Add Cuts to Energy Assistance to Cuts to Unemployment. The Sequester marches on...

Austerity is a bitch to talk about, so don’t expect this story to make Fox News anytime soon.

Just in time for one of the worst winters ever, Congress decided to make your life even shittier! While temperatures dip to below -50 degrees in some places, many Americans who could previously count on aid from the government to help offset heating costs are getting shut out by the government this year.

The silent killer in all of this is the GOP sequester. While Republicans continued repeating the same rhetoric about cuts to spending, behind the scenes the sequester does its damage.

Sequestration's budget cuts last year meant that thousands of families were left in the cold this winter. Congress cut funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program by about $155 million, and total funding has decreased from $5.1 billion to $3.32 billion since 2010.

Via Jezebel, these Huffington Post graphic tell the story:

Tea Party, Sequester, ending Wars, reduces Federal Spending in Wisconsin.

No one seems to want to talk about how the shut down and the sequester, two Republicans backed ideas, will impact all the Republican governors jobs numbers. Just in time for the midterm elections too.

Besides all the missteps and big talk from fawning CEO’s about the business climate in Wisconsin, Scott Walker’s got nothing. And thanks to his D.C. tea party buddies strangling government, Walker’s remaining year looks dismal.

Fitting justice for a guy who still blames the last governor for massive state job losses in 2008 and 2009, a result of the Republican gift to the American people infamously known as the Great Recession. Back at ya. At least the governments saving money.  

jsonline: Federal government spending in Wisconsin fell 24% in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, with sharp cuts at defense contractors and their suppliers, according to new figures from the Wisconsin Procurement Institute, a Milwaukee-based organization that helps businesses get federal contracts. There were 2,515 federal contractors in the state, down more than 20% from fiscal 2012.

Ending Sequestration would create 900,000 new jobs-CBO!!! So, who's backing this job killer....hmm?

This is just an estimate:

900 Workers feel the effects of Sequester, and end of Wars in Oshkosh.

More bad news for Scott Walker, who made the politically ridiculous prediction of creating 250,000 jobs in his first four years. While some said that this was a safe prediction for a normally recovery economy, we didn't have that. After all, we just went through the Great Recession. A more modest estimate would have been more honest, and not as hyperbolic as Walker's. But honesty doesn't give you the edge in an election.

With the sequesters dramatic cuts to military spending, and the end to unnecessary wars, Wisconsin is   about to experience massive job layoffs by the Oshkosh Corporation. 

Republican voters will continue to repeat the popular talking point that the sequester had no real affect, despite the proof below, but facts are troublesome things I hope the Democrats will mention often.

jsonline: With the war in Afghanistan winding down, Oshkosh Corp. last week said it

would lay off 900 workers this summer - about 25% of the company's defense division work force - ending a four-year hiring spree.

Ralph Gunderson, a UW-Oshkosh business professor (said), "This is kind of a bursting of our bubble." The city of 66,000 residents is a blue-collar town that has seen its share of big layoffs over the years, such as the hundreds of jobs lost at clothing-maker OshKosh B'Gosh during the past decade. There also have been other major layoffs in the region in the past year, including 780 people at the Thermo Fisher Scientific plant in Two Rivers and 250 at Brillion Iron Works in Brillion.

"We have lost furniture-makers, window-makers and wood products firms. We will get through it, I guess. But 900 people are going to have a hard time finding a job that pays the same wages as Oshkosh."

The immediate impact on the laid-off workers will spread to other businesses, from restaurants to real estate firms that depend on spending by Oshkosh employees. 

Think Sequester Painless way to Cut Spending?

Republican voters seemingly unaffected by the sequester cuts are sabotaging the economic future and jobs creation abilities of the country.

Lyin' Ryan on Tax cuts over Deficits, Campaigning and No Obama Plan-explained!

I'm not genius but it's pretty easy to figure out; our wonkish Representative and former VP candidate Paul Ryan is continuing his campaign of deception. Hey Paul, the elections over.

Here are a number of easy to understand explanations directed at teatards who are mesmerized by the unassuming authoritarian zealot.

