For weeks leading up to the big sequestration event, we were told how the country’s critically needed services were going to come to a grinding halt. Thousands of planes would be grounded because FAA air traffic controllers would be laid off, houses would burn down due to all of the laid-off firemen, and we wouldn’t be able to count on the police because there would be fewer of them (and with people having fewer guns, we would be in real trouble, wink wink).

Rep. Maxine Waters said 170 million Americans would lose their jobs. (I hope you guys are smarter than this; there aren’t that many jobs in the U.S.)  I think I even heard the Earth could possibly move in the opposite direction. Well, maybe not, but close.

Democrats are good at spinning fairy tales.

Why do Democrats think we are such idiots? Well, maybe we are. They need to cut $82 billion from a $4 trillion budget. That’s 2 percent of the budget. It’s negligible. Budget? There is no budget. So why is it so difficult to cut 2 percent from something that doesn’t exist?

We do have $4 trillion in expenses, but certainly we could cut 2 cents on every dollar, considering the federal government overpays as much as $50 billion for goods and services every year (according to Sen. Tom Coburn).

Mr. President, stop playing games and act like a leader. I have been saying on my radio show that he needed to stop campaigning and get back to Washington, lock himself in a room with House and Senate leaders and – taking the lead from Sheriff Joe Arpaio – feed them bologna sandwiches, give them pink underwear, and don’t let them out until they have a plan. The American people deserve that.

Apparently the president heard my show, flew back to D.C. on Friday, went into a room with only Republican leaders and tried to browbeat them into dropping the cuts and giving him more revenue (read: tax increases). When they refused, he walked out. Great negotiating skills.

After that, he went to his pre-arranged press conference and miraculously had a 20-minute speech prepared (because he can’t just “talk” to the public), in which he proceeded to blame Republicans for everything.

The president got his tax increase in the first round of negotiations back in January. He was downright deceitful because, as he said in his speeches, after those meetings he would meet with “the other side” to lay out meaningful cuts and take a balanced approach moving forward.

Republicans should have learned from the days of President Reagan. At the time, Democrats agreed to give Reagan the funds to secure the border, both physically and with human resources, in exchange for amnesty. What did the Democrats do in Congress?They reneged on the deal. Amnesty came, but nothing else did. And we, the American people, got screwed. Now we have eight times the number of illegals in a relatively short period of time.

Once again, Democrats are hiding the facts. Why exactly does money have to be taken from first responders? Is that really the only place we can cut? I guess if you’re looking to bamboozle the American public, it might be a good idea.

There’s more than $32 billion in grants for green and alternative energy research and development. Why can’t we start there instead of public safety? We don’t need green energy to keep our homes from burning down, or crime out of the streets, or our emergency rooms open. Friday, another green energy company that received a government grant closed its doors. Why doesn’t the president just flush the money? It wouldn’t be as painful.

According to Sen. Coburn, there are a few other areas we can make cuts without impacting vital services for public safety:

* Nearly $700,000 went from the National Science Foundation to a New York-based theater company so it could develop a musical about climate change and biodiversity.

* Close loopholes in the food stamp system to reduce widespread abuse such as the exotic dancer who earned more than $85,000 a year in tips, but also collected nearly $1,000 a month in food stamps while spending $9,000 during that time period on “cosmetic enhancements.”

* Although NASA has no plans or budget for any manned spaceflights to Mars, the agency spends about $1 million each year on developing “the Mars menu.” It’s an effort to come up with a variety of food that humans could eat one day on Mars.

* A $325,000 grant was awarded for the development of “Robosquirrel,” a robotic rodent designed to test the interaction between rattlesnakes and squirrels.

* An estimated $70 million is lost on the production of pennies. According to the Waste Book, “The cost to produce a penny in 2012 is more than two times its actual value.” After billions of one-cent coins are manufactured and sold at face value every year, taxpayers are left to cover the loss.

* Billions of dollars of government-owned real estate sits empty while we rent or lease billions of dollars in office space.

And these guys want to manage health care? Buy your plot while there is still room.

These guys couldn’t manage growing grass.

Joe Messina is host of The Real Side (TheRealSide.com), a nationally syndicated talk show that runs on AM-1220 KHTS radio and SCVTV [here]. He is also an elected member of the Hart School Board. His commentary publishes Mondays.