I kinda hate sharing a Boston Herald link — they generally put the ‘blo’ in ‘tabloid’ — but, on the other hand: If the paper that spent months pimping Scott Brown and sneering at “Princess Fauxahontas” is willing to call the sequester dumb, that’s good news for Democrats (and the rest of the Reality-Based Community):
… Warren called the $85 billion in automatic cuts set to kick in Friday a “blunt instrument.”
“We’re out there trying to make clear this means children kicked out of Head Start programs. This means teachers that are potentially laid off. This means fewer air traffic controllers,” she said. “It means here in Massachusetts fewer dollars going into research. That may sound way off and not really important, but that means jobs right here in Massachusetts. It means cuts in the defense industry, not smart cuts, cuts we ought to be making, getting rid of fat,” she said. “It just means blunt, across-the-board cuts. It’s just an irresponsible way.”
Warren said she hopes congressional leaders will pick up on the president’s offer to cut spending 50 percent by closing corporate loopholes, and 50 percent by making targeted cuts, including in agricultural subsidies and military spending.
Warning: Auto-play video below the fold (but it’s worth watching):
(Local politics note: Mike Capuano is one of the Democrats who decided not to run for Kerry’s Senate seat; Steve Lynch is the one now running against Ed Markey in the primary. I’m still 100% in Markey’s camp, but you can see where Lynch would be attractive to blue-collar voters who don’t find his anti-choice stance & general social conservatism a deal-breaker.)
Here’s the Boston Globe report on another event today:
US Senator Elizabeth Warren today urged Republicans to accept what she called a “balanced proposal” from President Obama to ending the standoff over the series of extensive across-the-board federal spending cuts set to take effect Friday.
“It’s a little more balanced than I would have put on the table if I’d been in that position,” Warren said, describing Obama’s plan as a 50-50 split between spending cuts and “closing some corporate loopholes like oil company subsidies.”
Warren made the comments during a breakfast at The New England Council, a business-backed group that includes some of the region’s most influential lobbyists. It was her first of several events today meant to highlight the Democratic Party’s position on the cuts, known as “sequestration,” that will slash $85 billion from the proposed 2013 federal budget.
“We seem to have a government that works only by holdout,” Warren said. “I don’t know anything more to do but get up and talk to the American people.”…
NR
Wait, I thought the sequester was awesome? After all, everyone here was saying that Obama kicked the Republicans’ asses back during the negotiations that resulted in the sequester. Now you’re telling me it’s bad? But Obama won the negotiations and kicked the Republicans’ asses, so how can what he got possibly be bad?
You must just be confused. I recommend reading more comments here. That should clear it up for you.
Pooh
<3 Liz Warren. Where can we find more like her?
WaterGIrl
Just wanted to take a moment and enjoy that little phrase.
scav
Just because the media is, as ever, far too with us, they’ve found some more poems by Kipling, including
TenguPhule
I say clone her and give each batch of clones blaster rifles and stormtrooper armor.
trollhattan
@WaterGIrl:
Yeah. Oh, what the hell: Senior Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Gotta admit, that didn’t take long, and all the better for harvesting wingnut head s’plosions.
Hill Dweller
Boehner and Cantor held a five minute press conference this afternoon to say absolutely nothing of worth. In fact, Boehner has completely abdicated his responsibilities.
dr. luba
OT, but Costco now carries pink Himalayan salt for about $4 a jar. McMegan will have to find a new way to waste her money.
MikeJ
And I want you to pay for the gaming license.
Pooh
@MikeJ: Thanks for the reference as it allows me to be marginally on topic when I point and laugh at Shelly Adelson, WATB
Baud
She sold us out! /snark
I love it when a party comes together.
? Martin
Well, looking at the cash outlays to CA, the state will likely just cover all of that, so that’s not a terrible situation. It’s in the millions of dollars, and mostly cover things that the state would provide anyway, but is happy to take fed dollars for. Shifting the burden to states isn’t always a great idea, but it’s not like about half of the cuts from what I can tell won’t get replaced in some way.
