Obama administration struggles to illustrate pain from sequester - Polidicks

Obama administration struggles to illustrate pain from sequester CBS News March 6, 2013, 6:03 AM [quote]The Obama administration has overreached three times in the past 10 days in attempting to illustrate the negative impact of the sequester spending cuts in the short term, giving fodder to those seeking to play down the impact of the cuts. On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters that major airports had seen lines ballooning to 150-200 percent their normal size. The Transportation Security Administration later clarified that it was not yet seeing longer-than-normal checkpoint lines, though Customs and Border Protection told CBS News there had been increased wait times at two airports due to reduced staffing. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, however, that "officials representing a dozen major airports said there were few if any unusual flight delays or lines at security or customs checkpoints." That included an official at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, which is one of the two airports that had been specifically cited by Customs and Border Protection. On Friday, meanwhile, President Obama said that janitors at the U.S. Capitol would receive a pay cut due to the sequester cuts. Carlos Elias, the superintendent of the U.S. Capitol building and the Capitol Visitors Center, quickly emailed employees to say "This is NOT TRUE," adding that "The pay and benefits of EACH of our employees WILL NOT be impacted." The prior Sunday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan had said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that "There are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips, who are getting notices that they can't come back this fall." He later acknowledged that he "misspoke" after fact checkers found no evidence for the claim. [/quote] [quote]Most Americans are not directly affected by these cuts, however, which is why the administration has sought to put the focus on issues like air travel that have a broader reach. But while officials expect increases in delays as overtime is reduced, hiring is frozen and air traffic controllers are furloughed due to the sequester, the impact will be gradual. In its zeal to make the case for a more immediate impact than seems to have happened, the administration may have made it harder to undo the cuts down the road, said former John McCain communications director Dan Schnur, Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. "There's more than a little bit of a White House-who-cried-wolf danger that's beginning to emerge," he said. "If the sequester does eventually cause serious inconvenience or real pain to many people, these overstatements may not have much of a long-term impact. But in the short run, it makes the voters more skeptical as to whether the administration is being honest with them."[/quote] [quote]The White House on Tuesday did find one way to illustrate the immediate impact of the sequester: An administration official said the White House is canceling all public tours due to staffing reductions, effective Saturday. Republicans quickly lashed out at the move, with former House Speaker and GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich tweeting that it is "childish and dishonest," as well as "silly and demeaning."[/quote] full story: [url]http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57572703/obama-administration-struggles-to-illustrate-pain-from-sequester/[/url] [url]http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57572703/obama-administration-struggles-to-illustrate-pain-from-sequester/?pageNum=2[/url] Releated: [url]http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/06/leaked-email-adds-fuel-to-claims-white-house-playing-politics-over-impact-cuts/[/url]

Good, let's cut more

Continue the cuts then! Also his whole bullshit firefighters and EMT's losing their jobs shit, those are STATE employees... Granted states to get a lot of federal funding, but they shouldn't rely on it so much, states should have to stay above the debt as well.

These sequester cuts really suck. They cut the flight budget from 40 million, to 3 million for the entire brigade I am in. Pretty much nothing can fly. Promotions slowed to a standstill, and good luck getting any schooling. Why couldn't they have reached a deal?

Cancelling all tours due to staffing reductions does tend to smack a bit of trying to find an example of the terrible nature of the cuts. Still, if nothing negative's happened, there can be further cuts.

[QUOTE=draugur;39821031]Continue the cuts then! Also his whole bullshit firefighters and EMT's losing their jobs shit, those are STATE employees... Granted states to get a lot of federal funding, but they shouldn't rely on it so much, states should have to stay above the debt as well.[/QUOTE] I got a 20% furlough as a civilian employee for the navy with a part-time job

lol you guys know that science funding in the usa is about to get destroyed, right? deficit hawks are morons. the best way to fight the deficit is to improve the economy, not arbitrarily apply accross the board cuts

[QUOTE=Lazor;39821120]lol you guys know that science funding in the usa is about to get destroyed, right? deficit hawks are morons. the best way to fight the deficit is to improve the economy, not arbitrarily apply accross the board cuts[/QUOTE] a lot of science funding is private, isn't it?

[QUOTE=Protocol7;39821132]a lot of science funding is private, isn't it?[/QUOTE] And also riddled with patents, copyrights & that shit.

[QUOTE=Lazor;39821120]lol you guys know that science funding in the usa is about to get destroyed, right? deficit hawks are morons. the best way to fight the deficit is to improve the economy, not arbitrarily apply accross the board cuts[/QUOTE] People are losing jobs and you're worried about science funding. Good priorities.

[QUOTE=Protocol7;39821132]a lot of science funding is private, isn't it?[/QUOTE] public grants are a huge deal and even if funding is restored in like a year it'll have already dealt a huge long term blow to american science [editline]6th March 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39821183]People are losing jobs and you're worried about science funding. Good priorities.[/QUOTE] i'm playing to the facepunch demographic that would sacrifice a thousand children a day for science's sake

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39821183]People are losing jobs and you're worried about science funding. Good priorities.[/QUOTE] It's a pretty important priority.

