57 Terrible Consequences of the Sequester

[Phurfur 70]

The government shutdown has been portrayed as a total defeat for Republicans, but the GOP at least can take solace in the fact that the sequester continues, Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes says.

 

"What has been largely overlooked is that the deal didn't curtail, much less end, the automatic spending cuts known as the budget sequester. And undoing the sequester is what President [barack] Obama and Democrats wanted most of all," Barnes wrote Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal.

 

The sequester gives Republicans leverage over Democrats on the budget, Barnes noted.

 

"For Republicans eager to corral federal spending — and that's most of them — the sequester is a gift that keeps on giving."

 

Ironically, he said, the sequester was a White House idea.

 

"To say the sequester has backfired for Democrats is putting it mildly," he wrote. "The specter of automatic cuts was supposed to scare members of a Senate-House panel assigned to forge a bipartisan budget accord. If they failed, the sequester would become law. Democrats believed this would never occur. But it did."

 

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Republicans-shutdown-sequester-cuts/2013/10/22/id/532449#ixzz2iUqT3mYG

 

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and the media has finally stopped talking about the sequester.

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One week after concluding a bruising battle over the federal budget, Washington policymakers began lowering expectations for the next round of talks, with both sides proposing Thursday to concentrate simply on replacing sharp spending cuts known as the sequester.

“Let’s focus on goals that are hopefully achievable,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in an interview, dismissing the years-long pursuit of a “grand bargain” to raise significant new taxes and restructure federal retirement programs as “ultimately destined for failure.”

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/lawmakers-now-focusing-on-replacing-sequester-spending-cuts/2013/10/24/89fdaa5e-3ce9-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html

 

[Sho Nuff 719]

Hate to interrupt you going all GFIAFP...but how does one post this many times in one thread?

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[Phurfur 70]

Hate to interrupt you going all GFIAFP...but how does one post this many times in one thread?

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Jump Monkey Jump!

[Sho Nuff 719]

Jump Monkey Jump!

 

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[Phurfur 70]

 

Cut and paste sheep...cut and paste!!!

Let me speak your language.

 

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Now Jump!

[Phurfur 70]

The federal shutdown might be over, but officials at the University of Michigan are bracing for the next round of across-the-board spending cuts that, if enacted, could affect millions in research funding at the Ann Arbor school.

"The whole sequester issue has sort of faded into the background as though it didn't matter and in fact the sequester, we believe, is the biggest threat that the faculty face," University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman said. "I tell you this not to be alarmist or dismal or anything else. I tell you this because in the next six to eight weeks we feel like something really needs to be done in Congress."

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2013/10/sequester_um_part_2.html

 

[Phurfur 70]

As sequestration loomed in February, Vice President Joseph R. Biden made a symbolic gesture to save taxpayers money, offering to travel to his home in Delaware by Amtrak rather than fly on a military plane as the Secret Service preferred.

“I’ve got to take the train now. It’s cheaper than flying,” he explained, lamenting the inconvenience he was enduring during tough fiscal times.

But away from the cameras, Mr. Biden had no problem collecting, as he has for years, the same $2,200 a month he charges the Secret Service for its use of a small building on his Delaware property as a staging area to protect his family.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/4/despite-sequester-rent-checks-still-flowing-to-bid/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS#ixzz2joy2BwH1

 

[Phurfur 70]

The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) and a host of other conservative groups in Washington urged congressional Republicans to stand firm on sequester spending cuts as they debate funding for the next fiscal year.

“If Congress reneges on promises to restrain spending just two years after the passage of discretionary spending caps, it would send a powerful message to the American people: Congress cannot control its profligate spending,” the NTU wrote in an open letter to Republican leadership Friday.

 

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/08/hold-the-line-conservative-groups-push-republicans-to-save-sequester-cuts/#ixzz2kGKg8wqM

 

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(UPI) -- A survey of university leaders has shown that the sequester -- mandatory budget cuts which will remain in effect for the next eight years unless Congress acts -- will adversely affect the innovation and technology edge the U.S. enjoys.

The survey, conducted by the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and The Science Coalition, asked leaders from 171 public and private research universities about the effects of the sequester.

