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.
