Truslow Adams (1878-1949)

"The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust." --English author Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

Demo-gogues

Blame game: "I don't know why it is in this town, folks leave stuff until the last minute. ... There's no other profession, no other industry where people wait until the 11th hour to solve these big problems. ... This is a problem that Congress can solve. You know, these automatic spending cuts that were put into place back in 2011, were designed to get Congress to actually avoid them, by coming together with more sensible approaches to deficit reduction." --Barack Obama

Transparency: "I know that some people in Congress reflexively oppose any idea that I put forward, even if it's an idea that they once supported, but rebuilding infrastructure is not my idea. It's everybody's idea. ... And folks who think spending really is our biggest problem should be more concerned than anybody about improving our infrastructure right now. ... And with that, what I want to do is clear out the press so we can take some questions." --Barack Obama at the National Governors Association

Tax hikes for everyone! "I was for the Clinton rates. I'm for the Clinton rates, today. Now, I wouldn't phase in the Clinton rates immediately, because the economy is still trying to get back, so I would perhaps go at least another year until you get the full Clinton rates." --House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Gun grabbers: "They say [the assault weapons ban] will violate their rights under the Second Amendment. Not true! They say assault weapons like the AR-15 are needed for self-protection and recreation. They are not. There's plenty of ways you can protect yourself and recreate without an AR-15. They say it isn't about guns. They're wrong -- it is about guns!" --Joe "Buy a Shotgun" Biden

"Common sense facts are these assault weapons are unnecessary and dangerous weapons that put our law enforcement personnel at risk. ... I've been working with the police agencies for 35 years. I am going to say something outrageous: You've had no better friend over the last 35 years than me." --Joe Biden

Non Compos Mentis Award: "I think we will make the case that these weapons do not belong on the streets of our cities, that many of the parts of these weapons make them into weapons that are specifically designed to kill large numbers of people in close conflict. ... America has to step up. The mothers, the women, the men of America have to make a decision as to whether their personal pleasure is more important than the general welfare." --Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)