CNN Relays Government Hysteria Over 'Massive' Sequester Cuts
After hyping the "draconian" sequester cuts set to take place March 1,
CNN kept up its frenzy on Tuesday afternoon by spreading government
hysteria over the $85 billion spending reduction. Headlines sounded
alarms like "Medicine, Food at Risk," "Travel Nightmare In the Making,"
and "U.S. justice system in jeopardy."
"President Obama is warning of dire consequences for all of us if lawmakers don't act quickly," The Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer channeled White House angst. "The President clearly wants all of us to be very, very worried about the budget axe that's about to fall," he hyped during the 6 p.m. ET hour. "The President has said it's an issue of national security," reported correspondent Joe Johns on cuts to the justice system.
[Video below. Audio here.]
Anchor Christi Paul called the looming cuts a "crisis" and blamed Congress for the sequestration without mentioning President Obama came up with the original plan in 2011:
"But there's a serious catch to this month's crisis in Washington. Just for starters, what we're looking at here is possible loss of 750,000 American jobs by the end of this year, if Congress doesn't act in the next ten days to undo automatic spending cuts that begin March 1st. Funny thing, Congress devised these cuts in 2011 as a threat, more or less, a way to force itself to agree to a smarter way to reduce the federal deficit."
CNN kept uncritically reporting White House numbers with correspondent Erin McPike hyping cuts to health services:
"Just this morning the President said, quote, hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings. And the White House also estimates that cuts to mental health funding will leave 373,000 Americans left untreated. Now, that might mean scaling back on youth violence prevention programs that politicians on both sides of the aisle want to see more of after that shooting in Newtown."
And McPike continued to relay government hysteria that "our food supply might be at risk":
"On top of that, the Agriculture Department also thinks our food supply might be at risk, that all of the food inspectors would have a 15-day furlough, and that would mean no safety checks on meat, on poultry, or on eggs. Stores can't sell unchecked meat. And so for our viewers that would mean a lot less protein in the supermarket for a couple of weeks. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says forced cuts would result in lost production of two billion pounds of meat, about three billion pounds of poultry and about 200 million pounds of eggs. Vilsack is already worried that stores might try to sell some unchecked meat illegally. So don't be just wary of that, but also be watching for higher prices at the supermarket."
Only at the very end of The Situation Room's report did McPike add the Republican caveat to all the frenzy: "these cuts are just estimates. This morning I spoke to several top Senate Republican officials who say that there are some smarter cuts that the White House could be making as far as health care is concerned."
A transcript of the segments, which aired on CNN on February 20, is as follows:
CNN
NEWSROOM
2/19/13
[2:26 p.m. EST]
CHRISTI PAUL: If it sounds like the same old mumbo jumbo, it is. But
there's a serious catch to this month's crisis in Washington. Just for
starters, what we're looking at here is possible loss of 750,000
American jobs by the end of this year, if Congress doesn't act in the
next ten days to undo automatic spending cuts that begin March 1st.
Funny thing, Congress devised these cuts in 2011 as a threat, more or
less, a way to force itself to agree to a smarter way to reduce the
federal deficit. Now, ten days left, still no agreement. So as I
mentioned, job losses are just the start of this thing. We're also
talking about some vital government services potentially gone. Take a
listen, if you would, to the President. He was clearly concerned as he
spoke late this morning.
(Video Clip)
BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States: FBI agents will be
furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let
criminals go. Air traffic controllers and airport security will see
cutbacks, which means more delays at airports across the country.
Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Tens of thousands
of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids.
(End Video Clip)
PAUL: The President's answer? He says to prevent those cuts, Congress
would have to raise some taxes on the wealthy. Republicans don't want
that. After the tax increase on the top two percent, they say they're
finished raising taxes on the well-to-do. Again, with ten days left
here, so we'll see what they come up with.
(...)
