Sequestration: Middle Class as the new “Children”

Used to be you could tell a political scam because each side would parade out how the “children” would be hurt or would benefit by a particular policy. But slowly it’s transitioned and suddenly, “middle class” is the new “children.” A sure tell that the truth is not being revealed.

You Buying the Middle Class Argument on Sequestration? It’s a weak argument that the President didn’t even seem convinced of as he made his case this afternoon calling the failure to reach agreement “dumb” and sputtering through the justifications for keeping every cent of our money that is supporting Federal budget in place.

If you want to see the BEST argument the White House can muster for what’s affected by the sequestration you can visit whitehouse.gov and search for “Fact Sheet: Examples of How the Sequester Would Impact Middle Class Families, Jobs and Economic Security.” That’s the spin version where the Administration desperately tries to make the cuts “REAL” to the middle class.

Even so, the strained and multi-stepped “impacts” outlined are not persuasive but instead are merely transparent. In Obamaworld, government supporting government, only government employees are middle class, the rest of the country really doesn’t matter. Sequestration is about government paying for government. Go through the list, one by one and do your homework to determine the impact on you. And, by the way, government employees do better than non-governmental middle class.

On 1/30/12 in the washingtonpost.com, in an article entitled, “CBO: Federal workers more than their private-sector counterparts” Suzy Khimm noted that “the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] discovered that the Federal government pays about two percent more in total wages and about 16 percent more when the employer-provided benefits are factored in.”

The President rolled out his BEST examples of “impact” during his speech this afternoon. Even so, the best he could do was Head Start teachers having to take a furlough of one day a week, border patrol agents getting a 10 percent cut in salaries, janitors working for the Federal government facing a 10 percent cut. Through a strained argument of “ripple effect” he managed to bring in the non-governmental middle class briefly, albeit twice when he noted that a shipyard in VA that has a Federal contract and gets most of its work from the Feds would be in jeopardy.

He also blamed Republicans who, "As recently as yesterday, they decided to protect special-interest tax breaks for the well-off and well-connected..." Yet government employs only SEVEN percent of Americans, which is the majority of the money we're talking about here, government for government. (Find seven percent source including article in Business Insider, from 7/24/12 entitled, “Guess What Percentage of Americans Work for the Government Now Versus the Late 1970s?” by Henry Blodget. One interest group (wealthy) or the other (government workers), it should be the same to the non-governmental middle class.

After whining that Republicans see him with horns on his head (yes, he really said that), he found his new scapegoat for all things that go wrong now that even Democrats find that the George Bush argument is getting old. He warned that ALL bad economic news for the next months will be because of sequestration (and the Republicans).

Tonight you’ll likely see the “President as Messiah” reporters focus on the word “dumb”, (all things not coming from the President are “dumb”).

Let’s not be dumb. Dumb would be to ignore what the President said which is that he’s willing to work with Republicans and make cuts to the single problem area he believes exists in the Federal budget, Medicare. He will change, cannibalize and weaken Medicare. Are you listening?

Look at what the President has done already for the middle class. He’s already raised payroll taxes (two percent more), he’s already starting reaping the benefits of Obamacare where individuals will be fined for non-participation in insurance plans while they pay more for insurance plans (increased cost sharing). We’re already going to have to reach a higher threshold for the medical expense deduction which goes up to 10 percent next year (from 7.5 percent), even as many of us take on the payments for our grown children’s health insurance because the job market is so bad for young people.

The same argument time and time again, the President does the “right” thing. The President’s solution is ALWAYS better than the alternative, even when there is no alternative in place. Be afraid of Republicans and NOTHING is ever the President’s fault.

Support the President with the “common sense” he encourages and go beyond the partisan reporting that substitutes for “news”. OMB website outlines sequestration “impacts,” the “fact” sheet has an angle but says nothing untrue.

But don’t forget the other half of the formula and that’s the SOLUTION to sequestration which for the President means fund Obamaworld, government supporting government. Where would he be willing to compromise? Medicare.