Does Leaked Email Expose Obama Administration’s Plan to Make Sequester Look as Painful as Possible?

Is the Obama administration purposefully trying to make the sequester cuts look as painful as possible to the American public? A recently leaked email seems to expose just that.

An email sent by Charles Brown, a director at the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Raleigh, N.C., discussed the potential of moving funds around. The email reads in part:

“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.”

One of the consequences of the sequester was the Obama administration’s announcement that tours of the White House would be suspended, a move some Republicans are ridiculing.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) proposed an amendment to the continuing spending resolution that would ban the government from paying for any of Obama’s golf trips until White House tours are resumed. He said on the House floor, “None of the funds made available by division of this act may be used to transport the president to or from a golf course until public tours of the White House resume.”