Sequestration Schmequestration

You can't pick up the paper or turn on the news today without hearing about "Sequestration".  Sequestration is a series of across the board budget cuts tied to the expiration of the nation's temporary budget and temporary debt ceiling.  The cuts will total $1.2 trillion over a ten year period.  The cuts would be split 50-50 between the defense department and domestic discretionary spending.   It was created as a way to force Congress to take action to reduce the spending deficit.  At the time the law was passed Congress never thought we would get to the point of sequestration.  We have known sequestration was imminent for the past year.

So here we are at the deadline, and our elected leaders are incapable or unwilling to take the necessary steps to balance the budget.   Anywhere they cut funding someone is going to be unhappy, and they are just unwilling to man up to that.  So they do nothing, the economy suffers,  and they point fingers at each other.

In the meantime February unemployment  dropped to 7.7%, the lowest since December of 2008.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been at record highs.  Now keep in mind that 70% of the U.S. economy is dependent on consumer spending.   It appears the economy is showing some real signs of recovery and our Congress deals us another wound by allowing these cuts to take place.  Private forecasters predict that economic growth  this year will slow 0.5 percentage points.

Well, I thought about that and .............. I think we have a government that is reluctant to govern.   We elect politicians who tell us what their research says we want to hear.  Once elected they do what they want or what they think will get them reelected when the time comes.   They cry wolf at anything that may happen, so we will be agreeable to what they want.  They will select cuts that will be visible and painful to make sure we will submit.

We need statesmen and not politicians.  We need men and women who will make the difficult choices.  We need to be informed and involved in our democratic process.  I've found that in life we have to take responsibility for our destiny.  We cannot leave it to another.