A rather uncomfortable email has come to light, as chronicled by the Washington Times, in which a regional official is specifically instructed by his supervisors in Washington to make sequestration hurt, because the Administration said it would:
In the email sent Monday by Charles Brown, an official with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Brown asked ???if there was any latitude??? in how to spread the sequester cuts across the region to lessen the impacts on fish inspections.
He said he was discouraged by officials in Washington, who gave him this reply: ???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.???
???This email confirms what many Americans have suspected: The Obama administration is doing everything they can to make sure their worst predictions come true and to maximize the pain of the Sequester cuts for political gain,??? said Rep. Tim Griffin, Arkansas Republican.
Mr. Brown, the official who sent the email and who is eastern regional director for wildlife services at APHIS, didn???t immediately return a call Tuesday afternoon seeking comment.
This all goes back to the infamous Administration threat that clipping $44 billion out of $3.8 trillion in federal spending would make it unbearably difficult to continue food inspections. But as the Washington Times goes on to note, sequester-ravaged APHIS still managed to post 24 help wanted ads since Sunday.
Meanwhile, the public will also be asked to make do without tours of the White House, "due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration." Funny how all the stuff you can see gets cut instantly when there's a nickel trimmed from spending, but the bowels of the bureaucracy chug along without interruption.
Update: Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) counters by proposing an amendment that reads, "None of the funds made available by a division of [the continuing budget resolution] may be used to transport the President to or from a golf course until public tours of the White House resume."
