sequester... why is it going to cause all these problems?

The president and media continue to harp on all the cuts the sequester will cause.
1 day off without pay for civil service, thousands on military personel let go, weapon systems gutted, teachers laid off, lunch programs for the children drastically cut, meals on wheels reduced budget by millions, and on and on.

As I understand it the sequester is simply a reduction in the increase of the spending...say from 4% instead of 5%. There is no actual reduction in spending compared to this year or last year. In fact there is still an increase in gov't spending and not a cut, and this increase is actually higher than inflation.

I guess I just don't understand why spending 4% more money over the current spending will lead to cuts in all these things "they" say. Someone please explain that to me cause I am totally baffled.

You apparently missed a couple of threads addressing this issue already. Basically, it's all political garbage on both sides of the aisle where each party wants to advance their own agenda.

http://www.eccie.net/showthread.php?t=677865

http://www.eccie.net/showthread.php?t=678715

The fact that the Republicans have not pointed out there are no actual cuts and that Federal spending is so much higher as a percentage of GNP than at any time since we have been in a full-on war makes me think the GOP is complicit in the idea of having a "Big Brother" government.

Now that is one run on sentence! Going to make some coffee now.

Well at least half of the republicans are in the tank for Obama. With spending comes power and as long as they can keep on increasing their spending, they believe they are increasing their power. One of these days, people will wake up to this fact and find representatives that actually are good stewards of our taxes and stop the quest for power through spending our money.

the problem is this:

obama and his alcolytes have cried the sky is falling

if it doesn't fall, if the american people feel no pain, if miraculously, by some Devine intervention, or if you prefer, blind luck, life goes blithely on

well obama's spending plans may begin to look foolish, his raison d'etre, so to speak, loses lustre

how can democrat after democrat, especially obama's cabinet and obama himself, warn and wail and lament and bemoan and then continue to have face should there be no problem?

so the problem we will have and why the sequester may well be a problem is obama will be sure to make it a problem

by evil contrivance we most likely will have problems

he will make you feel the pain and the MSM will report all the pain

Why don't the "people" understand this is not a spending cut and that even it the sequester happens there is still more money than ever before being spent by the government. How can they not get pissed off at the blantant mistruths being said about the dire consequences of the sequester. Or is it that ObamaCare will take up such a large chunk of the new spending that in order to implement that program (which by the way has not helped me, has not lowered my insurance rates, nor improved my medical care) they will have to take the cuts out of the military, aid to the old and to the children.

It's really nothing more than evidence that our country is folding up like a cheap lounge chair. The direct result of self indulgent, incompetant asswipes commonly known as Politicians that can't run their own lives worth a shit, but think they should run ours.

That is awesome COG! Especially the last 2 sentences.

+1

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

+1

Under the viciously harsh austerity projected to occur after the terms of the sequester are imposed, the U.S. government next year will be spending only about 30% more than it did in FY2007.

Isn't it therefore easy to see why everything is likely to fall apart?

Daddy Obama and the Democrats want something to bludgeon the Republicans with. The national media are just providing the venue for the bludgeoning.