Will sequestration really be that bad?
The drastic, far-reaching budget cuts known as the sequester that are set to carve into the U.S. federal budget on March 1 are "bad" and "will visit hardship on a whole lot of people," President Obama cautioned Tuesday.
Indeed, Gov. Bob McDonnell, R-Va., wrote in a letter urging the White House to tender an alternative - the cuts would have a "potentially devastating impact" on his Commonwealth of Virginia and would likely "force" his and other states into recession.
Longtime Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., took his concern a step further, broadly claiming on MSNBC that Americans are "embarrassed" for having to bear yet another fiscal crisis, and deeming it "un-American in every sense of the word."
But as the U.S. economy careens toward its second "cliff" in two months, realization that a third waits at the base of the crevasse has moved some to observe that while sequestration is far from an ideal way to budget, the darkly-cloaked March 1 is not likely to yield the decade-long nightmare that has attracted handwringing by Democrats and Republicans alike.
It all began with one stalling tactic, which led to another: To help put to rest the 2011 debt ceiling drama, Congress and the president scheduled for 2012 a host of automatic spending cuts worth $1.2 trillion over 10 years, designed to be so blind and severe that Republicans and Democrats would be compelled to craft in the meantime an alternate, bipartisan agreement on deficit reduction. As lawmakers scrambled amid the "fiscal cliff" ordeal that seeped into 2013, they granted themselves a two-month extension.
Just over a week out, no feasible replacement exists.
Late last week Republicans began to concede the probability, inching ever higher, that Congress will not make its March 1 deadline, and the sequester, seen largely among both parties as economically devastating, will become a reality. And two days after his chief of staff insisted the White House has "not given up" on staving off the cuts with a substitute proposal, Mr. Obama on Tuesday sounded the alarm on the urgency for Republicans to come knocking with a plan.
"This is not an abstraction - people will lose their jobs," the president warned.
During a discussion Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C., Mr. Obama's former debt commission co-chairs Erksine Bowles - Bill Clinton's former chief of staff - and Alan Simpson - a former Republican senator from Wyoming - laid out their proposal to achieve $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. Bowles said that Congress is unlikely to coalesce before March 1, but will feel pressure to act once Americans begin to experience the effects of the sequester.
"When you guys have to go out here to [Washington, D.C.'s] Reagan Airport and you have to wait three hours to go through airport security, you are going to be pissed, and so is everyone else," Bowles said, referring apparently to the sequester's widespread furloughs expected to impact TSA and FAA workers.
In addition to forcing reductions of 13 percent for defense programs and 9 percent for other programs, the White House Budget Office reports sequestration would also mean, among other things, reduced unemployment benefits for over 3.8 million people jobless for six months or longer; 70,000 Head Start students removed from the pre-kindergarten program; layoffs of 10,000 teachers and other school staffers; and fewer border security agents and facilities for detained illegal immigrants.
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Ha! Ha!
Come back when you learn how to act like a civilized person.
Well I have a better idea! Lets layoff congress and not pay them until they come to an agreement and fix this mess! In additional while they are on layoff they give up their fringe benefits as well!
Where else can someone come in and hold producing a tangible outcome hostage for the sake of corruption! If these jokers were in the private sector they would have been fired for non-performance!
Lets fire them all and hold new elections!
After Obama leaves the nation in economic ruins and leaves the Constitution and bill of Rights in tatters the history books will be sayiong it and so will you NEO-COM'S kids and grandkids.
The controversy of this Presidency has placed a microscope on the entire democratic process like no other since Lincoln. Many who never paid much attention to politics have done so for the first time. Many young people have become more involved in the process and we need fresh new committed young people that do not have old ties to powerful folks like those who now sit under the dome of the capital and have gotten too comfortable in their chairs.
Since being forced back into the work force at a ripe age unable to get "hits" from internet applications I volunteer my time. One of the tasks I've embarked upon for past two years is as a tax aide and I have seen many people who have worked 2 and 3 jobs just to make ends meet and can qualify for subsidies of some kind. I see parents of disabled adults that are afraid of losing medicaid due to the fact that the programs such as sheltered work centers, group homes, recreation programs, advocacy and so much more for this population that is not mention often enough will no longer be available to them. This country has taken decades and generations to get into this dark well and it is going to take a time staking solution that I feel can only come about when Washington has a truce like the Scottish,French and Germans did in World War One; in as we have three fractions in DC now Democrats, Republicans & the tea party.