[QUOTE=Sobotnik;39821219]It's a pretty important priority.[/QUOTE] Compared to those losing their jobs and other welfare expenses? Yeah, playing with lasers and looking at the moon is definitely more important that the lives of the impoverished.

man people losing their jobs...prices going up...america going even further down the shitter...at least the big scary number i dont understand went down a bit... [editline]6th March 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39821232]Compared to those losing their jobs and other welfare expenses? Yeah, playing with lasers and looking at the moon is definitely more important that the lives of the impoverished.[/QUOTE] caring about things ins't a zero sum game you nonce

[QUOTE=Lazor;39821248]man people losing their jobs...prices going up...america going even further down the shitter...at least the big scary number i dont understand went down a bit...[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://puu.sh/2d8xx/896beaef4d[/IMG] "our work here is done"

[QUOTE=Protocol7;39821132]a lot of science funding is private, isn't it?[/QUOTE]Depends on the field. Doubt you could get private funding to solve some tricky as-yet-unsolved mathematical problems, for example.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39821232]Compared to those losing their jobs and other welfare expenses? Yeah, playing with lasers and looking at the moon is definitely more important that the lives of the impoverished.[/QUOTE] Where did I say that those issues were unimportant?

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39821183]People are losing jobs and you're worried about science funding. Good priorities.[/QUOTE] science funding brings benefits to the entire world granted, jobs are important but science funding is arguably equally as important as it not only impacts the US citizens but the entire world science isn't just "look at this cool thing we made", it saves lives and increases the quality of life for people in many different situations (and I'm not talking about phones, I'm talking about safe water, hi-tec emergency buildings, etc. etc.) so yeah it's important, and imagine the potential benefits to the economy in the long run. Take solar cells, for example, constantly being improved and creating more and more jobs as the uptake increases

Just raise taxes or cut out the loopholes, stop deductions. And cut the war which we don't need, if it's not for oil, what the fuck.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39821232] Yeah, playing with lasers and looking at the moon is definitely more important that the lives of the impoverished.[/QUOTE] i don't think you have a grasp of how science actually works do you. It's not about sending robots to the moon, even less about what you hear in the news. Go read a journal on fuel technology or something

[QUOTE=SKEEA;39821059]These sequester cuts really suck. They cut the flight budget from 40 million, to 3 million for the entire brigade I am in. Pretty much nothing can fly. Promotions slowed to a standstill, and good luck getting any schooling. Why couldn't they have reached a deal?[/QUOTE] You guys are the ones who should be cut

What science can bring to the people of tomorrow is irrelevant for the people suffering today.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39821439]What science can bring to the people of tomorrow is irrelevant for the people suffering today.[/QUOTE] Suffering today, or suffering tomorrow because of halted scientific research. They're both important, one is short-term, the other is long-term. The [B]REAL[/B] beef here, is that there's MANY OTHER things that can be cut, and some of them really isn't important, BUT some geezers with a distorted world view thinks they are.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39821439]What science can bring to the people of tomorrow is irrelevant for the people suffering today.[/QUOTE] So how else do we solve the worlds problems? Pray to the gods to help? Science tells us what reality is, and we can use that knowledge in so many ways it's unbelievable. It's not just sending a rover to Mars or cutting up rats in a lab.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39821439]What science can bring to the people of tomorrow is irrelevant for the people suffering today.[/QUOTE] A balance can be sticken Although I really don't appreciate you calling all scientific research and development "playing with lasers and looking at the moon"

[QUOTE=KingdomBanned;39821415]You guys are the ones who should be cut[/QUOTE] Thing is that we are not responsible for the cuts, nor the budget overruns. Congress gives us a budget, and we operate within it. Slashing it like that (and it is like that for pretty much every unit in the armed forces) doesn't solve anything. There is going to be a separation of experience and training, we are going to become less effective as a whole, and bad things will arise from that. Instead, more common sense cuts could have been enacted, such as cutting massive projects that we don't need at all *cough F-35 cough* and selling off things we do not need, as well as bringing everyone home to a garrison environment. A lot of cost is involved in shipping things overseas, and operating them there. Bring it back, and suddenly operations became a whole lot cheaper. Some other defense contracts can afford to be cut, and you can also start by replacing civilian dining hall workers with military personnel that actually hold that job, just as an example. Across the board "oh shit" cuts are bad, when they could have put forth a lot of effort and found excess and waste that we can get rid of.

[QUOTE=SKEEA;39821595] and bad things will arise from that.[/QUOTE] Like what? If we cut out budget in half we'd still have more invested in defense than all the world super powers combined, and who would attack us? We're allys with almost every other military power in the world.

[QUOTE=SKEEA;39821595]Thing is that we are not responsible for the cuts, nor the budget overruns. Congress gives us a budget, and we operate within it. Slashing it like that (and it is like that for pretty much every unit in the armed forces) doesn't solve anything. There is going to be a separation of experience and training, we are going to become less effective as a whole, and bad things will arise from that. Instead, more common sense cuts could have been enacted, such as cutting massive projects that we don't need at all *cough F-35 cough* and selling off things we do not need, as well as bringing everyone home to a garrison environment. A lot of cost is involved in shipping things overseas, and operating them there. Bring it back, and suddenly operations became a whole lot cheaper. Some other defense contracts can afford to be cut, and you can also start by replacing civilian dining hall workers with military personnel that actually hold that job, just as an example. Across the board "oh shit" cuts are bad, when they could have put forth a lot of effort and found excess and waste that we can get rid of.[/QUOTE] So, should a country not help it's own citizens before it can help others? not to mention stopping silly wars and only mind [B]REALLY[/B] important matters? You sound like those people who only went into the military because they though it was solid employment.

[QUOTE=Van-man;39821692]So, should a country not help it's own citizens before it can help others? not to mention stopping silly wars and only mind [B]REALLY[/B] important matters? You sound like those people who only went into the military because they though it was solid employment.[/QUOTE] WE'VE GOT TO IMPLANT MORE PUPPET GOVERNMENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39821232]Compared to those losing their jobs and other welfare expenses? Yeah, playing with lasers and looking at the moon is definitely more important that the lives of the impoverished.[/QUOTE] Well, if you must know, a lot of shit you use daily comes from our space program. Our country would be better off with more science/math studies than Art.