In the 1970s, there was a slang phrase: “wolf tickets.” A wolf ticket was a verbal threat, criticism or insult and originated from “woofing,” meaning aimless talk, an onomatopoeic reference to the sound of dogs barking. It was usually used as a part of the phrase “to sell wolf tickets,” meaning to bluff or threaten someone in a boastful way. To “buy wolf tickets” meant to believe the threats or to accept the implied challenge.
President Obama has spent the past five years selling wolf tickets to America. His administration has been concocting one manufactured crisis after another. The sequestration, cutting $44 billion from this year’s $3.5 trillion budget, is a prime example. The cuts amount to less than 1.3 percent of the budget. Sequestration is right out of the Democrats’ old playbook. They always threaten to cut teachers, firemen and police when there is a problem with the budget. The goal is to inflict maximum pain for political gain.
I would like to offer the president a solution to sequestration: Go over the budget line by line. As smart as he is, he could easily “eliminate waste, fraud and duplication.” I bet it would only take a couple of hours on a Sunday morning to review the budget for cuts other than those that might affect “a disabled child” — and he could still make his tee time at the golf course.
PHIL GINGERELLA
Westerly, R.I.
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By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
