Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Obama's scare tactics
Remember how Massachusetts transportation officials a few years ago turned off the lights on the Zakim Bridge, claiming they didn’t have enough money in their budget to keep the lights on? Everyone in Boston knew it was a transparent attempt to scare taxpayers. After a brief uproar, transportation officials – surprise, surprise! – suddenly found the money and flicked the lights back on.
Remember how Massachusetts transportation officials a few years ago turned off the lights on the Zakim Bridge, claiming they didn’t have enough money in their budget to keep the lights on? Everyone in Boston knew it was a transparent attempt to scare taxpayers. After a brief uproar, transportation officials – surprise, surprise! – suddenly found the money and flicked the lights back on.
Think about this the next time President Obama doesn’t
dispatch an aircraft carrier to a war zone or claims national parks will be
shut down, etc. etc., due to the sequester fight now under way in Washington. I
know the Republicans are acting like a bunch of lunatics these days. This showdown
shouldn’t be happening. It’s an incredibly dumb way to cut the budget, as Elizabeth Warren
has noted. But the White House is going completely overboard as well, with all the dire warnings of doom to come. It’s rinky-dink politics you normally associate with city aldermen, state legislators and even student-government types, not the president of the United States of America.
