Of 48 Dire Democratic Predictions on the Sequester, Only a Handful Have Actually Come True

11 out of 48, that is.

Before “sequestration” took effect, the Obama administration issued specific — and alarming — predictions about what it would bring. There would be one-hour waits at airport security. Four-hour waits at border crossings. Prison guards would be furloughed for 12 days. FBI agents, up to 14.

At the Pentagon, the military health program would be unable to pay its bills for service members. The mayhem would extend even into the pantries of the neediest Americans: Around the country, 600,000 low-income women and children would be denied federal food aid.

But none of those things happened.

That digests this WaPo piece.

One point the WaPo article makes repeatedly is that in many cases the cuts didn't hurt at all because the spending was completely unnecessary in the first place. For example, the Justice Department "cut" the costs of imprisoning a bunch of people who didn't even exist.

The Obama Administration's laughable claim that there was no fat in the Washington budget to trim was exposed as just as laughable as you imagined.

Now, they'll claim the same thing next time (and there's a next time coming in October). But they lied once. Furthermore, there seems little harm in demanding that agencies clean up their financial acts and cut trivial programs.

posted by Ace at 12:18 PM

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