The sequester battle now raging in Washington is both a political game and a negative stroke to an already anemic economy. Americans will be losing things.
The President has made this a political fight by supporting measures to inflict as much pain as possible to the people and economy, thus allowing him and his party to blame the minority party for cuts, not only to discretionary programs but to essential and valid federal programs which serve needs of the nation and its citizens.
As a result of legislative action, the U.S. has lost, or is losing, White House tours, the ability to visit historical president sites and libraries, such as the Truman Historical Site. The Blue Angels will cancel air shows, veterans funerals will be cut to 24 per day at Arlington National Cemetery. Coast Guard rescue aircraft will fly fewer hours, thousands of veterans would not receive job counseling, there could be 2100 fewer food safety inspections, and perhaps furloughs of meat and poultry inspectors. Automatic cuts, taking place last Friday, could reduce Medicare spending. There will be fewer air traffic controllers. This will affect airports in Easton and Salisbury. However, furloughs at the Internal Revenue Service will be postponed until summer. Wonder why? Could it be income tax season? And, there are many more things that will be lost, including cuts in the Defense Department budget at a time when there is unrest and turmoil in many parts of the globe.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the sequester will take $600,000 out of government spending, including $85 billion this year. The 2 per cent increase in the payroll tax will drain approximately $110 billion from Americans disposable income and affect some 160 million workers. Gasoline prices continue to rise and in Maryland another gas tax increase appears most likely. These moves surely will not help the economy.
I can remember no time in our history when this situation has so affected the American people. And, for simply political gain and party supremacy. As historian Allen Brinkley, son of David Brinkley, has noted, the president is “only trying ultimately to protect the progressive/liberal legacy of the New Deal”. Time marches on, but this president tries to impose legislation and regulations which mimic the past and will not work in the 21st century and beyond. This position and obsession is wrongheaded and even cruel. Politics ahead of country.
Perhaps some points from the book “Are We Rome”, by Cullen Murphy may be of interest as the nation faces economic and military challenges. Murphy wrote that both the United States and Rome were “blessed and affected with a sense of exceptionalism” He further writes that “Rome eventually became dominated by fixers, flatters, and bureaucrats who clung to power”. Are these symptoms becoming rampant in America? Both America and Rome engaged in a ‘web of patronage among the connected elite”. And, Rome did not have political action committees and superPACS.
Now, I am not suggesting that the United States has reached the position in which Rome found itself during their decline, however the nation’s drift, economic stagnation and foreign entanglements may not bode well for the nation’s future.
Coupled with demographic changes, shifts in political power, controversial cultural issues and cracks appearing in our constitution should cause the nation’s leadership, and its citizens, to pause and seriously consider the future of the United States.
Not a sermon, just some observations.
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Carl Widell says
Fletcher Hall’s observations on areas President Obama has chosen to highlight with sequester cuts miss the point. In Aaron Blake’s article in the February 20th Washington Post, he points out that most sequester cuts hit education, social services, and other programs for the poor. 100% of the $38 billion for educational grants will be cut, including Pell grants and scholarships for the poor. Next come cuts to social services. Disabled services, child and welfare services, and assistance to the elderly will be cut; 38% of the $85 billion budgeted. Also cut are 100% of the regional community development funds and 100% of the $3.6 billion in community training. I assume that none of these cuts will directly affect Mr. Hall, so he may not care what happens to less fortunate citizens. Mr. Obama does care and it makes sense to me that he uses highly visible programs to highlight the unequal impact of the sequester.
Fiona Foster says
Talbot Spy is a most welcome website for local news. I am dismayed to see that there is a so-called op-ed section for rehashing tired political rhetoric; unless of course Fox News is underwriting Talbot Spy.
Carol Voyles says
It’s heartening that Republicans are lamenting the results of their refusal to adopt a balanced solution to our fiscal problems. Now all they need do is acknowledge reality.
A simple table of our spending, revenues, and deficits as a percentage of our economy provides the math. While our spending is now 2.3 percentage points above our average since 1970, – not surprising considering our longest war, deepest recession, and aging population – our deficit has risen from 1.1 percent of our economy in 1979 to 8.7 percent in 2012. Which is out of control?
We have our largest revenue gap in sixty years, and yet Republicans have taken $1.1trillion in tax entitlements that cost more than Medicare and Medicaid combined off the table. 76 percent of us want a balanced solution that includes revenue increases.