Winged Wheeler

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-c...r-cut-debt.png

WW

Red Forman

I was surprised when I woke up yesterday and the world had not come to an end as we knew it. We almost didn't get through that one, just like Y2K and the end of the Mayan calander.

jungle

I am very happy we have people to create these problems for us and then announce a resolution to create more and larger problems.

That is true progress.

NC Pilot

The best thing to do would be to lay off the entire congress. I really think that the country would function much better without them.

Grumble

Stand by, March 27th we may all get that wish.

MongoPawnInLife

I'll laugh my butt off if the sequester is fully implemented and it ends up having zero negative impact on the US economy.
The Dems have gone from calling it doomsday/armageddon to very painful to inconvenient to 'just dumb'.
This is a 2.2% cut in government spending. Put that in terms of your personal budget. If you make $52,000/yr, you'd have to reduce your spending by $22/week. What are we talking about? 3 less cups of fufu coffee at Starbucks every week? Brown bagging it to work once a week (for cubicle dwellers)?
For my income (higher income level), it would mean that I'd have one less meal in a nice restaurant/wk with my wife.

I like the way that Charles Krauthammer summed it up: That a government now borrowing 35 cents of every dollar it spends reduces that borrowing by two cents "and nothing bad really happens." Oh, the humanity!
Charles Krauthammer: Sequestation Armageddon came and skies did not fall - LA Daily News

$85 billion is a LOT of money. But it's a drop in the bucket when your budget is $3.8 trillion.

N9373M

Despite the fact 88% of stats are made up, here's my take as a fed. I'm looking at 26 furlough days between April and the end of the FY, or one day a week. That's a 20% cut to me. It also messes with alot of HR stuff (service computation dates, leave accrual, TSP, TSP matching, and my insurance rates stay the same - so it's actually > 20%)

FY2014 is said to be worse. It's a big picture (2.2% national)/small picture (20% ME) cut.

galaxy flyer

N9373M

Yes, BUT, do you really believe the ONLY way to handle this is via furloughs of "essential" Federal employees? There are huge programs that duplicate or overlap in the USG, to the tune by some calculations $300 billion worth. The whole deal is just a political sham.

Full Disclosure: I was a Federal employee (military tech) during the '90s shutdowns, laid off people in my office, etc.

GF

N9373M

Of course not, cuts need to be surgical, not across the board - waste, duplicity and pork need to go. I have been a Fed since 1992 and have come to the conclusion that: "There is no place for politics in government"

jungle

You have my sympathy, and I wish you had been treated better.

There was much debate on this cut and much opportunity to cut the real pure fat from what should be a budget, but for whatever reason this was not done.

Debt is not a problem as long as you can issue it at near zero interest, but should the interest rate rise out of control it can quickly balloon to the greatest expense in the entire budget. Interest now consumes a bit over 6% of the budget, a few points rise in rates could make it larger than the entire military budget, a few more points and it becomes the primary cost for the entire budget.

On the other hand, the treasury issued 80 billion in new debt in a single day on 2/28/13, so in effect we have not cut at all for all of the kabuki that went on.

Not sure why a sound currency is ever allowed to be a football to be played with.