Video - Time to Sequester Air Force One Vacation Flights.

Air Force One costs taxpayers $179,750 per hour. It's time to sequester President Obama's use of Air Force One and limit it to official business rather than vacations and sight seeing tours. 

Related:  "Sequester Pains" - Michelle Obama Said to be Considering an Extended Vacation.

"INCOMING" - Here comes Sequester: Part 2.

"INCOMING" - Here comes Sequester: Part 2.(TheHill).By Erik Wasson.

An unwelcome sequel is scheduled for January release and it’s titled Sequester: Part 2.

It is increasingly likely that this second round of indiscriminate cuts will reprise the first sequester, with concomitant public frustration about Washington’s inability to budget rationally.

The first sequester, triggered by the 2011 Budget Control Act, required agencies to cut $80 billion equally from across their operations.

Lawmakers in both parties said they wanted to avoid using this blunt fiscal ax and criticized it for cutting the good with the bad. Agency heads decried worker furloughs and warned of economic pain.
The second year of the 2011 Budget Control Act was supposed to be easier.
From 2014 on, the act imposed spending ceilings on the government that were meant to force appropriators to make considered decisions on spending cuts instead of across-the-board slashing.
But it appears likely that Congress will fail to agree to specific cuts, and will punt the decisions to agencies.
The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday adopted top-line figures for each of the 12 appropriations bills. These are so different from the Senate’s likely bills that it will be all but impossible to reconcile them, lawmakers say.
“It is too early in the year to condemn us to an inevitable CR [continuing resolution] — it’s progressing in that direction. That’s the message we have been putting out loud and clear,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said Tuesday, adding, “We don’t want a long-term CR. We are boxed in, which I don’t like.”
Unless President Obama and congressional leaders reach a deficit grand bargain, experts say Congress is on track to put most spending on autopilot with another continuing resolution.
The government is operating under a continuing resolution set at $1.043 trillion, but the Budget Control Act would set the fiscal 2014 spending level at $967 billion. That would require a cut of about $76 billion across the government.
That cut would need to be made 15 days after Congress adjourns at the end of the year. Implementing it without furloughs or layoffs could be very tough for agency heads, who have already struggled to find one-time savings this year, aides said.
Rogers called the sequester situation “idiotic” but said his hands are “tied” by the Budget Control Act, the House-passed budget and House rules.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who heads the Senate Appropriations Labor subcommittee, argued the cuts would be devastating.

“Do they intend to eliminate the entire National Institutes of Health? That wouldn’t be enough to achieve their proposed cut,” he said. “Do they plan to eliminate all funding for special education, Title I, after-school centers, and teacher quality? Again, that wouldn’t be enough to achieve their proposed cut.”

Rogers said producing some of bills, such as the noncontroversial Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs spending measures, is better than producing none.
Ranking member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.)  pointed to confusion among Democrats on how to handle the train wreck.
“We don’t know what the president is thinking, we don’t know what [the Office of Management and Budget] is thinking,” she said.Hmmmm.....Obama: "All the Choices We've Made Have Been the Right Ones".  Read the full story here.

"Sequester Pains" - Michelle Obama Said to be Considering an Extended Vacation.

"Sequester Pains" - Michelle Obama Said to be Considering an Extended Vacation.HT: WhiteHouseDossier.By KeithKoffler.

With scandal swirling about the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama may be considering an extended exit from Washington this summer, fleeing for weeks to the Obamas’ traditional summer haven, Martha’s Vineyard.

According to the Boston Globe, “Michelle Obama and the children may be on the island for an extended period.” But the president would hardly be suffering by comparison. He may come up on weekends and then stay for two weeks at the end of the summer, the Globe reports.
The White House has not commented on the Obamas’ vacation plans.
The Obamas are said to be eying a house in Farm Neck on the Vineyard. If they land there, the president will have easy access to the lovely Farm Neck Golf Club and Cafe. Here’s the view from the tee on the third hole.

It appears Michelle may be skipping her usual spring excursion overseas, which in the past has included stops at a luxury resort in Spain and in South Africa. Instead, she’ll accompany her husband next month on an official trip to Africa.
But not to worry. She already spent two weeks in Hawaii this past winter and jetted out for some Apsen skiing in February.
The Obamas opted out of their annual trip to Martha’s Vineyard in 2012, likely because they were campaigning and because a luxury sojourn there would have conflicted with the campaign image Obama was trying to project as a fighter for the middle class.Read the full story here.

"We all have to do some belt tightening" - Obamas to Travel to Africa.

Mrs. Obama’s South Africa Trip Cost Taxpayers Over $500,000

"We all have to do some belt tightening" - Obamas to Travel to Africa.HT: WhiteHouseDossier.By KeithKoffler.

From the White House

President Obama and the First Lady look forward to traveling to Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania from June 26 – July 3. 

The President will reinforce the importance that the United States places on our deep and growing ties with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including through expanding economic growth, investment, and trade; strengthening democratic institutions; and investing in the next generation of African leaders.

Mrs. Obama, you may remember, traveled to South Africa two years ago for a trip that was half work and half vacation. And almost all taxpayers.Hmmmm.....Quo vadis Sequester?Read the full story here.

