"For the banks and their bought-and-paid-for representatives in both political parties, no democratic formalities must stand in the way of the ever-greater accumulation of personal wealth. In particular, the human misery inflicted in Detroit is necessary to ensure maximum returns on the tax-free municipal bonds held by the billionaire hedge fund managers."
BEFORE THE ELECTION, OBAMA FOUND A HALF BILLION DOLLARS TO BUY LA RAZA'S ILLEGAL VOTES.
EVERY MONTH OBAMA SQUANDERS BILLIONS PROTECTING THE BORDERS OF MUSLIM DICTATORS... BUT FOR AMERICANS (Legals)??? NO OBAMA TO BE SEEN. HE'S OUT ON THE GOLF COURSE!
The (failed) GOP bid to strip funds for presidential golf trips was just one move in an escalating struggle over Obama's 'sequester' strategy, such as axing popular White House tours.
Should
President Obama give up golf for the duration of the "sequester"? That’s what some irritated conservative GOP lawmakers believe. They’re not mad at presidential sports per se as much as annoyed at what they consider to be Mr. Obama’s grandstanding on spending cuts mandated by sequestration. In particular, they’re peeved that the administration, with blaring trumpets, has announced that public tours of the
White House have been cancelled pending further notice.
So on Tuesday,
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) of
Texas offered an amendment to the omnibus spending bill that the House is currently considering. None of the money authorized by this continuing resolution “may be used to transport the President to or from a golf course until public tours of the White House resume,” read Representative Gohmert’s amendment.
In
a Tuesday floor speech, Gohmert said he hoped this prodding would make the White House rethink tour cancellations. The Texas lawmaker noted that spring break is coming up and tourists of all political persuasions have already made plans for tours of D.C.
“They’ll get their tour of the White House, and all it will cost is one or two golf trips less,” said Gohmert.
Nope. This isn’t happening.
House Republican leaders ruled the amendment not relevant to the spending bill, and blocked it from getting a vote on the chamber floor.
But we think Gohmert’s effort was nevertheless indicative. For one thing, it shows that the conservative wing of the GOP remains unhappy with their leadership’s approach to the sequester standoff.
They want more confrontation with the White House, not less. In particular, they want to use the continuing resolution as a club to try to force through even deeper spending reductions, such as cutting money for implementation of some aspects of the
Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare."
Influential conservative pundit
Erick Erickson makes this point Wednesday at RedState. He bemoaned the demise of Gohmert’s amendment and urged GOP conservatives to vote against allowing the continuing resolution to proceed, in the name of trying to force deeper cuts.
“Conservative groups must set a new standard,” Mr. Erickson writes, but he holds out little hope they’ll actually block the bill.
For another thing, the golf-versus-building-tour dust-up shows how the White House has shifted from making big claims about the sequester’s alleged dire effects to implementing small, yet pointed reductions.
ABC’s
Rick Klein makes this point Wednesday
in the morning political newsletter The Note.
“Inside week one of the sequester, we went from workplace deaths and forest fires and airport chaos to ... no more White House self-guided tours? The Obama administration has gone from very big to very small in sequester messaging, brushed back by the fact some early claims turned out to be less than truthful, and that, well, big things aren’t happening yet,” Mr. Klein writes.
The fact is White House tours are popular with voters. Both Republican and Democratic House members are more than happy to procure tour tickets for traveling constituents. But because of security concerns and sheer popularity, this has to be done well in advance – so tourists with spring break tour times are not going to be happy. They’ll have to hit the
Smithsonian instead.
Do the tours really have to be cut? That’s another question entirely. Given their visibility, it’s quite possible that the administration is just engaging in a variant of the time-honored
Washington Monument budget ploy.
That’s named after an apocryphal story of a Parks Service chief offering to close the Washington Monument as a contribution to budget austerity. The point is to highlight the effect of reductions by doing away with the most visible and well-liked government services.
But the Obama administration can’t close the Washington Monument this time around.
It’s already shut to visitors due to repairs needed to fix the effects of the 2011 D.C.-area earthquake.
UPWARD MOBILITY? NOT FOR LEGALS IN OBAMA’S
AMERICA WHERE THE JOBS GO TO ILLEGALS, AND THE LOOTING OF HIS WALL STREET
PAYMASTERS CONTINUES UNABATED.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/03/upward-mobility-in-america-obama-and.html
OBAMA HAS SQUANDERED BILLIONS TO PROTECT THE BORDERS OF
MUSLIM DICTATORS…. BUT FOR AMERICAN CITIES IN MELTDOWN WHERE THERE ARE NO JOBS
FOR LEGALS… OBAMA GOES GOLFING!
White House cancels tours because there’s no
money; Americans now unable to say goodbye to the $250 million the Obama
administration is sending Egypt
By Doug
Powers • March 6, 2013 10:55 AM
**Written by Doug Powers
An alternate
headline comes courtesy of Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX): “The people have
been banned from the people’s house.”
The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will cancel
all tours starting this weekend, due to sequester cuts. The move prompted swift
condemnation from Republican lawmakers, who described the decision as the
latest attempt to make the sequester seem worse than it is.
[...]
The announcement is the latest from the administration about the impact of the
cuts that went into effect last Friday. Congressional staffers received a terse
email saying White House tours would be canceled effective this Saturday.
The email cited “staffing reductions” from the sequester.
“Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected
tours,” the notice said. “We very much regret having to take this action,
particularly during the popular Spring touring season.”
Knowing
sequestration was looming, there was still enough money for an extra $15 million
in Pakistan aid, $50 million for TSA uniforms
and even hundreds of thousands for portraits.
Even post sequestration they were somehow still able to scrape $250 million
from under the country’s couch cushions to give to Egypt.
Finally,
the Tweet of the day:
**Written by Doug Powers