Sequestration Sucks

Do you know what sequestration is?

First off, it hasn't really happened yet.  At least, most of it will not begin until April.   But the March 1st deadline means it will happen.

Sequestration means "to set apart"; it will set aside $85 billion from the Budget and still will not even touch the deficit.  It's almost pointless.  What we need are real, meaningful, SMART spending cuts.

Wait!  Don't run away!  OK... well, if you aren't interested, I understand.  I mean, this is my family blog and if you came here to read about my adorable kids, you might be a little disappointed.  But since you are enduring my post about politics, I'll throw in a few unrelated pictures of  my darling children just to balance things out a bit.  And, well, this is the only place I have to share my opinion without offending every single person on my Facebook friend list in one short sentence.  (I know, I know- when has that ever stopped me before?)  Ha!

BUT... if you are one of the people who keeps hearing about sequestration and doesn't understand what it means or why it matters or if you should care, here is a quick and easy explanation about what it is and why you should be concerned.

Honestly, I have never been more disappointed in our government than I am this week.  That said, I have never felt so bipartisan as I have this week.  The Democrats were totally wrong leading up to this fiasco, but they are now the only ones I hear making any sense.  Did I just read that right?  Did Laura just say something nice about Democrats?  I know, I know.  You better write this one down, who knows when it will happen again.  But let's get started:

1. First of all, it is important to know:  NO ONE WANTS THESE SPENDING CUTS.  No One.  Sequestration was designed as a negative consequence, a punishment, so to speak for the country if Congress and the President failed to figure out a way to cut spending.

In other words, President Obama is like the parent who came up with a punishment.  "Now listen Danny Democrat and Roberta Republican:  If you two kids can't figure out a way to cut spending, You are going to be punished.  The punishment is:    Sequestration."  Now, 50% of sequestration is spending cuts to the Department of Defense and Military spending.  No one wants to make substantial cuts to our National Security, right?, right?  Surely they will come together on a compromise before they cut spending like that, right?  Right?!! That's what we thought.  See http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/02/12/jay_carney_admits_sequester_was_the_presidents_idea.html
But for some reason, everyone in Washington is standing around blaming each other for Sequestration instead of finding a solution to prevent it, or stop it at this point.

2. So... Congress and the President have had almost 2 years to make an agreement and STILL HAVE DONE ALMOST NOTHING about the spending problem.  They created a Super Committee, which failed.  Both sides have been acting like toddlers, and refusing to compromise even an inch.  (I must say that I think a Preschool Teacher might be helpful in the negotiations!) Then, if you will rewind your brain to New Year's, you remember all this discussion about making a deal about the deficit and preventing a government shut down and yada yada yada.  Well, back then, in order to keep from shutting everything down, Republicans said, "Fine.  We'll raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans from 36% to 39 %  " (See these articles: http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/managingyourmoney/archives/2013/01/five_tax_increa.html and here: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/02/26/chart-obama-2013-tax-increase-twice-as-large-as-looming-sequestration/)  and then you Danny Democrats are going to have to help us CUT spending before March 1st.

3.  BUT... nothing happened.  All the sudden, as March drew closer, President Obama took entitlement reform OFF the table and asked for MORE tax increases!  MORE!  I'm sorry, but when you have a debt problem, every person who ever learned addition and subtraction knows that the solution is to STOP spending so much, NOT to make more money.  We could never, NEVER, EVER tax our way out of the 16 TRILLION dollar debt our country now holds.  So, since Republicans already compromised and caved on raising taxes for wealthy Americans, they said, "NO WAY! "  You Democrats HAVE to agree to cut spending.  (Actually,  the House put forth TWO different plans to cut spending without moving forward with Sequestration.  One (from Eric Cantor) included cutting FRIVOLOUS Federal spending, like 2.2 billion dollars the government spends to pay for cell phones and cell service for Low Income Families or paying Elderly Americans to play video games.  The other from Rubio, would have allowed the government to use "unspent" money from the 2012 budget to counteract the negative effects of sequestration.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bob-woodward-obamas-sequester-deal-changer/2013/02/22/c0b65b5e-7ce1-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html
4.  So, March 1st rolls around and here we are, taking the consequences of Congress's failure to act.   You hear the President saying, "This will be terrible!  We have to do something!  Republicans won't compromise"
And he's right about the first two parts.
Then you hear (some) Republicans saying, "This is a fraction of the spending cuts we actually need.  It won't even decrease the deficit.  If we can't get useful, meaningful spending cuts, we'll take crappy ones."
And they are right about the first two parts as well.

