Sequestral Insanity Saturday Political Soap Box 61

Some of my conservative and/or self-proclaimed politically neutral friends have asked me if I just blindly support President Obama in everything he does.

Well, no.

But many of  my mild objections, if they finally understand that I do have objections, completely mystify them because they come from the left - that President Obama has not gone far enough in a liberal direction.  We should have single payer or at the very least a public option.  The whole drone thing seems over the top a bit.  More should have been done to bust up and regulate the too big to fails.  But I have understood the political necessity in most cases and am just happy that progress has been made.

But right now, the President has me really pissed off.  In fact, so do Republicans and Democrats alike.  Some around me bad mouth politicians in general  of all stripes, as being no good and just the same.  What's happened this week has given them plenty of fuel. I don't think I could ever adopt their attitude, but at least this week, I have a better idea where it comes from.

First, let me just say the sequestration is a world class stupid idea.  It was a gun Congress put to their heads, thinking they wouldn't be stupid enough to let it go off.  HA!  Does the federal budget need cutting?  Yes!  Is it the highest priority in a slow growth economy and high unemployment   OH, H TO THE NO!  A thousand times no!  You only pull out of recession through government spending.  Sorry that this fact is so hard to grasp, but it's true. Sorry that Bush spent like a drunken sailor in relatively good times, and now we have a deficit, but too bad, so sad.  If we don't buckle down and pull out of this recession, deficits will never stop, no matter what you do to government spending.  You will only spiral further down into the abyss.

But once you put these moronic sequestered cuts into place, it is a sin of the highest order to go back and restore those that most effect your rich constituents while leaving the others in place.  The well-off and business class travelers squeal at the first sign of airport delays and the Congress caves like a bunch of preteens at a Justin Bieber concert.  Meanwhile, cuts to the more disadvantaged and less well off, including Headstart, Meals On Wheels and America continue unabated.  Once again, it's the poorest parts of our society that are asked (asked? - hell,  they're not even asked, it's just holy writ!) to sacrifice the most.  Disgusting!  Absolutely and irretrievably disgusting!

Yes, I mostly blame Republicans for their ugly, brutal intransigence  and for continually trying to hold the nation hostage rather than negotiate on the budget in good faith.  

And I blame Democrats for acquiescing and not putting their foot down to this insanity.  What fool Democrat didn't understand that Republicans were crazy enough to let this gun go off?  And to allow this perk through to the well-off is a stab in the back to everything they're supposed to stand for, and fundamentally betrays the reason I voted for them in the first place.

I blame the American voters for voting in such a contradictory way, for blindly saying that they want  government slashed, but never saying what they specifically and really want.  It's always cuts to the Other, never cuts to anything that effects them.

And I do blame the man at the top.  Do not sign this piece of crap legislation, Mr. President!  Show some backbone and stand up to these sycophantic fools!  This is not why I voted for you!  Either the sequester is ended as a whole, or it keeps going unabated.  Stop letting them push you around!

I still believe President Obama is the best President we've had in a very, very long time.  But there are times when even he disappoints me.  And there are rare times when he disgusts me.

This is one of those very rare times.