The average working person of main street are not power brokers like those who have been in office for decades and we have seen that money rules politics, we do not have million and billions, but we still have our vote and are fighting to keep it. There is a quote that goes, "They came for me in the morning, they'll come for you in the night"; my co workers saw this as has other companies and workers since jobs have been moved over seas and out of the US and small companies get swallowed up by larger and then down sized and sold off again.
Monies raised and invested in the elections could have gone towards this nations needs. It may have only made a dent but it surely could have been better investment for America. What happen to "of the people, by the people and for the people."
We must be careful not teach out children and young people to think that all folks who receive assistance are crooks and couch dwellers, there are those truly in need of help. I see that there are all kinds of people in need more and more since I have left the corporate world. There are the disabled, the elderly who investments since their retirement 10 years prior just does not meet the increases in cost of living and property taxes and unexpected illnesses, some elderly that lost a large part of their savings having been prayed upon by scrupulous business investors, just to point out a few of a larger list of scenarios.
To the subject of having children, I did limit my self to two children 28 years ago, went to college day and night, plus worked and held GPA of 3.75; put in 33 years on one job and now live very close to the poverty level with my penalize investments and paying 1/3 of it for health ins. God Bless all of you who think there is a cookie cutter version of a people. What do we call that type of thinking? How much time do those of you who think that most folks "just don't feel like working" volunteer your time. Think about this- what comes first homelessness or insanity? visit a homeless shelter, come up with your answers, another forgotten group.
God Bless America
My husband has faithfully worked as a Contractor for over 25 years... Myself - 15 years.
My husband and I will both get a 20% cut in our hours... and our paychecks. It will stress our finances... and we will be strapped to say the least. Some of my co-wokers are very upset... as they will have a difficult time meeting their financial obligation.
We are already looking to see what we can cut back on - to try to hold out until we get our hours, and pay, returned to us. We are already cancelling our 25th wedding anniversary trip... (something we have looked forward to for the last 9 years...)
Congress is exempt... They are unwilling to take the same 20% cut they are forcing on us... The option should not be theirs... any more than it is ours...
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For those of us in the private economy this has been going on for about 6 years now. I have downsized my business through attrition and cut everything else to the bone, it's a very unstable environment for business right now. One month is decent the next sucks, it's like being on a roller coaster. There are millions of Americans who have either lost their jobs or had there pay cut. The recession started back in 2007 for most of America, government and it's vendors are just now seeing what the rest of us have been seeing for about 6 years now.
And pray tell, what data do you have to back up you pie-in-the-sky opinion?
In Northern Virginia some contractors have already started laying people off. More than 207,000 jobs would be cut across Virginia. About 71,000 of those are outside of the Department of Defense.
Nationwide, approximately 10,000 teacher jobs and 7,200 special education teachers, aides and staff are on the chopping block. And 70,000 children in Head Start would be affected.
Some 12,000 scientist and students who conduct research for critical diseases would see their jobs come to an end.
About 600,000 women and children may be dropped from WIC from March until September.
But hey, none of that affects you, so I guess things will work out... for you.
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Ah the little children tear jerker excuse.
They really never see that money helping them since most of it goes to pay for the big salaries of the government bureaucrats.
Don't worry about it unless you are slopping at the govenment worker trough.
That is how we learn, by death and destruction. We are too stupid to use science and look ahead.
"below the dignity of Congress" LOL you have to be kidding me, I didn't think anything could be lower than the dignity of congress.
So you would punish all the people in Indiana (a red state) but leave California (a blue state) alone despite the fact that there were more people who voted republican in California than all the voters combined in Indiana. That's the reverse equivalant of an e-amil I saw recently suggesting that a business should base it's layoff decisions due to Obama Care on who voted for Obama. Both are jackassery