We seemed to have simply slouched our way into this, sequester thingy, with a bunch of fuss - but not much muss.
What if we never truly climb our way out of it?
What if Sequester Level spending, becomes the New Baseline?
This may have already happened, but what if from this point forward all calls for spending above sequester levels aren't considered the restoration of loss funding but are instead treated as a spending increase?
The 20% paycut to Federal Worker, like the pay freeze they've suffered under for the last few years, becomes their base pay going forward.
Some National Parks, and remote Airports become permanently closed. TSA wait times, FAA support, Food Inspection, Safety Inspection, the FBI case load, support for Military Families, the VA all simply have to find a way to "make do" and never really get back to their normal funding levels.
What if, since the only way any of this seems to be able to make an impression on Congress is for the WhiteHouse Tours to be cancelled since they are arranged through members of Congress, the actual real pain of the sequester and it's eventual impact on the economy - simply goes on and on without ever being truly addressed?
It doesn't really matter whose idea it was in the first place. It's clear that the entire point of the sequester was that it would never actually be implemented. It's was supposed to be a bluff. Let's get our fiscal problems fixed through the Super-Committee -- does anyone remember the Super-Committee? - or ELSE, this big heavy, 20 metric F#*K-ton thing comes crashing down on us all.
It was a ransom to a pack of economic hostage takers. The problem is that these guys aren't just hostage takers, their Economic Suicide Bombers. During the Election, then VP Candidate, claimed that Sequester wasn't intended to be implemented - and the fact it hasn't happened is all the Presidents blah, blah.. blah. blah blah.
He blames the Senate and President for the Sequester, saying the House passed a Budget but the Senate didn't. He doesn't mention that the Senate GOP has been Filibustering The Budget For Years. They also Filibustered the Sequester Replacement Bill. That the Super-Committee Failed because Republicans Sabotaged It with their Tax Cut Mania. What he doesn't bother to say here is that his budget voucherized Medicare, block granted Medicaid and Repealed Obamacare in exchange for bigger Defense Spending. Yet again the GOP shows their priority is to let Americans die so that they can spend more money on Killing. Remember when Reince Priebus said "Obama has the Blood of Seniors on his Hands" because of his $716 Billion in Medicare Savings, yet Paul Ryan has Kept that Savings in every one of his Budgets Since.
The fact is that GOP were threatening to destroy the countries credit rating. They actually managed to get our credit rating downgraded, remember?
The National Journal takes a close look at the S&P decision to downgrade U.S. credit. The conclusion: “It based it on the political game of chicken over the debt ceiling, a game that Republicans initiated and pushed to the limit, and on a growing gloom about the partisan deadlock. Part of S&P’s gloom, moreover, stemmed explicitly from what a new assessment of the GOP’s ability to block any and all tax increases.”
And they've been trying to swing this
Giant Hatchet of Damacles at the Budget for years. Here's Paul Ryan - singing the praises of the Sequester year, after year, after year...
They've gotten what they wanted. It's been what they've been trying to do since Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act. http://www.theatlantic.com/...
In September of 1985, three senators—Phil Gramm, R-Texas; Warren Rudman, R-N.H.; and Ernest Hollings, D-S.C.—unexpectedly offer the ugliest, stupidest bill anyone has ever seen. It proposes to set declining annual deficit targets and impose primitive across-the-board cuts ("sequestration"), as needed, to reach the goals. Rudman calls the measure "a bad idea whose time has come."
In 1985, no one liked this Frankenstein's monster, but no one could stop it, and it had a certain monstrous logic. The real aim was not to cut spending automatically or even to meet precise targets, but to use the threat of sequestration—which would brutally and mindlessly reduce both domestic and defense spending—to force the White House and Congress into deficit-reduction negotiations. In effect, the monster took the Pentagon and domestic spending hostage. "Did I ever expect it to work exactly as written?" asked Rudman in a recent interview (he is now with the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison in Washington and is co-chairman of the Concord Coalition, an anti-deficit group). "Of course not." But, he said, "it had a tremendous intimidation factor on a lot of people."
They've been trying to do this since 1985. Since
Reagan Was President. The point hasn't been to actually cut spending or Balance the Budget -
President Clinton Did that during the 90's without gaining a SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTE - it's been to transform the impact of the government in our daily lives. To remove it's power to protect us, and generate greater opportunities for
privatization, for non-union contractors to do what unionized Federal employees had been doing. For those contractor CEO's to get rich, and for their share-holders to be able to trade their company stock on the
DOW NYSE or NASDAQ.
To let a few people get Rich(er), while worker conditions and safety conditions for Americans get worse, and worse.
We have to realize that the Budget is really a proxy fight to accomplish their real goal, the further Feudalization of America. Give the Haves more and more. Give the Have Nots Bupkiss. Zilch. Reward the "Job Creators" with the greater ability to take people jobs and benefits away, give the Job Seekers Less and Less - becaUse it helps them "Build Character", or plot bloody revenge for their shattered dreams and future with a massive gun slaughter, or something...
The GOP has gotten exactly what they wanted for nearly 30 years. Why would they ever give it up now?
Vyan