If you’ve been listening to all of this “sequester” talk and still aren’t exactly sure what is going on, then you’re not alone. Washington has been using the friendlier word of “sequester” to refer to a package of automatic spending cuts set to slash funding for government agencies. The sequester drama began to unfold during the debt crisis of 2011, when Republicans demanded that serious budget cuts be included in legislation that raised the debt ceiling. Congress was tasked with finding ways to implement the $1.2 trillion in cuts, to be spread across a nine-year period, but partisan gridlock has kept Washington from coming to such an agreement. Therefore, unless politicians can cut a deal at some point today, the first $85 billion of these automatic cuts will go into effect across the board at 11:59 P.M.
Almost all government programs would feel the sequester’s effects, but hardest hit would be the military, which would see $550 million pulled from its funding. Programs in health care, law enforcement, education, unemployment benefits, disaster relief, scientific research, and more would also be cut drastically. State programs that rely on federal funds would have to prepare to receive less, and many government employees would lose their jobs.
The sequester fallout would not spare young Americans. College students in particular have much at stake. If the sequester hits, grants for as many as 1.4 million students enrolled in higher education institutions could shrink. In addition, 680,000 students enrolled in Federal Work Study programs might see their hours or wages shrink. Automatic spending cuts also threaten to cut employment services and job training programs, particularly for disadvantaged youth.
While the Obama administration continues to warn of the sequester’s detrimental effects, Republicans insist the cuts will not be so bad, as they make up only 2.5 percent of total government spending. With the end of the day fast approaching, politicians continue to make no progress on reaching an agreement. It seems likeliest that the sequester will hit, and Americans will have to find out for themselves just how harmful its effects might be.
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Liza Dee Bio: Email the author at: blog(at)rockthevote.com |
so you believed everything Obama said about sequestration?
We need a spending freeze across the board. We should only continue with essential spending. After all, if it’s not absolutely necessary, why are we spending money on it? Our children are drowning in debt before they are even born…
Do you know what our total outstanding debt is? I’ll clue you in. It is in excess of $16 TRILLION dollars?
In the last 5 years the total budget debt has grown by $5 TRILLION dollars. And guess what, even with the cuts, this year’s budget will still be larger than last year’s budget. Young people do not appear to be so good at math. And to top it of, President Obama has instructed departmets to make the cuts as painful as possible rather than trim fat where it is most certainly available:
The Obama administration denied an appeal for flexibility in lessening the sequester’s effects, with an email this week appearing to show officials in Washington that because they already had promised the cuts would be devastating, they now have to follow through on that.
In the email sent Monday by Charles Brown, an official with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Brown asked “if there was any latitude” in how to spread the sequester cuts across the region to lessen the impacts on fish inspections.
He said he was discouraged by officials in Washington, who gave him this reply: “We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/5/email-tells-feds-make-sequester-painful-promised/
And 400 new job postings for federal employees were listed on the first day after this earth-shattering sequester:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/4/feds-keep-hiring-with-sequesters-in-place/
And DHS had to release 2000 illegal immigrants from custody because of the cuts, but had $50 million laying around for new uniforms.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/tsa-sealed-50-million-sequester-eve-deal-buy-new-uniforms
So rather than take the same chicken little approach of everyone else, why not analyze the situation and determine that one cannot continue to live beyond one’s means in perpetuity and also understand that the word “drastically” cannot be used in the context of $85 billion on a budget of $1 trillion and total outstanding debt of $16 trillion.
We are spending more money in 2013 than in 2012. These “cuts” were money that these departments were supposed see as increases … only in Obamaonomics can we increase spending and yet face cuts …