The survey suggests cuts to federal research grants and delayed federal projects have already had a negative impact.

“If Congress fails to reverse course and doesn’t begin to value investments in research and higher education, then the innovation deficit this country is facing will worsen as our foreign competitors continue to seize on this nation’s shortfall,” said APLU president Peter McPherson.

 

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Blog/2013/11/11/Sequester-severely-affecting-Americas-research-capabilities/8271384205494/#ixzz2kTTskDUU

 

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Pentagon Faces $52 Billion in Sequester Budget Cuts in January

With half the Pentagon budget spent on pay and benefits, the military is focusing on ways to hold down expenditures in housing, education, and health, because unless Congress lifts the sequester, the Defense budget will have to be slashed by an additional $52 billion in January.

If the sequester continues — within a decade — there will not be enough money to pay for new weapons systems or training, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Some $41 billion has already been cut from military spending this year. Unless Congress agrees to lift the sequester, the Defense budget will need to be cut by another $52 billion in January.

The 2013 Defense budget stands at approximately $633.3 billion, the Journal reported

 

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/pentagon-sequester-budget-cuts/2013/11/18/id/537121#ixzz2l1n0VXDU

 

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Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), chief negotiators for their parties, are closing in on a deal… At issue are efforts to craft a compromise that would ease across-the-board spending cuts due to take effect in January, known as the sequester, and replace them with a mix of increased fees and cuts in mandatory spending programs.

 

 

Officials familiar with the talks say negotiators are stitching together a package of offsets to the planned sequester cuts that would include none of the major cuts in Medicare or other entitlement programs that Mr. Ryan has wanted… Instead, it would include more targeted and arcane measures, such as increased fees for airport-security and federal guarantees of private pensions.

 

Democrats on Thursday stepped up their demands in advance of the closing days of negotiations between Ms. Murray and Mr. Ryan. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) brought a fresh demand to the table by saying she wouldn’t support any budget deal unless in included or was accompanied by an agreement to renew expanded unemployment benefits that expire before the end of the year—which would be a major threat to any deal.

 

http://www.cato.org/blog/stupid-party-strikes-again-congressional-republicans-poised-give-sequester-victory

 

[Phurfur 70]

Conservative groups pushed back hard against the proposed federal budget agreement announced Tuesday, arguing that the tentative deal unravels hard-fought spending cuts.

Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis, the lead negotiators on the agreement, detailed the specifics of the proposal at an evening press conference.

The proposal would restore about $63 billion in funding that had been cut by the so-called sequester. Officials said the increases would be offset by a variety of spending reductions and increased fees elsewhere in the budget totaling about $85 billion over a decade, leaving enough for a largely symbolic deficit cut of $23 billion over the next decade.

The deal sets discretionary spending levels at just over $1 trillion, which is higher than the level of $967 billion set in a 2011 budget pact.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/11/conservative-groups-sound-alarm-over-tentative-budget-deal/?intcmp=latestnews

 

 

The Rs and Ds do it again!

[Phurfur 70]

Congressional negotiators unveiled a bipartisan, $1.1 trillion spending bill Monday night that will reverse a 1 percent cut to cost-of-living increases for disabled veterans and provide $1.525 billion in aid to Egypt, among other provisions.

 

The measure fleshes out the details of the budget deal that Congress passed last month; it would fund the government through October. The budget pact gave relatively modest relief to the Pentagon and domestic agencies from the deep budget cuts they would otherwise face.

 

The detailed bill was released by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., and Senate counterpart Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who have worked to try to ensure that the measure doesn't topple of its own weight.

 

“The Omnibus will fulfill the basic duty of Congress; it provides funding for every aspect of the federal government, from our national defense, to our transportation systems, to the education of our kids,” Rogers said in a statement Monday.

 

The GOP-led House is slated to vote on the measure Wednesday, less than 48 hours after it became public. In their campaign to take over the House in 2010, Republicans promised a 72-hour review period.

 

On Tuesday, the House is slated to approve a short-term funding bill to extend the Senate's deadline to finish the overall spending bill until midnight on Saturday. The current short-term spending bill expires at midnight Wednesday evening.

