The Defense Drumbeat Blog

Aug 03 2012

Wall Street Journal's Strassel: "The Obama Jobs Sequester"

"Mr. Obama got his sequester and he has refused to budge. So he may well now own it."

August 3, 2012
                                   
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The Obama Jobs Sequester

By Kimberley A. Strassel, Potomac Watch, Wall Street Journal,  August 3, 2012

When Barack Obama has lost even liberal Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, the White House has a problem. In Washington, that problem is known as the "sequester." In the rest of the country, it's becoming known as a jobs disaster.

Jobs, and his own re-election, were on Mr. Brown's tortured mind this week, when he publicly called on the president to do something about Defense Department cuts that threaten to shutter his state's Mansfield Lahm Air National Guard Base—and with it, 1,000 jobs. The cuts might be "penny wise," griped the senator, but they were "pound foolish."

That was the rebuke that greeted Mr. Obama as he landed in Mansfield for a campaign stop. An editorial in the Mansfield News Journal demanded that the president "explain to the people of Mansfield why the U.S. government wants to eliminate" their jobs and base. A colonel in the local Ohio Air National Guard parked C-27J aircraft (up for elimination) on the tarmac, so Mr. Obama had to see them as Air Force One landed.

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More than one million lost private-sector jobs, to get down to it, as estimated by groups ranging from the National Association of Manufacturers to the Aerospace Industries Association. Military jobs are on the block, but the bulk of the pink slips will come from private businesses—from giant defense companies on down to smaller businesses that are the economic mainstays of their communities.

And they are starting now. Federal law requires employers to provide 60 days notice of big layoffs, and since sequester hits Jan. 2, pink slips must go out by Nov. 2. While companies may not know the exact cuts, they have a good sense and are already acting. Boeing has announced it is closing a Kansas facility, in light of "defense budget reductions." Lockheed is mapping out 10,000 layoffs. EADS North America, Pratt & Whitney, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon—all have the potential to make those dismal Obama job numbers look worse.

 Mr. Obama's strategy has been to bull ahead, refusing to end the sequester unless he gets his tax hikes, and looking to shuffle off any resulting blame on the GOP. The Republicans this week called his bluff and broke for recess.

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 And the president knows his ranks are getting twitchy. Congressional Democrats cracked this week, signing on to Republican legislation that gives the White House 30 days to detail the sequester cuts; they aren't willing to risk looking like White House pawns for secrecy. Republicans are ratcheting up the pressure, with ads targeting vulnerable Democrats in defense-heavy districts, town halls to highlight the sequester threat, and governors calling on Mr. Obama to step up and lead.

 Democrats heading home for the August recess will hear an earful from their local defense contractors. And the party is getting equally worried about the other half of the sequester, which will strip hundreds of billions out of their own cherished domestic programs. If this environment gets hot enough, Mr. Obama could find himself alone on the stand-firm-on-sequester ship.

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 Mr. Obama got his sequester, and he has refused to budge. So he may well now own it.