Photograph by Everett Collection
Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles, 1974.
Congressional leaders have had a lot to say about their across the board budget cuts, also known as sequestration.
Sen. Mark Warner brought film director Mel Brooks into the discussion this morning.
Echoing remarks made by former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the lead-up to sequestration, the Virginia Democrat compared the cuts to a scene in the classic comedy “Blazing Saddles.”
Warner explained that, in the movie, “The sheriff comes out and puts a gun to his head and all the townspeople come out and say, ‘Oh my gosh, the sheriff may pull the trigger.’ We in Congress set up that circumstance with sequester, and unfortunately two weeks ago we allowed that trigger to be pulled.”
On the big screen, the townspeople of Rock Ridge back off and let Sheriff Bart retreat into his office with town leaders imploring the crowd gathered, “Listen to him men, he’s just crazy enough to do it!”
In Warner’s version of events, Congress wasn’t smart enough to avoid the cuts.
“These cuts were set up to be the stupidest way possible,” he reminded his colleagues. “No rational group of folks would allow them to come to pass.”