 

To be sure, there is plenty for both parties to oppose in the legislation. Conservatives face a vote to fund implementation of President Obama's health care overhaul and Wall Street regulations, both enacted in 2010 over solid Republican opposition. If history is any guide, conservative provisions on environmental and abortion policy will be tossed overboard.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/14/congressional-negotiators-expected-to-unveil-omnibus-spending-bill/?intcmp=latestnews

 

 

Sequester - RIP

 

Vote Libertarian

[Phurfur 70]

The House voted 326-90 Tuesday to reverse a controversial $6 billion cut in veterans benefits included in last year's budget deal.

 

The House bill would offset the cost of the repealed cuts by extending the budget sequester for mandatory spending cuts by an additional year.

 

The chamber is almost unanimous in its desire to reverse the cuts, but some Democrats voted against the bill because it would fund the veterans benefits, in part, through further cuts to mandatory domestic spending for social programs they favor.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/defense/house-votes-to-repeal-cuts-to-vets-benefits-extend-sequester-20140211

[Phurfur 70]

 

 

Despite doomsday warnings from the White House and lawmakers on both sides that hundreds of thousands would lose their jobs as a result of the sequester, it turns out the budget cuts have only led to one job being lost among 23 federal agencies.

 

Now Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is demanding answers as to why the Obama administration repeatedly warned taxpayers that the $85.3 billion in spending cuts, which went into effect in March 2013, would threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs. The findings were revealed in a government watchdog report.

 

“Taxpayers expect us to root our predictions in fact, not ideology and spin,” Coburn said Wednesday in a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Matthews Burwell.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/07/despite-doomsday-predictions-sequester-cuts-only-led-to-1-layoff-in-2013/

[parrot 789]

Despite doomsday warnings from the White House and lawmakers on both sides that hundreds of thousands would lose their jobs as a result of the sequester, it turns out the budget cuts have only led to one job being lost among 23 federal agencies.

 

Now Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is demanding answers as to why the Obama administration repeatedly warned taxpayers that the $85.3 billion in spending cuts, which went into effect in March 2013, would threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs. The findings were revealed in a government watchdog report.

 

“Taxpayers expect us to root our predictions in fact, not ideology and spin,” Coburn said Wednesday in a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Matthews Burwell.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/07/despite-doomsday-predictions-sequester-cuts-only-led-to-1-layoff-in-2013/

 

So Tom Coburn thinks government spending cuts only affect government jobs?

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The White House is refusing to confirm whether President Barack Obama followed up on his pledge to take a five percent pay cut due to sequestration last year.

 

Obama promised last April to take a 5 percent pay cut in “solidarity” with federal employees who were furloughed as a result of the automatic budget cuts, known as the sequester. The cut was meant to equate to the level of spending cuts imposed on nondefense federal agencies.

 

“The president has decided that to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester, he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury,” a White House official said at the time.

 

According to his tax returns, Obama is still receiving the presidential salary of $400,000 per year. Last year, he earned $394,796 in wages from the Defense Financing and Accounting Service (DFAS-CIVPAY), which handles the salaries for civilian members of the Defense Department.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/did-the-president-take-a-pay-cut-like-he-promised-white-house-wont-say/

[Phurfur 70]

President Obama will push to "fully reverse" the so-called sequester cuts as part of his upcoming budget plan, a proposal likely to anger fiscal conservatives who want to see spending limits in place.

 

The across-the-board cuts, agreed to by both parties, have been in effect since 2013, after lawmakers were unable to produce a more strategic deficit-cutting plan. Members of both parties have problems with the cuts, which indiscriminately affect both domestic and defense programs.

 

But according to a White House official, Obama plans to call for a complete overhaul when he addresses the House Democratic Caucus in Philadelphia Thursday evening.

 

"The president will propose to end the across-the-board sequester cuts that threaten our economy and our military," the official said, adding that the budget "will fully reverse those cuts for domestic priorities," while boosting national security programs by an equal amount.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/29/obama-seeking-to-fully-reverse-sequester-cuts-in-budget-plan/

[Sho Nuff 719]