[3:01]
CHRISTI PAUL: In terms of the economic pain this would trigger, the Pew
Research Center has a few more nuggets for us. Defense-related jobs
could vanish by the tens of thousands due to severe cuts to the
Pentagon. You see just four states there, including Georgia and
Virginia, which could lose more than 100,000 jobs each over the next ten
years. Cuts in grants to the states could lead to big reductions in
food aid to the poor, low-income energy assistance, child care and
development and other social services as well. And really this is only
the start. Again, ten days left at this point.
CNN
THE SITUATION ROOM
2/19/13
[4:00 p.m. EST]
WOLF BLITZER: Congress did it, Congress can undo it. President Obama is
warning of dire consequences for all of us if lawmakers don't act
quickly. We're talking about those forced budget cuts that take effect
March 1st, slashing $85 billion from government spending across the
board this year. But with just ten days left, the consequences are
becoming more and more alarming. President Obama outlined some of them
today, told Congress let's make a deal while there is still some time.
(Video Clip)
BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States: So my door is open. I've
put tough cuts and reforms on the table. I am willing to work with
anybody to get this job done. None of us will get 100 percent of what we
want. But nobody should want these cuts to go through because the last
thing our families can afford right now is pain imposed unnecessarily by
partisan recklessness and ideological rigidity here in Washington.
(End Video Clip)
BLITZER: Visually, the President tried to make that point by having
dozens of law enforcement officers standing behind him. Many of them
potentially could lose their jobs. Our crime and justice correspondent
Joe Johns is covering that angle with the different ways the budget cuts
could directly impact you. We also have René Marsh covering the air
travel nightmare potentially in the making, and Erin McPike on how the
food we eat could be affected as well. Let's start with Joe Johns over
at the United States Supreme Court. Joe?
JOE JOHNS: Wolf, the courts have been looking at this issue for a long
time. The Federal Bar Association says a quarter of federal court
employees might have to be furloughed as well. Jury trials might have to
be suspended because there's no money to pay the members of the juries.
The justice system is going to be affected across the board, especially
the Justice Department. The President has said it's an issue of
national security.
(Video Clip)
OBAMA: FBI agents will be furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go.
(End Video Clip)
JOHNS: For example, the FBI would have to cut something like 2300
employees, hundreds of agents. Others would be affected as well,
including border security agents. Also, correctional officers who work
at federal prisons. However, one man I spoke to with the CATO Institute
in Washington, D.C., told me there is a silver lining.
(Video Clip)
DAN MITCHELL, senior fellow, CATO Institute: It's not asking too much for the government to take a tiny bit of trimming –
(End Video Clip)
JOHNS: We do know there are places at the Justice Department to cut.
For example, there was a report that came out just last year from the
General Accountability Office that said that there's as much as $33
billion spent since the year 2005 on crime prevention programs that are
often duplicative and counterproductive. So certainly some places to cut
there. Now let's go to René Marsh at BWI airport.
RENÉ MARSH: That's right, Joe. If you're flying out of airports like
BWI, you are really looking for a tough time if these forced budgets do
actually go through. Let's talk about the FAA. They are expecting to see
an 8.2 percent budget cut. That translates to about $627 million this
year. That could mean furloughs for some employees. Let's talk about the
TSA. They could also see furloughs. They could also see cuts in
overtime. So I want to show you what that means for you, the traveler.
That could very well mean that wait times at security lines will be more
than an hour. We also know that wait times at customs could go up by 50
percent. Flight delays, that would be simply because there would be
fewer air traffic controllers and they could also just be a drag on the
economy. You have business people who are traveling, and instead of
conducting business, they could be stuck in those long lines. So we
spoke to the airport director here at BWI and he paints a very vivid
picture of what travel could look like.
PAUL WIEDEFELD: If you think back to post-9/11, some of the issues that
we had when you just didn't have the volume of people on board to
handle all of the passengers, that's what you could be looking at.
MARSH: Okay. Well despite that, he sounds pretty confident that things
will still remain safe as far as flying but he made it very clear,
things will be slow-moving. From here, let's go on over to Erin with
more.
ERIN MCPIKE: Thanks, René. Now these forced budget cuts would also lead
to less money for public health programs as well as less research at
the National Institutes of Health. Just this morning the President said,
quote, hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary
care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings.
