While I was growing up, we had a teaching moral story called:
"The Boy WHo Cried Wolf."
For those who never read or heard of this story, the plot goes like this:
The boy is tending his flock of sheep. He runs over to his father and
yells that the father needs to come quickly to chase away the wolf who
is eating the sheep.
Huffing and puffing the father arrives at where the sheep are peacefully
grazing and ask the boy: " Where's the wolf?"
At this point the boy starts laughing and tells his father that there was
no wolf.
The Father responding in a laughing way said" You fooled me today."
A few days later, the boy ran to his father and exclaimed that this time
the wolf was really there and was eating the sheep.
So the father grabbed a stick and ran to where the sheep were again
peacefully grazing. Looking around, the father knew he was the
center of the boy's joke again. The father went away laughing but said
that "he was fooled once - shame on the boy. And he was fooled twice -
shame on me."
Now the wolf came around and was circling the sheep with drooling
jaws. So quickly the boy ran to the father and told the father that this time
the wolf is eating the sheep. Please come quickly, cried the boy.
But the father just laughed and said, I'm too tired to listen to your jokes.
No matter how the boy pleaded, the father stayed put while the wolf eat
his sheep.
OK - That was the story with a moral.
Now comes the President proclaiming all sorts of calamities about
what will happen if the Republicans do not raise the taxes on the 1% and
that obama and the Democrats will work on spending cuts.
The Republicans, not wanting to be put in a bad light and sensing
spending cuts, agreed to the tax hikes.
Then the President said that "there will be no tax hikes for the middle class."
But on January 1, 2013, ever person who earns a wage got a 2% tax hike.
OPPS! How did that happen. The President said that would not happen.
Next the President asked to close the tax loopholes - which really are the
government's way to encourage activity in an area of business like
the home interest deduction and the depletion deduction and the cost
of doing business deduction and the charity deduction.
But when the Republicans asked for spending cuts, the President and the
Democrats just kept asking for tax loophole trimmings without mentioning
any spending cuts.
Next came sequestration. And the obama proclaimed the sky would fall,
14,000 teachers would be out of a job ( a lie), the airports will experience
2 hours delays ( an exaggerated claim), the military would be stripped of its
power (and to prove the point, obama re-called an aircraft carrier from the
mid-east.)
But, Fox news questioned the story that the obama was telling. Then Washington
Post started asking questions. And finally Bob Woodward called out the obama
on making exaggerated and false claims. The White House through its point man
THREATENED Bob Woodward because Bob was exposing the truth.
THREATENING !!! How dare the government threaten a citizen for exposing the truth.
Then the obama tried to save some face by BACKING DOWN OFF HIS FALSE CLAIMS.
Obama is the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" and he was caught in a story of his own making.
Now we are faced with the sequestration which will do nothing to stop the rise
in the USA's annual deficit spending. Yes, it will slow the increase of spending.
BUT, the total debt will continue to rise and the annual deficits will continue.
This was another example of CRISIS MANAGEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT.
And if there isn't a crisis, then the President will make the a crisis,
which he did with the sequestration.
WAKE UP CITIZENS. WE NEED TO CUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING OR THE
DOLLAR WILL COLLAPSE AND WE WILL RUE THE DAY WE DID NOT ACT
TO CONTROL THE GOVERNMENT'S SPENDING.
And that's the way I see it...
Straight Talk with Jay Clifford.
