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| It can't get worst than this ... right? |
Well, the dreaded spending cuts have finally arrived. President Barack Obama and the Senate could have potentially made a compromise to deal with these reductions, but perhaps unsurprisingly, they didn't. Now these cuts will hold back economic recovery and perhaps even worse. Not only is our country's economy damaged, but our national security could also be in dire jeopardy. The influence of these cuts are not immediate, but they are coming. Reuters quotes President Obama as saying that "not everyone will feel the pain of these cuts right away. The pain through will be real. Beginning this week, many middle-class families will have their lives disrupted in significant ways."
Half of the $85 billion cuts will be on the back of the Pentagon. The other cuts will also lead to meat shortages, delays in air-traffic, and losses to federal contractors. All this and perhaps more is necessary to deal with the $16 trillion debt that burdens the United States of America. Meanwhile, in Congress, the blame game continues. The New York Times reports that John Boehner responded to reporters with "The revenue issue is now closed ... how much ore money do we want to steal from the American people to fund more government." Democratic Representative Steve Israel was not impressed. He said that "John Boehner consistently paints himself into a corner and traps himself on cliffs, and that's been teh story of the speakership." Certainly Boehner might have been able to do a better job, but the truth is that neither side seems willingly to budge. Interestingly, Sen. Orrin Hatch feels he has a more reasonable spending cut plan, which he talks about here.
The President has given an official statement on the Sequester, which can be read here. If you squint, you might be able to make out some well-hidden criticism of Congress. An example of which is when the president noted that "So I recognize that Speaker Boehner has got challengers in his caucus. I recognize that it's very hard for Republican leaders to be perceived as making concessions to me."
Do you feel these cuts will benefit America in the long-run? Is there truly a better plan than the one being implemented? Will Congress ever gets its act together? Feel free to express your opinions.
1 comment:
I was hoping that if compromise did not come in time, then the cuts would at least act as a rude awakening for our polarized government and perhaps lead it to seriously rethink its position. Unfortunately, I am quite disappointed by the way congress is dealing with the cuts. I understand that it's almost a necessity to find someone other than yourself to blame when there is a problem this big (since doing otherwise would be political suicide), but the politicization of a real and serious problem should be unacceptable. Even though I am mad about this "blame game", I'm sure we'll get through this. It's not like politicizing serious problems is uncommon or anything (e.g. global warming). I just wish it didn't have to be this way.
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