I cant believe no one has mentioned the sequester!

[John Milmont]

So, this whole sequester thing is going down tomorrow. According to Obama, this is going to cause some pretty major problems. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, is saying "Children are going to get hurt".

Not even a peep about this in the Paddock? Wow!

 

[Larry L.]

Well, now that you've brought it up:

You can bet the various 'heads' of this-and-that departments have been given the word to apply their budget cuts where the public will be the most inconvenienced - regardless of the fact they COULD apply the cuts to other areas within their depts where no one would notice.

Let's face it, people: If the U.S. govt can't cut <$100 Billion out of the "budget" (and I use the term loosely) over 10 years w/o the country shutting down - how the devil will it EVER be able to cut the amount that's really necessary?

 

[Joey Dean]

I'm living it as I am one of the public servants that will be losing working days if this drags out. We have so many nice to have things that we could shed, such as ISO registration, that are not a required compnent of our work that would saves millions without the public suffering or the quality of our work decreasing. Instead, fingers are pointed and blame is passed an nothing is being done. A shame.

 

[John Milmont]

I think using the term "cuts" is not accurate for this sequester. I think the word "reduction" would be more fitting. For instance, the federal government is still spending more money than last year, they are just not spending as much as was proposed.

The biggest reduction to any one department is 5%. There seems to be a lot of disingenuous people out there, including the president (up until the yesterday), saying that if the sequester goes through the sky is going to fall.

 

[Larry L.]

I think using the term "cuts" is not accurate for this sequester. I think the word "reduction" would be more fitting.

"Cuts" is rarely the proper term, sir. As you implied, unless any particular dept's budget is actually less than it was the year before, IT'S BUDGET HASN'T BEEN CUT AT ALL.

I've never understood how any bureaucrat can say with a straight face that there's been a 3% cut in spending when, say, next year's proposed increase of 8% has been lowered to 5%! That's still an actual INCREASE of 5% no matter how one looks at it!

The same principle is behind politicians calling spending "investment" and calling taxes "contributions". It's all pure BULL.

 

[Larry L.]

We have so many nice to have things that we could shed, such as ISO registration, that are not a required compnent of our work that would saves millions without the public suffering or the quality of our work decreasing.

There you go. I rest my case.

Thank you. :bow:

 

[Tom P]

$94 billion, even if the cuts came together, it's a piss hole in the snow compared to the budget deficit. That's how much our national debt goes up every 28 days. Wonder what we could save if airforce one, security, cars, etc. stopped buzzing all over the US trying to scare everyone about $94 billion?

 

[Danimal W]

A sticker on my car sums it up....

Tar.feathers.congress
Some assembly required.

 

[Tom P]

Not just congress, the senate hasn't done a budget in almost 4 years and BO can't even get his budgets past a Democratic senate. They're all a bunch of useless assholes.

 

[tom pritchett]

Yup. Couldn't say it better so I won't try.