And the White House also estimates that cuts to mental health funding
will leave 373,000 Americans left untreated.
Now, that might mean scaling back on youth violence prevention
programs, the politicians on both sides of the aisle want to see more of
after that shooting in Newtown. On top of that, the Agriculture
Department also thinks our food supply might be at risk, that all of the
food inspectors would have a 15-day furlough, and that would mean no
safety checks on meat, on poultry, or on eggs. Stores can't sell
unchecked meat. And so for our viewers that would mean a lot less
protein in the supermarket for a couple of weeks. Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack says forced cuts would result in lost production of two
billion pounds of meat, about three billion pounds of poultry and about
200 million pounds of eggs. Vilsack is already worried that stores might
try to sell some unchecked meat illegally. So don't be just wary of
that, but also be watching for higher prices at the supermarket. But one
thing we need to make sure that we remember, Wolf, is these cuts are
just estimates. This morning I spoke to several top Senate Republican
officials who say that there are some smarter cuts that the White House
could be making as far as health care is concerned. There's a $7 billion
slush fund in ObamaCare. They could use that as opposed to some cuts to
the National Institutes of Health.
CNN
THE SITUATION ROOM
2/19/13
[6:01 p.m. EST]
WOLF BLITZER: The President clearly wants all of us to be very, very
worried about the budget axe that's about to fall. He's warning that a
lot of people will lose their jobs if forced spending cuts are allowed
to take effect ten days from now. And he says many more Americans will
suffer in some way. Listen to these clips of his newest attempt to light
a fire under Congress.
(...)
BLITZER: That's a short version of what the President had to say. Let's
go in depth with our chief White House correspondent, Jessica Yellin,
who is here. This is a big issue right now.
YELLIN: It really is, Wolf. And it's just ten days now until these
forced budget cuts go into effect. Top administration officials tell me
if that happens, the President believes the politics are on his side.
(Video Clip)
YELLIN: (voice over) With Congress out of town, President Obama took to
the bully pulpit, warning about the effects of forced spending cuts
that hit every part of government next Friday.
BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States: There is a smarter way to
do this, to reduce our deficits without harming our economy.
YELLIN: He's talking about more than $1 trillion in painful cuts that
can still be avoided if Congress reaches agreement on deficit reduction.
The package of cuts came from the 2011 debt ceiling deal, and it was
never meant to go into effect. During the presidential campaign, Mr.
Obama said as much.
OBAMA: It will not happen.
YELLIN: But Congress has not been table to reach a compromise that
would replace these cuts with smarter deficit reduction. So the sword is
about to fall. Among the immediate effects, funding cuts for 70,000
kids on Head Start, possible five-hour waits to get through security at
the airport. Deployment of one aircraft carrier has been postponed, and
the Navy has suspended overhaul of another. That's not to mention
temporary layoffs, including first responders, like the ones behind the
President.
OBAMA: Now, if Congress allows this meat cleaver approach to take
place, it will jeopardize our military readiness, it will eviscerate
job-creating investment –
YELLIN: In a statement, Senator Mitch McConnell slammed the President,
saying today's event at the White House proves, once again, that more
than three months after the November election, President Obama still
prefers campaign events to common sense bipartisan action. Still, no
compromise. The crux of the dispute, Democrats want revenue, Republicans
want spending cuts, including more changes to entitlement programs like
Social Security. One prominent budget expert said the President's
legacy rests on finding a solution.
ALAN SIMPSON, former U.S. Senator: If he can't cut the mustard with
solvency of Social Security, under honest appraisals of the trustees, he
will have a failed presidency.
(End Video Clip)
YELLIN: Now the idea for the sequester came from the White House , but
174 House Republicans voted for it. So everyone is in the same boat on
this one. And Wolf, Kate, I'll tell you, most people I talk to in
Washington expect next Friday's deadline to come and go without a deal,
so we should all brace for these cuts to come into effect.
BLITZER: It doesn't look like there's heavy-duty negotiations going on between these various sides. So we'll see what happens.
