Sequestration For Dummies (2014, agent, expenses, buying)

[Pawporri]

Let's cut these programs:

Here is a list of the areas of the government that will be affected, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. The sequester will cut $55 billion from defense in 2013 and $27 billion from the non-defense discretionary budget.

Defense
* A reduction in readiness of many non-deployed units
* Delays in investments in new equipment and facilities
* Cutbacks in equipment repairs
* Declines in military research and development efforts
* Reductions in base services for military families
Non-Defense
* Education grants to states and local school districts supporting smaller classes, after-school programs, and children with disabilities would suffer.
* Number of FBI agents, Customs and Border Patrol agents, correctional officers, and federal prosecutors would be slashed.
* FAA’s ability to oversee and manage the nation’s airspace and air traffic control would be reduced.
* Department of Agriculture’s efforts to inspect food processing plants would be curtailed.
* Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect the water we drink and the air we breathe would be degraded.
* National Institutes of Health would have to halt or curtail scientific research, including needed research into cancer and childhood diseases
* Housing programs and food assistance for low-income families would be cut


Instead of these programs:

Pork Barrel Spending - The Absurd

$107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail.
$1.2 million to study the breeding habits of the woodchuck.
$150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud.
$84,000 to find out why people fall in love.
$1 million to study why people don't ride bikes to work.
$19 million to examine gas emissions from cow flatulence.
$144,000 to see if pigeons follow human economic laws.
Funds to study the cause of rudeness on tennis courts and examine smiling patterns in bowling alleys.
$219,000 to teach college students how to watch television.
$2 million to construct an ancient Hawaiian canoe.
$20 million for a demonstration project to build wooden bridges.
$160,000 to study if you can hex an opponent by drawing an X on his chest.
$800,000 for a restroom on Mt. McKinley.
$100,000 to study how to avoid falling spacecraft.
$16,000 to study the operation of the komungo, a Korean stringed instrument.
$1 million to preserve a sewer in Trenton, NJ, as a historic monument.
$6,000 for a document on Worcestershire sauce.
$10,000 to study the effect of naval communications on a bull's potency.
$100,000 to research soybean-based ink.
$1 million for a Seafood Consumer Center.
$57,000 spent by the Executive Branch for gold-embossed playing cards on Air Force Two.
Total: $ 45,980,000

[bmw335xi]

Why not do both and let the bush tax cuts expire? That would be best.

[CaptainNJ]

you do realize that your "absurd" list doesnt really amount to much right? it all should be cut, but you need to attack bigger items to make a dent in our tremendous budget.

the sequester is happening, instead of trying to change it; government should just deal with it. i dont want any deals to end it. its done, leave it be. the military could be cut in half and we would be fine. there is only 1 country our military needs to defend, we dont need bases around the world, we dont need to fight wars in other countries and we dont need 11 carrier groups.

and of course eventually they will need to tackle social security and medicare because those will kill us by themselves before too long.

[cdelena]

The president cannot stop the cuts but can use executive authority to change where, when, and what is cut. Here is a guy than has chosen to selectively enforce many laws, it is no problem for him to avoid large and immediate impacts.

[andywire]

Sequestration won't hold a candle to the damage inflicted by Obummer care starting 2014. Thank goodness we passed the bill so we could find out what' inside And still, nobody seems to know.

[Pawporri]

Originally Posted by CaptainNJ

you do realize that your "absurd" list doesnt really amount to much right? it all should be cut, but you need to attack bigger items to make a dent in our tremendous budget.

the sequester is happening, instead of trying to change it; government should just deal with it. i dont want any deals to end it. its done, leave it be. the military could be cut in half and we would be fine. there is only 1 country our military needs to defend, we dont need bases around the world, we dont need to fight wars in other countries and we dont need 11 carrier groups.

and of course eventually they will need to tackle social security and medicare because those will kill us by themselves before too long.

It's only the "absurd" list. There is a lot more including the congressional "pet" list. All toll, we are talking over 200 billion - twice as much as the sequester list. I'm with you, leave it be but the Boy King will use it as a weapon to hurt those on his enemies list. BTW he says he is not a dictator. Shades of Nixon - "I am not a crook !"
No Democrat or Republican has the backbone to tackle social security/welfare reform. To the contrary, they are repealing Clinton's workfare aspect of welfare requiring people to work before becoming eligible for welfare. When you are buying votes with tax dollars "work" is a dirty word and pork = Santa Claus.

[Willy702]

Fact is money spent for useful or not so useful means generally provides jobs and economic activity. Same for most military expenses. The economic effect that so spooks the market and many pundits isn't going to change much if they cut a deal for more palatable cuts than what is going into effect. The only thing which will impact the economy less is simple: increase taxes on higher income earners instead of cutting spending. Yes tax changes can modestly reduce economic activity as well, but the effect is far less than putting people out of work and telling them what they are doing is not going to be funded anymore.

Whether that is acceptable or not from a political or philosophical standpoint is another discussion.

[pgm123]

I'm trying to find more information about those items on the absurd list. I found one source that puts it in the 2003 budget. I found the quail one separately (it's a study on the effects of drugs on sex drive, it seems), so that one is more recent.

Technically, earmarks have been more or less banned since 2010 (with a few exceptions). This is talking about specific requests by a Senator for a contract in his district that gets around the normal bidding process. So, what people tend to think is pork, is really something else.

I wonder if this is the wood bridge study? National Center for Wood Transportation Structures (NCWTS)
I found the Trenton one (maybe) from 1980.
Found the cards. http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1987/Se...05f485cec0337a
Damn, Vice President George HW Bush...
Ah, the tv-watching one: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...ducation&hl=en

The problem with these lists is they mostly seem to be quoting from each other, so it's really hard to track down a news release about the original story.

Edit: I'm not sure when that Soy Ink study was funded, but it seems now that a quarter of all commercial printers use soy ink. Money well-spent?

[shaker281]

Yes, extremely difficult to figure out which individual or party is responsible for anything on that absurd list. But some of those items go back to the 1990s, possibly even earlier. The playing cards for instance appear to be $10K a year, not $57K in a single (current) year. Apparently, every president for the past 20 years have been handing them out as party favors.

It is safe to assume these pork barrel projects are handed out on both sides of the aisle to get votes and endorsements and contributions.

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by shaker281

It is safe to assume these pork barrel projects are handed out on both sides of the aisle to get votes and endorsements and contributions.

when politicians are negotiating legislation, most americans think that they are negotiating on behalf of the best interests of americans that support a certain viewpoint. however, they are really negotiating their own waste be put into the legislation. "if you give me a million for a museum in my district, ill support a million for a road in your district."