commentaries

The administration's revenge will be to inflict maximum pain on the citizenry. De-fund the study of the snail's social habits or fire 10 border guards? Fire the border guards of course.

$85 billion cut from a $1200 billion operating budget that has a projected income of $1050 billion (give or take a few dozen billion bucks)... having a hard time seeing how this is a disaster... Unpleasant? Yes... fair? Maybe not - but every body gets hit the same. So maybe the country will have to decide its priorities, which is the first thing you need to do to get back in budget -- a hungry child or a new artillery system? Foreign aid or US aid? Pay as you go or borrow and have a party... Face it - 1) Is this fight about "when"? -- if we can't cut 7% now, when will we?... 2) Is it about not having what we want? --If we can't cut 7% because it hurts, and we must spend more than we take in so it doesn't hurt - when do we get in budget? "Why, when it doesn't hurt me, of course"... and when is that?.. 3) Do we need to rein in government operating budgets, or do we need to continue borrowing to fund extra spending by the Defense Department? It is a choice. (why assign the debt to the DOD? For the past 500 years, wars were always funded by borrowing - so just being consistent. And the DOD is the biggest part of the OPERATING budget and relies on US government revenue, and if we run in the red, they logically get the lion's share of the assigned debt)... Cutbacks are always bad if it is your budget that gets cut.

If they include critical services (police, border guards, etc) in the first wave of cuts our politicians truly are incompetent. There is PLENTY of govt fat to cut. Have at it!

elmore, I'm sure you'll be interested to learn that despite all of the doom and gloom rhetoric about how the sequester will cause massive layoffs in police, border patrol, firefighters, TSA agents, and military, the Internal Revenue service will still see their 2013 budget go up by nearly a billion dollars. They are scheduled to add 4000 new positions. Yep, "massive" cuts to the safety and security of the citizens, but a nice increase in the number of people who make sure the citizens pay all their taxes. That tells you all you need to know about government priorities, doesn't it?

The interesting thing is that from most of what owatonabill has heard and read in the media, Joe Citizen is overwhelmingly IN FAVOR of the cuts. Oh, there will be some pain (perhaps "mild discomfort" is closer to the truth) but very few people seem to be buying the-sky-is-falling rhetoric of the administration, despite the virtual certainty that the administration will publicize every work hour lost and every cent cut in the same terms that radio guy used when the Hindenburg went up in flames. Go forward with the cuts--and hope that the automatic cuts scheduled for the future kick in as well. If that is the only way we can rein in the idiots who "represent" us in Washington, then so be it.

Remove the cap on social security income, raise the retirement age by one year, chain link the inflation CPI---Problem solved.

"but very few people seem to be buying the-sky-is-falling rhetoric of the administration" -- Bill, you are exactly correct. It's pretty difficult for the White House to sell the tall tale of a 2.4% reduction will spell doom when the average citizen has had to tighten his/her home budget by much more than that. Add in the fact that Congress and the White House manufactured this "crisis" themselves and there is no longer any reason to believe the President Who Cried Wolf.

Why is Europe failing, why is Japan failing?? why is Greek failing? Government spending and fiscal insanity.

Why is much of Europe failing? LACK OF SPENDING, both by private businesses and by government. Spending is the only thing that makes a capitalist economy work, the only question is where it comes from -- private consumers or government budgets. And if consumers aren't spending (because they are unemployed etc.) then government spending is the only option. If you don't spend, then business stays slow, long-term unemployment becomes a serious problem, people begin to lose their skills and the whole economy falls into a slump it takes a long time to get out of.

Cheer up folks. If we're lucky enough to survive "sequestration", the next manufactured government budget crisis is just one month away. That's right, the latest in the long line of continuing resolutions to fund the federal government (since they've given up any attempt at passing a real budget) expires on March 27th and brings with it the possibility of a partial government shutdown. Who says the government doesn't create jobs? The editorial writers and political pundits will be busier than ever.