President Obama today explained what the effects of the sequester will be on the kinds of Americans he represents to the media. The President did this while answering reporters’ questions during his press conference after the failed meeting to try and reach a compromise with congress leadership on averting the sequester.
While fielding questions, the president was asked by CNN’s Jessica Yellin why the White House was exaggerating the effects of the sequester as “experts” had since come out to say that the effects will not be nearly as “catastrophic” as the White House was making it seem. The President then went on to explain to this reporter why the sequester is bad for the middle class and the poor with examples of the soldier fighting in Afghanistan who now has to worry about whether their children will be getting the good education they deserve because their teachers are now going to be fallowed.
The President also gave an example of low income workers around the country who will have to now grapple with the reality of reduced incomes as they would be forced to take pay cuts, while at the same time, worrying about having to find money to put their children in daycare as government funding for headstart will be cut by the sequester. He went on to say that these lay offs and pay cuts will adversely effect the already shaky economy the country is experiencing.
The surprise to me, as a citizen, is that members of our media needed to have this explained to them. What this means is that they have bought into the falsehood that the economy is fine as long as Wall Street is making a ton of money. This is why our economic marker is how high the points are on the stock market. Well, the stock market has been trading as high as they have ever been for the past two and a half years, and how has that translated to ordinary Americans who are still struggling to make ends meet?
It is very sad that the media, which is supposed to find and report the truth, will buy into the lies being spread by Wall Street and the rich through their commercials on how the sequester will have little or no effects. Of course, the sequester will have no effects on Wall Street and the rich as can be seen by on the stock market which has shot up to pre-recession highs, but it will have very serious consequences on many middle class and most poor Americans.
