First off, it just seems to me that “The Sequester” is just this month’s word for “The Fiscal Cliff,” without even the hint of tax increases. But they made such a stink about it at the end of December that now people are just sick to death of hearing about cuts to spending and what a horrible state the economy is in, and it’s going through pretty much without anybody saying too much about it.
Also, I’m a little bit confused about that phrase “discretionary cuts”
It’s not all bad. It will cut $85 billion dollars in spending, which is a drop in the bucket (the U.S. military budget alone is about $790 billion), but less government spending is (before counting the human costs) a good thing. It’s just not enough of a good thing. A token amount, really.
About half of that $85 billion will come out of the military, which is definitely a good thing. I reckon they should cut the military budget by about $400 billion a year, and stop starting wars. It would save a hell of a lot more than the current sequester, and also improve our image abroad. Still, a cut of $40 billion to the defense budget might discourage a foreign intervention or two, so that might actually save lives.
The rest, however, comes out of things like unemployment benefits, assistance with heating bills (good thing this is happening in the spring), disaster relief, emergency housing for the homeless, Head Start, mental hospitals, food inspections and HIV prevention and treatment programs.
So, the net result will be a lot more homeless people, a lot more crazy homeless people, more people dying just because they can’t get the right drugs, and the next time a hurricane hits, we’re in big trouble. Also, if you were worried about eating horse meat, worry no more. You will be allowed to continue on in blissful ignorance and pretend that the beef in your Taco Bell taco is 100% beef, just like before.
All this because rich pricks who make 250 thousand dollars a year and up don’t want to pay a very slightly higher tax rate.
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