If you listened to today’s Republican
Weekly Address
that counters President Obama’s message, like the ones before it during
this
Administration, you’d have thought someone missed the politically
divisive
events of the past year. Republican Rep. Allen West of Florida urged
President Obama to work with
lawmakers to help avert sequestration, calling the impending automatic
cuts to
defense a “dark cloud” which “hangs over our military.” He forgot that
the
President already tried sitting down with Republicans, who then chose
to
obstruct anything he tried to accomplish.
Bogus re-writes of history are dark marks on our supposed American values
I see this as a “boo-game” that
Republicans are
playing with the American public, without telling the whole story. You
see, in
politics, there’s a negotiation tactic known as compromise,
about which the Republicans act as if they have no
knowledge. Known as “the party of no,” Republicans have allowed their
Tea Party
wing to lead them onto this virtual fiscal cliff. Now it’s time to
jump. Since
they refused to compromise with Democrats in tax hikes for the highest
American
incomes, in exchange for the budget cuts of which they’re so proud,
they are
now saddled with the consequences of their recalcitrance.
Let me give you a point of fact that
Rep. West left
out: What sequestration is. The Budget Control Act established the Joint Select
Committee on Deficit Reduction to identify
$1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the period of fiscal years
(FYs)
2012-2021. The joint committee was simply charged with achieving
deficit
reduction with no restrictions on how they accomplish the net
reductions in the
deficit. The Budget Control Act - or Sequestration - came up with the
formula
to get it done…since that’s all the Republicans cried about.
The sequestration
process is one in which across-the-board spending cuts are applied to
government programs in order to meet a budgetary goal. A number of
programs are
exempt from sequestration by statute. Those programs not specifically
exempted
constitute what is considered to be the “sequester base.” The Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) is required by law to apply the spending
cuts
uniformly to all programs, projects, and activities within a budget
account in
the sequester base. So, the Republicans wanted budget cuts? They are
now going
to get them. So why is Allen West crying? Because the Republicans “pet
project”
- the Department of Defense - is going to shed some skin in this beef
too!
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“I spent 22 years in active duty service in the
United States Army and served in several combat zones. I cannot
understate the
amount of damage these cuts would do to our military,” said West (a
retired
Army officer) in the Republican Weekly Address. Because of war, death
and destruction, West made a living.
West said the cuts would “hollow out”
the nation’s
military forces leaving the country with “the smallest ground force
since 1940,
the smallest Navy since 1915, and the smallest tactical fighter force
in the
history of the modern United States Air Force.” But what he didn’t say
is that
the U.S.
still has the biggest of everything he named: greatest amount of ground
forces
than any other nation; more ships than any other nation and more
tactical fighting
forces than any nation on earth! Even if the cuts take place…since we
are an
increasingly technological fighting machine now, we need less and less
of the
stuff we used to use - just like corporate America
is doing with low-wage
workers! No need for cashiers when you’ve got automated self-check-out
kiosks!
The President already tried sitting down with Republicans, who then chose to obstruct anything he tried to accomplish
Something else West failed to say: that
his
Republican-supporting corporations would shed some skin too when the
cuts take
place. Funny how he left that out when talking to the American public.
Lockheed-Martin,
a grand recipient of “government welfare,” would feel these defense
cuts that
West is talking about. West defends them, but neglects to defend cuts
to the
poor. He didn’t say that the cuts were fair - thus “across-the-board”
is the most
equitable solution in an unfair political climate.
Of Lockheed-Martin’s $1.927 million in
political
contributions, 62% went to Republicans. They’ve spent over $3.9 million
in
lobbying thus far this year. Honeywell International, another
aerospace/defense
products and services provider spent $2.2 million, with 63% of its
contributions going to Republicans.
The Florida
lawmaker pressed the Obama administration to accept a Republican
proposal for
avoiding the impending cuts, and said Obama had shown a “failure to
lead.” Lead
what? President Obama offered the Republicans four dollars in cuts to
just one
dollar in tax hikes - on the richest American wage earners - and
Republicans
quickly rejected it. How’s offering someone a gift horse a “failure to
lead?”
The disingenuous language that misleads
the
American public on highly important issues is what the Republican Party
has
become known for. Bogus re-writes of history are dark marks on our
supposed
American values. Just know that the sequestration cuts will work out
just fine,
for the right reasons, at the right time. If Republicans don’t want to
work
“across the aisle,” then someone else will work it out for them. When
Republicans fail to compromise, that exemplifies their failure to lead.
BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Perry Redd, is the former Executive
Director of
the workers rights advocacy, Sincere Seven, and author of the on-line
commentary, “The Other Side of the Tracks.” He is the host of the
internet-based
talk radio show, Socially Speaking in Washington, DC. Click here to contact Mr. Redd.
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