President Obama will visit Newport News, Va. today, where he will warn that jobs will be lost, security will be compromised, and the heavens will fall from the sky unless Republicans agree to tax hikes before this Friday. Obama’s appearance at the Virginia shipyard is just one small part of the White House’s much larger campaign to convince the American people that modern society as we know it will swiftly disintegrate into chaos if the federal government is forced to spend a mere $44 billion less this year than it originally planned. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Politico‘s David Nather has a good article out today debunking a slew of Obama’s sky is falling claims. That 70,000 Head Start students will be kicked out of the program number? HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made it up. Those 1.2 million disadvantaged students who will lose special education funding? Those cuts wouldn’t kick in until next school year. FDA delays in drug approval? Longer TSA wait lines at airports? Compared to what? These federal agencies are already notoriously wasteful, inefficient, and slow.