Forget deficits: Here Ryan starts with a false premise; new tax revenues are meant for more reckless spending, not deficit reduction. Wrong. Ryan will repeat this a number of times. Ironically, Ryan wants to use our new tax revenues for tax reform, not deficit reduction. NOT DEFICIT REDUCTION. He even inadvertently admits the tax increase increased government revenues, an impossible task when you consider how raising taxes is a job killer...or is it. Ryan's plan wipes out the new tax revenues for tax reform. Nothing has changed! Meaning Ryan keeps his plan for draconian cuts to retirees. From Upfront with Mike Gousha: 



Campaigning is Over: It's almost funny to see Ryan "campaigning" against the supposed endless "campaign" of the president, who's simply pushing his plan for deficit reduction. This is all Republicans like Ryan have in their quiver. I've inserted a video clip of Michael Smerconish, who simply points how Republicans don't  want the president to use his office, the bully pulpit, to promote his agenda. Obama is vilified for going to the American public; he's accused of "campaigning" even though he's not running for anything; when do old talking points die? One more thing, how many times will Ryan remind us he was the VP candidate?:



Ryan forgot to Google Obama's sequester plan: Ryan gave up substance for silly talking points this time around. If he can't make the numbers work, he'll fall back on a dumb comment like "the president didn't put out his own plan." I've inserted Ezra Klein who makes the Republicans, and Ryan, pay for their pure outright lie:

Right Wing Obama haters "Played" By Woodward.

My conservative friend called me around 8:00 am to tell me about the “Chicago-style” tactics used against Bob Woodward. The "Obama threat." To him, this confirmed how the Obama administration bullies the opposition. My friend was also celebrating how well conservatives passed the blame and consequences of the sequester firmly onto Obama.

Despite the Republicans overwhelming vote for sequestration, and their plan to let it happen, they’re quick to blame Obama.

My friend was lovin’ it.

But the victory was short lived:

Media Matters: Conservative media figures are abandoning Washington Post writer Bob Woodward's over-hyped claim that he was threatened by a White House official. Woodward claimed that White House representative Gene Sperling had threatened him … But the full email exchange between Woodward and Sperling, released this morning by Politico, strongly suggests that Woodward's claims of White House intimidation were overblown. As a result, as Brett LoGiurato explains at Business Insider, several conservatives are now turning on Woodward.

The Daily Caller posted an article by Matt Lewis explaining that conservatives had seized on Woodward's initial story because it "confirmed our suspicion about the Obama Administration's 'Chicago-style' of politics." After reading the full emails, Lewis concluded that conservatives had been "played," and that the exchange is "much more innocuous" than it was initially presented.

Echoing Lewis, Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson said during an appearance on Fox News that the full emails suggest Woodward "hyped" the claim that he had been threatened. Fox News contributor Erick Erickson tweeted this morning: 

In a post at National Review, Kevin Hassett argues that while Sperling's statement to Woodward was "certainly regrettable," it was "not some ham-fisted attempt to intimidate Woodward."

At Herman Cain's website, Robert Laurie wrote, "I'm not seeing any threat. It's a real stretch to claim this back and forth is, in any way, menacing." 

My favorite is this incredible lunacy by Breitbart.com:

Breitbart.com's John Nolte wrote a post titled "Woodward Emails Back Claim Of White House Intimidation," arguing that Sperling's words were still a threat, because "[p]sychological manipulation is a game of chess, not checkers, and those claiming Woodward is exaggerating need to take into account more than just these two moves."

So insightful.

Remember the Headline Below: Republicans/Fox News Own Economic Slowdown.

The Republicans have it both ways on Sequester, but will they get away with it?

This is the most ridiculous and obvious way to cover ones ass. Leave it to the Republicans to try and pull this fast one. If things go bad or good after the sequester...GOP voters heads will spin trying to figure out what just happened.

Ryan was for the sequester, before he was against it....

It must be tough, or you'd have to be the most clueless idiot on earth, to deny your past support for something you passionately believed in for so many years.

That's our lyin' Paul Ryan. Sadly, video remnants of past declarative statements by Ryan, continues to hold him captive to reality, and expose his now obvious policy shell game.

So how can Ryan blame Obama for the horrors of the sequester, when it was all Ryan could talk about, once upon a time:



I think Politicususa said it best:

Representative (and failed VP nominee) Paul Ryan (R-WI) can tell you all about how great sequestration is. Why, he’s been a fan since 2004. Not just a fan — he’s pushed sequestration as the solution, as good governance, since 2004. When he finally got it in 2011, he bragged about it to Fox News. Oh, the conservatives finally got it, he told Sean Hannity! The holy grail of economic discipline is here! WOO HOO!

Ryan explained, “We want to make it very difficult for Congress to avoid this budget discipline.”

Now that it’s here, though, Paul Ryan no likey the sequester anymore. Budget discipline bad.

Uh, Sequester can be repealed...anyone?

Here's a short grouping of clips, starting with a summary by Lawrence O'Donnell, and followed by Rachel Maddow and Ezra Klein wondering why congress just doesn't do away with the sequester...I mean the "Obamaquester."

The truth: what congress gives, they can take away. They can repeal the sequester if they wanted to, and since Obama is adamant about avoiding the sequester, the only support for it is coming from Republicans. Which negates the idea that this is what Obama wants, and exposes the Republicans as the party that has chosen to legislate against their own country.