Credit: Barack Obama / FlickrPresident Obama and other so-called progressives insist that the American people are not overly dependent on government. They also predict dire consequences if the automatic budget “cuts” known as sequestration take place March 1. But as Sheldon Richman observes, both claims cannot be true. If modest across-the-board “cuts”—mainly cuts in the rate of growth—in military and domestic spending pose a threat to the American people and the U.S. economy, then the country is alarmingly dependent on government.