Whoâ€™s afraid of sequester?

The sequester is coming! The sequester is coming!

With the same breathless urgency that Paul Revere warned about the approach of British troops, President Obama has been warning about the horrors that will be inflicted by the Redcoats — er, Republicans — if they allow a sequester.

Leave aside that the sequester was an idea Obama himself proposed and then signed into law. Now that its discipline may be turned on him, he's clearly directed every member of his Cabinet to get back to him with a worst-case scenario if the automatic cuts go through. The result is a lurid stream of charts, figures and statistics feeding scare headlines all over America.

Barack Obama

In this battle, all the usual suspects have been drafted into service. The Obama administration is painting images of long waits at airports, borders un-patrolled, children unfed, emergency responders let go and criminals set free.

Similar spectacles are being outlined for each state. Thus, Obama says a sequester means New York children will not get needed vaccinations, New York seniors will go without meals, New York teachers will lose their jobs and New York civilian defense workers will be furloughed.

Into this scare show we point to just two figures: For all the president's talk about the sequester's "deep" cuts, they add up to just 2.4 cents for every dollar in the annual federal budget. For New York, they work out to less than a tenth of a penny for every dollar of state and local spending.

Tells you all you need to know about Washington and Albany's idea of "drastic" spending cuts, doesn't it?