http://twitter.com/#!/maggiejaehnig/status/309750799142121472

The Obama administration’s sequestration scare campaign fizzled out early and even backfired Tuesday, as the president took a solid PR hit for closing down White House tours and blaming budget cuts (and then reportedly scheduling another Martha’s Vineyard getaway for the family).

Cancelling White House Tours Saves Less than Cost of One of Obama’s Vacationsnationalreview.com/corner/342467/… via @#

— Slim Pickens (@Mattie96) March 7, 2013

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn has been pushing a #SequesterThis hashtag campaign to suggest alternative cuts that wouldn’t cause pain to the public at large, and it’s slowly picking up steam.

Instead of penalizing 8th graders from visiting WH, they could #sequesterthis: USDA employee wine retreat on.wsj.com/YdyiLQ

— Karl Rove (@KarlRove) March 6, 2013

#SequesterThis: $200 million of your taxpayer dollars funded a reality TV show in India. #CutSpendingNow blog.heritage.org/2012/10/16/top…

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) March 4, 2013

#SequesterThis: Government spent $750,000 of taxpayer $$ to build Guantanamo Bay detainees a new soccer field. foxnews.com/politics/2012/…

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) March 4, 2013

Let’s cut foolish spending before implementing furloughs. @tomcoburn #CutThisNotThat #CutWaste #SequesterThis: ow.ly/ipgRM

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) March 5, 2013

We are effing doomed.RT @nillalatte: Chief White House Calligrapher Gets Paid $96,725 Per Year shar.es/jUSel #sequesterthis

— Michelle Ray (@GaltsGirl) March 6, 2013

The Wall Street Journal pitched in with an editorial this week naming a wine-tasting event as a possible swap to pay for the tours.

In its bid to make the sequester as painful as possible, the White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling all visitor tours of the White House “during the popular Spring touring season.” This fits President Obama’s political strategy to punish the eighth graders visiting from Illinois instead of, say, the employees of the Agriculture Department who will attend a California conference sipping “exceptional local wines” and sampling “tasty dishes” prepared by “special guest chefs.”

Obama, no $ for kids WH tour, pays for Congressmen’s “high end seafood and wine from the cellar”? cbsn.ws/ZjAtym #sequesterthis

— K P (@k_p2009) March 7, 2013

WSJ Editorial: “#SequesterThis: Meat inspectors have to go, but fine wines are still on the USDA menu” is.gd/7FNovs

— Joe Pounder (@PounderFile) March 6, 2013

#sequesterthis -> USDA should cut wine tasting at conferences, instead of laying off food inspectors on.wsj.com/WJAICw #priorities

— Diane Black (@RepDianeBlack) March 7, 2013

USDA cutting food inspectors – still underwriting conference w/ wine tasting in CA #sequesterthis on.wsj.com/Z91p7f

— Patrick Meehan (@RepMeehan) March 7, 2013

Coburn is rolling out other #SequesterThis recommendations from his “2012 Waste Book,” including a tour by the Watermelon Queen “to promote the consumption of Alabama’s watermelons”and a $325,000 grant to construct a robot squirrel.

#SequesterThis: USDA to continue grant (goo.gl/AIVNF) that funded $25K watermelon queen tour #86 in WB goo.gl/4RDYr

— Sen. Tom Coburn M.D. (@TomCoburn) March 7, 2013

How soon until #SaveRoboSquirrel starts trending?

Leave squirrels outta this MT @tomcoburn: #SequesterThis: Robot Squirrel lives as NSF will pay goo.gl/tcedl twitter.com/TomCoburn/stat…

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) March 5, 2013

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2013/03/07/sequesterthis-sen-tom-coburn-wants-robosquirrel-on-the-chopping-block/