But Republicans sitting back and celebrating are making a HUGE mistake.  Here's why:

5.  Your average American doesn't pay attention to all the nuances of these arguments.  They know 2 things:
a. Republicans want to cut spending.
b.  Democrats want to raise taxes and spend more.

So....  when the President says, "This will be terrible!"  He's right.  When the negative consequences come in a few weeks, the American public won't remember that HE was the one who failed to compromise, they will remember him saying, "This is a bad idea!"  (when it was his idea in the first place)
And Americans will remember Republicans saying, "It's not that much money.  We'll have to take whatever spending cuts the President is willing to offer."

And who will be blamed?  Or does it even matter anymore?

6. HOW WILL SEQUESTRATION NEGATIVELY AFFECT THE COUNTRY? 

Sequestration will furlough 800,000 federal employees. (Most from the Department of Defense)  Essentially, that means they won't work one day a week and their families will receive a 20% pay cut.  (And yes, we will be affected by this- so this means I'm  biased.      But it also means that I know a little more about what sending Matt home one day a week will mean for our country, which gives me insider information.)

a.) Our National Security will be HARMED.
 If you send Department of Defense employees home once a week without pay, will they get their work done?

Nope.

We aren't talking about secretaries or janitors or jobs that can be absorbed by the other employees with some extra work.  We are talking about people who perform vital functions for the security of this country.  That's why we call it the Department of Defense, after all.
You know when you watch James Bond or Bourne Identity or whatever?  You see the Generals or the War Fighters or the Special Agents call the Computer Guys because they need vital information NOW.  What happens when those computer guys are gone that day?

These employees have been told that they absolutely positively LEGALLY cannot work on their furlough day. They have been issued written statements warning against working without pay on their furlough days. Now, I can't tell you specifically what Matt does, or why that would be harmful for our country.  Perhaps the fact that I'm not allowed to tell you is testament enough to the fact that his work is important, critical, and necessary.  We aren't just talking about Matt, either... what about all the other important Defense Employees and their responsibilities. What happens if there is a critical problem on the day he and half of the office are furloughed?

b.) The Economy will be negatively affected.  Maybe 800,000 federal employees seems like a small number to you.  But those people won't be pumping ANY money into the economy.  They'll be pinching pennies trying to make it through 6 months on 80 % of their pay.  And that's for the lucky ones who are just getting a pay cut, not an actual pink slip.

7.  BUT YOU'RE A CONSERVATIVE!  Don't you want to cut spending?!  Yes!, Yes, Yes!  But with a scalpel, not a hatchet!  And NOT to essential Defense Programs that keep our country safe.  Unfortunately, It's only Democrats I hear talking about that idea this week.

If you have ever spoken with me about Matt's job, you know I have frustrations with Government waste.
Matt is dedicated.  He's a Mormon-  and Mormons from active Mormon families are practically genetically infused with a  good work ethic.  You work.  Hard.  That's what you do.  Unfortunately, Matt also works with some people don't work hard.

