While the President and his media minions are trying to scare everyone into thinking that if the sequestration on federal spending goes through on March 1 it will be the end of the world, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer had a different view Wednesday.
Appearing on Fox News's Special Report, Krauthammer said, "This is the most ridiculously hyped Armageddon since the Mayan calendar" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BRET BAIER, HOST: Could somebody explain to me why Congress, why the president just doesn't say tomorrow, “Fine, transfer authority? Pentagon, you have transfer authority. You can do priorities. Take out of the conferences. I mean, you don't have to go to the stupid conference to do XYX. Save the personnel. Don't have the child care problem. Don’t have the XYZ problem. Have transfer authority for these agencies and don't make it an issue.” Why doesn’t, why don’t they pass a bill tomorrow?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: And that is precisely why this is the most ridiculously hyped Armageddon since the Mayan calendar. In fact, it’s made, it looks worse than the Mayan disaster. Look, this as you say can be solved in a day in an hour by allowing a transfer of funds. It’s incredibly soluble, easily soluble. And the president is the one who ought to propose it. He won't of course because he is looking for a fight and not a solution.
But secondly, look at this in perspective. In terms of the Gross Domestic Product of our economy this is .03 of the, it’s three, it’s a third of 1% of our domestic economy. On the domestic side, well overall , it’s 2.5 cents on the dollar, and overall on the non-defense side, it’s a penny and a half on the dollar of reductions.
Here we are with a debt of $16 trillion and the argument today is that if we cut a penny and a half on non-defense spending in one year it's going to be the end of the world. If so, then we are hopelessly in debt or we’re going to end up like Greece.
Agreed.
If our government can't cut 2.5 percent of its spending without the world coming to an end, we're in serious trouble.
And the idea that more media members aren't pointing out the absurdity of the Armageddon claims rather than hyping them is potentially even more disturbing.
