Congratulations, You Survived The Sequester!
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| Robert Romano: Despite sequestration, the sun rose and will set. Schools opened as scheduled. Children were still picked up and dropped off by buses. Hospitals, police, and firefighters all remained on call should the need arise. Planes did not fall out of the sky. The roads we travel did not disintegrate. Trash continued to be collected. The mail was delivered. No nuclear accidents occurred. We were not invaded. The borders and coasts were still patrolled. There was no massive prison breakout. The courts still functioned. Criminals were still prosecuted. Agencies all opened and closed on time. Overseas, military operations proceeded as planned. Seniors’ Social Security and Medicare benefits continued without interruption. So did food stamps, unemployment and Medicaid. Remarkable . . . on March 1, the government cut a mere 1.5% of the $3.538 trillion budget. To hear Obama tell it, March 1 was judgment day. The seas should have boiled. The skies should have fallen. They didn’t! |
The world didn’t end. Food is still safe to eat. Planes are landing safely on runways. Invading armies are not storming our shores. And life is continuing on normally just as it was yesterday.
This fact must be making the heads of Washington, D.C. politicians explode. For all the rhetoric that had been thrown around about the impending doom that the nation faced, nothing disastrous has happened.
As Obama put it, the sequester would “imperil our economy, our national security (and) vital programs that middle class families depend on.” Further, it would be a “a huge blow to middle-class families and our economy as a whole.”
The sequester was simply a reduction of one dollar from every six dollars of spending increases to discretionary spending since 2008. The government will spend more money next year than it does this year. The sequester was merely a microscopic reduction in spending growth rates.
But the facts never mattered to the politicians. In fact, many of them forgot their own statements from the times when they supported the sequester.
That’s right. Many of the people bemoaning the sequester previously supported it.
In the aftermath of the passage of the debt ceiling increase in August of 2011 that resulted in the sequestration, House Speaker John Boehner told CBS news that he got 98 percent of what he wanted in the debt deal.
In November 2011, Obama told the media that he would veto efforts to stop the sequester.
Clearly the sequester is not as bad as these people advertised in the run-up to today.
For too long politicians have been able to get away with making absurd claims to the media about the impending doom of a cut to government spending. The fact that we are all alive and well today proves that you can cut government and that it will not result in the end of the world.
The theatrical renditions of Chicken Little that we have all been subjected to by John Boehner and Barack Obama have proven to be exactly what they were—theatrical performances.
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Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily where he first posted this article and works for Americans For Limited Government.
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Posted by Bill Smith at 6:25 PM - Post Link
4 Comments:
My family did NOT survive it, Bill Smith. My son in law & friends joined the ranks of unemployed & uninsured with 3 kids to feed, dress & educate. Of course, people that have their jobs & health insurance could care less about about the thousands laid off @ Red River Army Depot & other places too!
Can you confirm that your family said they were "laid" off due to the sequester and not due to the draw down of the military? This is important as I am getting conflicted stories. Also, what was their job at Redstone. I am am concerned that the Obama administration may be taking actions to make hardships greater. However, there was an indication that certain personal services contracts were not being renewed but these would be contractor personnel. Appreciate your getting more info to share.
I understand to those laid off it makes little difference. Also, is the lay off permanent or temporary? And were they regular employees of the Army (civil servants) or were they contract employees (worked under a contractor at the Red River Army Depot)?
Appreciate your getting more info to share.
Some of the Contractors kept their jobs. Strange, huh??? Our family & friends were "term employees" that rebuilt Humvees. After 9 years you would think there would be some job security. This is suppose to be a permanent layoff. The Texarkana area is feeling the Sequester.
God Help America!!!
I have a friend that has a son working for a Contractor welding. He kept his job. Such a BIG place most of these folks don't even know each other.
Josie,
Thanks for the info. As I suspected with the draw down of the Army's involvement in Afghanistan and other areas, the production lines are being reduced.
It is also true that sequester is hurting people, especially when the current administration wants it to hurt them rather than trimming pork, unneeded items like trips, diversity training consultants, cutting back on the high cost and expenses with Air Force One trips including numerous vacations, and -- far more items than we can list here.
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