So here we are today, standing in the wake of a situation that many thought would never actually happen, Sequestration. The automatic spending cuts, put in place by the Budget Control Act of 2011, were signed into law rather begrudgingly by President Obama and are set to roughly cut 85 billion dollars from the budget within the next 7 months for the 2013 year.
We all know the story behind the point of implementing sequestration in the first place: they were designed, arbitrary cuts put into place as a sort of "carrot on a stick" to force congress and the president to agree on a budget and defecit reduction plan so these mindless cuts would not go into affect. But, due to the polarizing nature of politics in Washington today, they did.
Now, we will soon be inundated with articles and speculation on how the cuts will work and who will be affected. Also, we might be tempted to think in the long term, that the cuts might actually be a good thing. Regardless of politics, we do need to spend less money and if this is the only way, then so be it. Furthermore, you might think, maybe this would be a great way to entice the Federal Government to stop being so wasteful and re prioritize its thinking on some issues. Budget black holes like prohibition and the Drug War come to mind or having the Justice Department go after alleged hackers, because we all know there are bigger fish to be had.
Despite my agreement with the aforementioned mentality, the problem is that these cuts are arbitrary, they are mindless and a lot of good things might be undone and some bad may not. Combat readiness for our troops, the Pentagon has already established, will be one. Maintenance of military equipment will be another. So just as mindless as the cuts were, the agencies and branches of the government affected might have to be equally as mindless due to the quick time frame of the cuts. It is also very easy to think that these cuts might be a good thing, when you are assuming that you will not be affected. There will be job losses, employee furloughs and more. So why did this happen?
These cuts came to life because we are truly bereft of leadership in Washington. This isn't an all out attack on the president or just congress, but on all parties. It is an indictment on the fact that too many of our elected representatives truly lacked the stones to come to the bargaining table and make concessions to one another while possibly drawing the ire of those in their own party for merely acting on behalf of the greater good. Party politics rules the day in America's current political climate that that is made ever so apparent now.
Also the nature of sequestration in some ways, absolves our elected representatives of any responsibility. Since it wasn't any one person's doing or a bill targeted at cutting funding for X program, most can just point the finger at the other and then wash their hands of it. After all, at the end of the day, they wont be suffering. But we will.
So it is my recommendation to Americans everywhere, that we just act as arbitrary as these cuts: every person currently serving in congress gets voted against during the next election, regardless of your party affiliation or loyalty. Why? Don't let the rhetoric fool you, everyone who signed the Budget Control Act is to blame and everyone currently serving is to blame. So, yes that means McConnell and Boehner, Pelosi and Reid. Let's get some new leadership. They chose party over the greater good. The question to ask is, how many times must this happen until you are willing to rise above the politics and do something for the greater good?
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