You know how we could cut Defense Spending? 
 a.  Make it possible to fire a Federal Employee.  But the Federal Employee Unions (backed by the Democrats) have made it so it is virtually impossible to fire a federal employee.  You can move them around to another division, but it is almost impossible to get rid of them.

b.  ONLY give raises to Federal Employees who actually earn them through good performance.  As it stands now, EVERY federal employee gets an increase just for showing up to work and breathing.  Didn't do your job?  That's ok!  The union has made it so that you get a raise even if you don't do your work.  Awesome!
 Matt is one of the MANY good guys.  He works hard and he has been promoted for his efforts.  But there are guys there who get paid more than Matt just because they have "worked" there longer.  And I use the term  "worked" lightly.  But the Union doesn't care if you aren't doing your job, or if you are.

c.  Stop contracting with special companies and let people try to save money!  When Matt was sent to Germany for a project, we went with him.  The government would pay for Matt's flight, but not ours, of course.  I shopped around for weeks and got tickets for all three of us (Tori was free!).  Matt arranged to be on the same flight, but he had to do it through the Government's contracted companies.  I wanted to just buy his ticket and let work reimburse us.  That would work, right?  Nope!  The government has to do things their own, nonsensical, red tape way.)  Matt took the exact same flight at us, but the government paid more for his one ticket than for all three of ours put together.  Same type of thing happened with out rental car and our hotels. I wanted to shop around, find the cheapest rental car possible.  Nope, the Federal Government was contracted with a specific company, so we paid more because we had to use them.  They paid for our gas, but we had to use specific gas stations where the gas was more expensive.  NO ONE CARES ABOUT MONEY THAT DOES  NOT COME OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS.

(token cute picture of Tori)

But are they doing any of those things to cut spending?
Nope!  They are using a socialist plan.  When Liberals are involved, everything has to be equal, not based on performance.  Everyone gets  trophy or everyone gets a raise or everyone gets a pay cut.
 Everyone except Congress, that is.

In My humble opinion, if Congress wants to set up a consequence for them not doing their jobs, perhaps the consequence should be a pay cut for them?!  For the President?  If these people want to play political chicken with someone's salaries, I think it ought to be their own.  Then, we'd see some work being done.

As  Conservatives, Matt and I would actually be willing to take a pay cut if we were genuinely cutting Federal spending.  If the pay cut was actually going to help the deficit problem.  If we were cutting spending on Handouts like Unemployment, Medicaid, and Food Stamps.  Do people need them?  Yes! But these programs are also riddled with fraud.  We can figure out a way to help those in need without creating learned helplessness or inviting fraud and abuse of taxpayer money.  Should there be a sliding scale or a time limit for these programs?  Yes!  But none of this is happening.

This President is a deceitful genius:  

He's cutting Defense Spending while expanding Medicaid  and is managing to blame the entire thing on the Republicans.  

Republicans need to wise up and act against Sequestration before their entire party goes down the tubes.  The President needs to learn how to compromise.  

FAST.  

So to sum it all up, instead of cutting wasteful spending, actual, vital Defense jobs are being cut.  This is the most asinine type of spending cut and there is NO WAY it would have happened under Romney.  None.  But that ship has sailed and we are stuck on the deserted island with Obi Wan Obama, our only hope.... And we all know he has only brought change with very little hope.  So... our other options:

Contact your local congressman... ask them to act.
Fortunately for us, our Congressman, Rob Bishop, gets it.  His statement reads,
 "Washington needs to cut spending- even more than this- but the sequester is a poor way to do it and dangerously and disproportionately slashes military funding.  Roughly half the spending cuts under sequestration would come from the Department of Defense.  This unfairly harms defense personnel  and programs and it would hurt our national defense.
This ill-advised idea was first proposed by President Obama's chief budget negotiator and was to be so severe that a special bicameral, bipartisan committee would be forced to find an alternative.  That did not work. Congressman Bishop voted against the sequester and against forming this committee because the consequence of failure was too dangerous."

Regardless of which side you are on, Sequestration is a bad idea.
Republicans and Democrats need to stop blaming each other and SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

 I just emailed Rob Bishop.  Who can you contact?

Click on the link below to find your Representative and contact them:

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

You can find your Senator here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm


If you made it this far... I love you for listening to my rant.  Sorry to be so political and serious... I'll try to be lighthearted and happy next time.