Political parties and their supporters can argue policy all they want, one side believes one set of policies are best for the country, the other side believes other policies are better. Underlying those policy decisions are undoubtedly legitimate beliefs that their ideas are what is best for the country, whether or not the facts back them up or the data shows it true or false.
What we have seen from Barack Obama and his administration since Republicans forced him to implement the $85 billion in spending cuts ($44 million for this fiscal year, the rest at a later date) has been a deliberate attempt to cause as much pain for Americans as he can.
Example of it being deliberate come from a leaked email from an Agriculture Department field officer:
From: Brown, Charles S - APHIS
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 1:20 PM
To: [redacted]
Cc: [redacted]
Subject: FW: Aquaculture loss - sequestration
All,
During the Management team conference call this morning, I asked if there was any latitude in how the sequestration cuts related to aquaculture could be managed (e.g. spread across the Region). The question was elevated to APHIS BPAS. The response back was, “ We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that “APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 States in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.“ So, it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.”
I have been asked to provide a plan by Friday that will outline the implement of the $263,000aquaculture reduction. I will use the information you have already provided. If I need additional information, I will let you know.
Charlie
Charles S. Brown
Eastern Regional Director
USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Services
920 Main Campus DriveSuite 200
Raleigh, NC 27606
919-855-7198 office
919-855-7215 fax
A request to implement sequester cuts to spread them out across the regions to minimize the impact was denied, with the specific goal of making sure the damage to the aquaculture industry the Obama administration claimed to Congress would happen, did happen.
That is as deliberate as it gets.
It is no stretch of the imagination to then assume other, equally damaging decisions made by the Obama administration, as to how to implement cuts, were made with the specific goal of harming Americans because Obama promised they would before he was forced to implement spending cuts.
Such as the release of illegal aliens awaiting deportation back into the community, with no significant forewarning to state authorities, as evidenced by a statement released by Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, which states "The recent decision by the Obama Administration to release ICE detainees into local communities with no formal notification to law enforcement, regardless of the reasons for the decision, is in callous disregard for public safety."
Mr. Montgomery's statement concludes as follows:
"The Administration’s willingness to endanger public safety and jeopardize national security is in direct violation of the President’s charge under Art. II, Sec. 3., that “…he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed…” If he chose to do so, he could use his executive authority to require administrative agencies of the executive branch to prioritize spending to ensure that necessary functions are not impaired. The willingness to play chicken with the security of Americans is contemptible."
To date, it appears everyone with authority to approve those releases, is denying they did so and Congressional Republicans are now demanding to know who gave final approval.
The amount of illegal aliens released has also been more than the American public was told:
An internal ICE memo obtained and released last week by the House Judiciary Committee found that the agency contemplated releasing 1,000 immigrants a week — far more than the several hundred it said it released.
ICE has blamed both the sequesters and “fiscal uncertainty” stemming from the 2013 appropriations process for the cuts. Congress only passed funding for half of the year, and must approve the other half by March 27.
Administration officials said that while they have released immigrants, they pose little danger to the community, and all of them are still being supervised, either through electronic device or by a check-in requirement.
That reasoning is highly suspect because two years ago, ICE Director John Morton testified to Congress that it was often cheaper to detain immigrants than to release and monitor them. Mr. Morton said at the time "It actually ends up being cheaper when people are in detention because they move much more quickly. (Source)
Maximizing the pain Americans feel is not just a fit of pique for Obama, it is political calclation to cause as much pain as possible, blame Republicans, and use it to help House Democrats win seats in the 2014 midterm elections.
That is not a guess or an opinion, that is garnered from public statements by the Obama adminsitration and other Democratic politicians.
White House economic adviser Gene Sperling: "My belief is that as this pain starts to gradually spread to communities affected by military spending, to children who need mental health services, to people who care about our border security, I believe that more Republican colleagues who are concerned about this harm to their constituents will choose bipartisan compromise on revenue raising tax reform with serious entitlement reform."
Democratic Representative Steve Israel: "The president understands that to get anything done, he needs a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. To have a legacy in 2016, he will need a House majority in 2014, and that work has to start now."
There are a variety of published alternatives and examples of wasteful spending that could be cut as a result of the sequester, shown in multiple news articles, but none of those would cause enough to pain to Americans to confirm Obama's preemptive threats, many of those shown to be direct lies according to fact checkers, which he made before the sequester went into effect.
I repeat - Never before in the history of the United States of America has a sitting President deliberately tried to cause as much harm as possible to Americans as Barack Obama is now doing.