The FAA stuff will hurt as the state can’t replace that, and the defense jobs will hurt as well, but honestly – everyone is rooting for defense cuts, and while we probably disagree with what would be cut, favoring some other thing – both things are going to carry jobs, so from a job loss standpoint, this is exactly what we’ve been asking for anyway. The defense economy can’t be too large to fail, either.
It’s still dumb.
mclaren
Shithole America has already been laying teachers off right and left, so what’s the difference? The vast majority of “cuts” made during this recession consist of local government firing teachers, firing more teachers, and firing still more teachers. SWAT teams and DEA dogs and SWAT tanks and $66,000 for four “canine tactical suits” for SEAL dogs in the Army…oh, those we need. But teachers?
Fuck teachers! Teachers mean education, and Shithole America doesn’t need education. It needs to be able to brutalize more people, kill more people, torture more people, beat more protesters, savage more girls who mount PETA protests and SAVE THE FORESTS demonstrations with K-9 police dogs.
As for “cutting the fat” from the so-called “defense” spending, Shithole America’s entire military spending is fat. 100% of it.
I like the sequester. Blunt cuts. Brutal budget-slashing. Total destruction of basic services. Sounds like a plan!
Shithole America has become the focus of evil in the modern world, and consequently America must be destroyed. The wings have long since ripped off in Shithole America’s supersonic powerdive into collapse, so it’s time to speed the process along. More sequester cuts! Deeper! Faster!
Shithole America has embarked on a dedicated, creative and industrious course of self-destruction, and the rest of you deluded bully-worshipers have applauded like trained seals. Now I applaud your applause. Let the cuts destroy America quickly, let it collapse and disintegrate into a Max Max wasteland, so that this grotesque obscenity of a nation disappears as a force for evil and no longer has the capability to burn brown babies and bomb innocent women and children and brutalize and kill innocent men and women of conscience at home who dare to stand up a protest the insanity.
America is at war with reality — and we’re losing. I cheer the loss, and urge it on. Faster, pussycat, faster! Kill! Kill! Kill!
JP7505A
w@? Martin: We are a 3rd rate banana republic. When a minority of the minority party can bring the government to its knees and destroy the economy unless they get their way, there is no other description.
WaterGIrl
@efgoldman: May I recommend installing ClickToFlash in your browser? Everything loads a lot faster when it’s not loading flash, and with one click you can see a video. But nothing ever auto plays.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
Except, of course, that California is not in great fiscal shape, so it would really be better if we could spend that money on our own priorities.
Roger Moore
@WaterGIrl:
I seem to have something similar in my browser, which showed up without my asking. I’m fine with it being there, but having a new extension install itself without permission was a bit of a surprise.
WaterGIrl
@Roger Moore: That’s interesting. What browser do you use? With Safari you have to install it, but maybe everyone hates flash so much now that they are assuming everyone wants that feature and they made it the default?
Roger Moore
@WaterGIrl:
I use Firefox. I suppose it’s possible that it was installed on one computer and when I set up Sync it automatically added it to every other computer I use. The more I think about it, the more I suspect that’s what really happened. That would actually be cool; it should also mean that any computer will automatically get Greasemonkey installed for ease of adding the pie filter.
Maude
@Roger Moore:
I have FF and no flash block is auto installed.
Roger Moore
@Maude:
I think it’s a result of starting to use Sync recently. I used to have a separate profile on every machine, which is annoying and meant I would have different extensions on different machines. Now I’m setting up sync everywhere, and one of the things it does is to sync my add-ons. I recently used a computer for the first time in quite a while, and I think it must have had Flashblock installed. The next time I used any other machine, it would automatically install Flashblock. I hadn’t really thought through why every computer suddenly started blocking flash until this discussion, but I think that must be the explanation.
Jebediah
edited