Furlough Fridays

For most people, Friday is the favorite day of the work week.  Fridays often have a special significance, and therefore, earn special names.  Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Christ, while the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday, the first day of the Christmas shopping season.  Thanks to the inability of President Obama and Congress to reach agreements on budget cuts and government spending, we now have Furlough Fridays.

In my neck of the woods, the Department of the Army is the largest employer.  Department of Defense employees, for example, will be furloughed one day a week for 11 weeks and some services at military installations will be scaled back to accommodate the budget cuts. Most of the employees will see a 20% reduction in pay due to the sequestration.  Many local businesses are being affected by these cuts since a 20% pay cut means less money to be spent in the local economy.  The local military installation has reduced staffing at entrance gates and closes many of the gates on Fridays.  This resulted in long traffic lines for people trying to get to their jobs on the installation which prompted the local media to coin the term Furlough Friday.

Congress passed, and the President signed into law, the Budget Control Act of 2011 to avert the debt ceiling crisis.  The legislation established a bipartisan committee to produce deficit reduction legislation by November 23, 2011.  If Congress failed to produce a deficit reduction bill with at least $1.2 trillion in cuts over ten years, then mandatory across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, would begin on January 1, 2013.  In order to avert the fiscal cliff, yet another potential financial crisis, Congress passed and the President signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.  This postponed the sequestration until March 1.  We are now feeling the effects of the sequestration.

The $85.4 billion sequestration cuts are split evenly between defense and non-defense spending, although Social Security and Medicaid, which account for more than 1/3 of federal spending, are exempt from the sequestration.  The $85.4 billion, while it is a start towards deficit reduction, isn’t even enough to cover the interest on the US debt, nor is it a sustainable reduction.  It does nothing to reform entitlement spending and does not force Congress or Obama to address meaningful cuts in other areas.  And to pile on the misery, one of the top Democrats in the House said recently that his party should be willing to shut down the government this fall unless the spending cuts brought on by sequestration are ended.

Although sequestration was a step towards spending cuts, it was an idea that came out of Obama’s White House with the intention to force Republicans to negotiate, not to actually put the cuts into effect.  It was, in effect, a game to see which side would back down.  And Republican leaders agreed to the sequestration idea.  Instead of smart reductions, we have a meat cleaver approach to budget cutting.  Not all budget items are equal.  Some government offices are fiscally responsible and provide a quality service that meets the demands of this country.  Others are outdated, inefficient, redundant, or simply no longer needed.  Yet, when simply taking a percentage off the top of everyone’s budget, realigning the services to the demands of this country was not addressed.  Just like budgeting in our own homes, there is give and take to live within the amount we have available.  Demands change over time and trades must be made.  Instead of meaningful change, we have sequestration that takes money out of our pockets, provides fewer services, and stifles our economy. 

It’s time for Congress and the President to stop playing political games that affect peoples’ lives and their livelihoods.  Smart deficit reduction is needed because the country can’t sustain trillion dollar deficits forever.  We need reforms in entitlement programs, the tax code, and government programs.  I believe each and every government department and program should be reviewed to determine its purpose, its cost, and its benefit to the country as a whole.  Meaningful reduction will be painful and unpopular, but, in the long run, will contribute to the economic stability and security of the country.

Contact your Congressman (http://www.house.gov/), your Senators (http://www.senate.gov/), and the President (www.whitehouse.gov) and tell them to stop playing games and start creating meaningful, long-term solutions.  We simply can’t afford any more games.