By Steve For weeks, the news has presented non-stop information on how we got into this “sequestration” and who is to blame. The political parties have trumpeted that they’re right and the other guy is wrong. Meanwhile, we’re left to pick our way through the damage… if we can figure out what it will be In this Article, I’ll seek to give you a more on the ground view of what we might expect in the months to come if the current sequestration policy remains in place.
First of all, “sequestration”is simply the name given to a mandatory across-the-board cut in federal spending exempting only a small handful of social safety net programs. It was never intended to take effect but rather was designed by our leaders in Washington to create an alternative so bad, that it would force them to cooperate with each other in solving our nation’s financial problems. Unfortunately, it was too optimistic to expect that our leaders could set-aside their political fighting and instead work together to forge a mutually-acceptable plan. I still believe that they can and eventually will get there, but in the meantime, there will be pain.
The sequester requires $85.4 Billion in cuts this year spread out as follows:
Defense – $42.7 Billion (7.9%)
Domestic Programs – $28.7 Billion (5.3%)
Medicare – $9.9 Billion (2%)
Other mandatory cuts – $4 Billion
The administrators running each of those government departments will have the discretion as to how those cuts will be made within their agencies. Here is an analysis of specifics put out by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB):
Defense:
– Aircraft purchases by the Air Force and Navy are cut by $3.5 billion.
– Military operations across the services are cut by about $13.5 billion.
– Military research is cut by $6.3 billion.
– State Department diplomatic functions are cut by $650 million
Domestic and Other Mandatory Cuts:
Public Safety:
– Border security is cut by about $581 million.
– Immigration enforcement is cut by about $323 million.
– Airport security is cut by about $323 million.
– Public housing support is cut by about $1.94 billion.
– The FDA is cut by $206 million.
– FEMA’s disaster relief budget is cut by $375 million.
– The FBI gets cut by $480 million.
– The federal prison system gets cut by $355 million.
– The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is cut by $55 million
– The Energy Department’s program for securing our nukes is cut by $650 million..
– The SEC is cut by $75.6 million.
Education:
– Head Start gets …read more
Leave a Reply