Category Archives: Sequestration

Sen. Warren on Sequestration

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From boston.com:

“We seem to have a government that works only by holdout,” Warren said. “I don’t know anything more to do but get up and talk to the American people.”

She called the automatic federal spending cuts that are scheduled to take place this Friday “just plain dumb,” but offered no new hope on how to resolve a crisis that could curtail government services and kill thousands of jobs in Massachusetts.

As the sum total of Democrats and sane Republicans aren’t sufficient to carry to day talking to the American people is about all you can do at this point.  Lay the groundwork for 2014 and then do what you can to purge the obstructionists when the time comes.

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Sequestration due to take effect March 2, would cut $85.3B from 2013 federal budget

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Courtesy of Brad Plumer:

On March 2, the sequester spending cuts will start clamping down unless Congress votes to avert them. And on Friday afternoon, the White House explained just how those cuts would work.

The sequester, recall, will cut $85.3 billion from the federal budget in 2013 and affect everything except Social Security, Medicaid, a few targeted anti-poverty programs, and the ongoing wars. The Pentagon budget would face an immediate 7.3 percent cut and domestic discretionary programs would be cut by more than 5 percent.

The key feature of the cuts is that they would affect all agencies and programs equally — federal officials would not be able to pick and choose which programs get protected and which get the ax. The White House fact sheet below lists some examples of programs that would see cuts:  [Note:  Click through to Plumer’s article or on the ‘fact sheet’ link for details.]