James V. Zedak – 2/28/13

This page was last updated on March 1, 2013.

People should be priority; James V. Zedak; Beaver County Times; February 28, 2013.

Mr. Zedak has written at least 35 letters since 2004. I critiqued eight of those letters (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“At a time when our country is facing a sequester that could trigger a recession deeper than the one we are just coming out of, Congress is on vacation.”

[RWC] It appears Mr. Zedak got sucked into believing the White House BS. Among other things, President Obama said, “Emergency responders like the ones who are here today -- their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded. Border Patrol agents will see their hours reduced. FBI agents will be furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays at airports across the country. Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find childcare for their kids. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings.”

Ignoring the fear mongering, the lying, and the fact sequestration was the White House’s idea (according to Bob Woodward), Mr. Obama unintentionally made a great case against big government. Why on Earth should “Emergency responders,” “teachers and educators,” “childcare,” “primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings,” and so on be at the mercy of government, let alone the feds? The “good” news is Mr. Obama lied about Armageddon. Mr. Obama knows the vast majority of funding for these items comes from local and state taxpayers so mythical “cuts” by the feds should have little effect as discussed below.

Now that you read the above, here’s what gets lost. Sequestration in this case is simply a highfalutin word for every budget account gets “cut” by the same percentage; departments can’t prioritize the “cuts.” I put “cuts” in quotes because they are chump change, relatively speaking. Though the figure varies a bit depending on the source, we’re talking somewhere around $85 billion split evenly between defense and nondefense spending for fiscal year 2013. $85 billion is 2.2% of estimated FY 2013 spending of $3,803 billion (White House estimate). Yes, folks, Messrs. Obama and Zedak are squealing like stuck pigs about 2.2%, a figure that would still leave spending about $115 billion greater than FY 2011. As George Will recently wrote, “Washington chain-saw massacre — we must scrape by on 97.7% of current spending!”

I suspect Chicken Littles like Mr. Obama are trying to avoid the sequester “cuts” because they don’t want taxpayers/voters to learn the world won’t end with a 2.2% “cut” and any “pain” that may occur was contrived. Indeed, over the last couple of days Mr. Obama began to change his tone. In his speech at the Business Council Dinner, Mr. Obama said, “Now, I should point out and I’m sure you’ve heard from a number of experts and economists that this is not a cliff, but it is a tumble downward. It’s conceivable that in the first week, the first two weeks, the first three weeks, the first month -- that unless your business is directly related to the Defense Department, unless you live in a town that is directly impacted by a military installation, unless you’re a family that now is trying to figure out where to keep your kids during the day because you just lost a Head Start slot -- a lot of people may not notice the full impact of the sequester.” In one day, the effect of the sequestration “cuts” went from Armageddon to “a tumble downward” we may not notice for a month.

“This points out that far too many politicians are operating with certain priorities. The first priority is to themselves looking to the next election. The second is blind loyalty to their party and their party’s leaders. The third is to the SuperPACs and the deep pockets who finance their campaigns. Somewhere, deep down the list, is priority four, which is concern for what is good for this country and honoring the Constitution of the United States. Way down the list is priority five, which is honestly representing the citizens of the United States.

“Add to this we have partisan and intra-partisan politics and an unprecedented level of obstructionism, and we have a government that is broken surviving only on Band Aid approaches to each crisis as it comes up. Government of, by and for the people has been replaced by selfish monied interests.”