So the Obama campaign sent out this fearmongering email today. It’s difficult to exaggerate just how ridiculous it is.
Friend —
Prepare yourself for job layoffs, reduced access to early education, slower emergency response, slashed health care, and more people living on the street.
They’re literally predicting a rise in homelessness if the government cuts a couple of percent in the rate of growth of spending — $22 billion this year out of budgetless spending pie of $3.6 trillion.
This Friday is the final deadline for congressional Republicans to stop disastrous automatic spending cuts (known as the “sequester”) that will hurt everyday Americans — including you.
These budget cuts will take a sledgehammer to the budget, and indiscriminately cut critical programs vital to economic growth and middle class families.
Only if the president wants them to. Evidently, he does.
If Congress fails to act, we’d see budget cuts pretty much across the board to critical services that teachers, first responders, seniors, children, and our men and women in uniform rely on every day.
It sounds bad because it is. And with all these cuts on the line, why are congressional Republicans refusing to budge?
Why is Barack Obama refusing to budge? Why haven’t we even had a budget in 1,400 days?
Because to do so, they’d have to close tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires, oil companies, vacation homes, and private jet owners. I’m not kidding.
I’m kidding either: These people are the most dishonest bunch ever to achieve power in this country. The Democrats’ own plan doesn’t touch corporate jet owners.
It’s on each of us to speak up. Share what these budget cuts could mean to you — or someone you know — today. Congress needs to hear it.
President Obama has offered a balanced plan to reduce our deficit, asking the wealthy to pay their fair share so that we can protect programs that are incredibly important for working and middle-class Americans.
He wants more tax hikes. He’s fearmongering and breaking the law to get more tax hikes.
But congressional Republicans so far are refusing to compromise.
Here are some of the consequences if Congress fails to act by Friday:
— 10,000 teachers would be laid off, $400 million would be cut from Head Start, the program that makes sure at-risk preschoolers are ready for kindergarten, and 70,000 kids would be kicked out of the early-education program completely.
— The budget for firemen and other first responders to react when natural disasters strike would be cut by $35 million.
— Nutrition programs that help make sure seniors don’t go hungry would be cut by $43 million.
— A program that helps provide housing for the formerly homeless, including many veterans, would be shuttered, putting them at risk of going back on the street.
— A number of programs that help the most vulnerable families and children would be slashed — including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children dropping 600,000 women alone.
These are only true if the president makes them happen. He has flexibility within the law. If the sequester lays you off, it’s because Barack Obama chose to make that happen.
Right now, each of us has a responsibility to step up and make sure Congress hears our voices.
Whether you’d be directly affected by these sequester cuts, or whether they’d affect a senior, veteran, or teacher you know, please share what they mean to you:
http://my.barackobama.com/Share-Your-Sequester-Story
Let’s keep the pressure on congressional Republicans to do the right thing.
Thanks,
Stephanie
Stephanie Cutter
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