"The King Ball" - Obama’s to Toast Political Backer Carole King in East Room

'Le Roi Soleil et son entourage'

"The King Ball" - Obama’s to Toast Political Backer Carole King in East Room.HT: WhiteHouseDossier.By KeithKoffler.

The White House East Room continues to be a sequester-free zone, as President and Mrs. Obama will be given yet another command performance there Wednesday, this one honoring the music of one of their major political supporters, Carole King.

King campaigned for Obama in 2008 and again in 2012. In October 2012 she was the feature attraction at a fundraiser for the president in Massachusetts, with tickets running from $2,500-$5,000.

Last summer, she starred in this campaign video for the Obama campaign, seeking to woo rural voters.

White House tours are canceled because of the sequester and White House aides are having their pay docked, but the music never stops. Just last month, the Obamas grooved to a concert celebrating the sounds of Memphis Soul.

This time, the show will include performances by King, as well as Gloria Estefan, Billy Joel, Jesse McCartney, Emeli Sandé, James Taylor and Trisha Yearwood.

King is being awarded the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. It’s the Obamas’ eleventh “command performance.”Hmmmm......Vive la Republique!"

"I'm Not A Dictator" - Email tells feds to make sequester as painful as promised.

PRIORITIES !

"I'm Not A Dictator" - Email tells feds to make sequester as painful as promised.(TWT).By Stephen Dinan.The White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling tours of the president’s home for the foreseeable future as the sequester spending cuts begin to bite and the administration makes good on its warnings of painful decisions.

Announcement of the decision — made in an email from the White House Visitors Office — came hours after The Washington Times reported on another administration email that seemed to show at least one agency has been instructed to make sure the cuts are as painful as President Obama promised they would be.

In the internal email, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official Charles Brown said he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact, and he said he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts Congress had been warned of.

“We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,” Mr. Brown, in the internal email, said his superiors told him.

Neither Mr. Brown nor the main APHIS office in Washington returned calls seeking comment, but Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack, who oversees the agency, told Congress he is trying to give flexibility where he can.

For now, though, the cuts remain in place — and that means the end of White House tours.

“Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours,” the White House said in an email to members of Congress.

The decision drew a derisive response from Capitol Hill, where Republicans said the move undercut Mr. Obama’s promises of openness. Rep. Bill Johnson, Ohio Republican, said President Lincoln managed to keep the White House open during the darkest days of the Civil War, and wondered why Mr. Obama couldn’t do the same.

“If the president is unable to figure out how to keep the White House open to the American people after an 8.2 percent budget cut, then the American people are entitled to some answers from their chief executive as to why.”Hmmmm........Meanwhile DONATING his new BFF Morsi's Islamist Government another $250 Million in aid.......Sequester?What Sequester?Read the full story here.

Video - Video Sat night Live - 'Sequester Cold Open'

HT: WhiteHouseDossier.

DHS Left Billions from Its Budget on the Table While Releasing illegal immigrant Detainees on the US.

DHS Left Billions from Its Budget on the Table While Releasing illegal immigrant Detainees on the US.(CIS).By Jessica Vaughan.Congressional inquiries prompted by ICE's recent release of immigration detainees, many of whom have criminal convictions or charges, reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has billions of dollars in unexpended revenues, including resources for detention space. This information calls into question the administration's claims that the detainee releases were necessary for budgetary reasons and casts further doubt on their commitment to immigration enforcement and homeland security.

In a letter sent Wednesday to ICE Director John Morton, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) notes that ICE reported last week that at that time it was using only 30,773 out of 34,000 budgeted detention beds, which is about 9.5 percent below capacity. Funding for detention space is determined by Congress through the appropriations process, and ICE is required by law to use all of the resources provided for this purpose. McCaul expressed concern over ICE's possible mismanagement of resources and priorities.

According to another letter sent to DHS Secretary Napolitano Wednesday from House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), DHS has carried a large surplus of unspent money in its accounts, even as Napolitano has repeatedly cried poverty to lawmakers and the public. The letter notes that DHS had an unobligated balance of $8 billion at the end of FY 2012, and that the Office of Management and Budget projected a $9 billion surplus for the agency by the end of FY 2013. Both letters demanded that the agencies promptly provide details on the detainee releases and on DHS and ICE planning in anticipation of the fiscal situation.Read the full story here.

Sequester Impact Small, Says Stanford Professor: Chart.

Sequester Impact Small, Says Stanford Professor: Chart.(BloomBerg).Automatic spending cuts that are scheduled to begin today will have a “very small” impact on the U.S. economy, according to John Taylor, an economics professor at Stanford University in California.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows the difference in federal spending with and without the reductions, known as sequestration, will be $42 billion in the fiscal year ending in September 2013, or 0.26 percent of gross domestic product, according to data provided by Taylor, who was Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs from 2001 to 2005 under President George W. Bush. Hmmmm.....Obama: "The sky is falling and it's the Republican's their fault."....If anything he will use it to reduce the Military might of the US.Read the full story here.