Volume 13, Issue 03-01: Armor Cracked

Bob Woodward has spoken out about the Obama Administration. This came out of nowhere. Woodward is best known for his work in bringing down the Nixon Administration about the Watergate burglary. Bob Woodward has been a hero and elder statesman for the left.

During 2011, Woodward wrote a book about the Obama Administration. He had free access to the White House and the presidential staff.

In interviews he took during that time, he quoted several staffers as how Obama devised the sequester to get the Republicans to raise the debt ceiling. According to Woodward, the sequester was agreed to so the nation would not default on paying obligations already accrued. There wasn’t time to have Congress devise a budget cutting bill before the nation went into a technical default. The Administration agreed to cut spending without tax increases. Obama, at that time, considered this a coup to keep the Republicans off balance.

Obama has also moved the goal posts by now demanding Republicans raise taxes. It was very clear Obama agreed that taxes would not be raised, and that is why the sequester had no tax increases in it.

Bob Woodward looks back at his 40 plus years of covering Washington and said he hadn’t seen this level of ineptitude since the Nixon Administration. The fact that Obama would let the Defense Department take such a reduction during a time of war is ridiculous.

After his original comments, he received phone calls and emails from members of the White House staff threatening him.

Woodward has appeared on some of the old media outlets to repeat his story. This is the same media that has worked hand in hand with the Administration to help Obama pass his healthcare law and win him re-election. They also worked very hard to defeat Republicans at every turn. It will be interesting to see if the media covers Woodward as a once and done story or if they actually start to cover Obama in a critical way.

Yes, there is a crack in the armor, and lets see how things go moving forward. Obama’s four year honeymoon with the media may be over. If so, he could move to lame duck status much earlier than anyone thought.

Defense

The Defense Department is furloughing 800,000 contractors for 22 days as part of the sequester cuts. This does nothing to reduce the spending structure of the Defense Department. Under the sequester, next year the $42.5 billion reduction stands plus another $42.5 Billion for next year. The Defense Department is 18% of spending and they must absorb half the cuts. What Commander in Chief would propose such a reduction in a time of war? Obama chose to remove an aircraft carrier from the Middle East. What President would deliberately cut the equipment needed by our troops in harms way?

The Republicans in the House of Representatives passed legislation giving the Administration the ability to shift the cuts around to minimize the impact of the sequester . Obama refused the offer. He doesn’t want the responsibility to decide where the cuts take place. Let’s remember something else here. The Defense Department will still spend more this year than last. The cut to the department is LESS than the built in increase they receive. This holds true of all the “cuts” under the sequester. Spending and borrowing will still increase as far as the eye can see.

The primary duty of the government is to keep us safe and free. Has Obama taken this duty to heart or has he forfeited his responsibility?