Tag: sequestration

Who to blame for the sequester

Who to blame for the sequester

Today’s question seems to be: Who is to blame for the sequester? And the answer most people will reach very much depends on personal beliefs.

Democrats blame Republicans and Republicans blame Democrats. John Boehner has called it, “the president’s sequester”. And it is commonly called the Obamaquestor (hashtag #Obamaquester on Twitter).

But according to factcheck.org a member of President Obama’s administration did first propose the sequester idea but it was supposed to be a such a bad thing that Congress would be forced to find the deficit reduction required by Congressional Republicans to to increase the debt ceiling. This Budget Control Act passed on a bipartisan basis so it would seem silly to me to say that the sequester belongs to one side or the other.

Sequester and Heath care reform (aka ObamaCare)

Sequester and Heath care reform (aka ObamaCare)

Just 2 short notes today.

1. The Sequester is nearly upon us. The consequences have been much covered in the press. Long lines at airport security, cut-backs in air traffic control, military cuts, fewer food inspections, and many more. Additionally the cut-backs seem likely to hurt the economy which is only slowly recovering from the recession.

I see little movement toward a solution. In fact, both house of Congress took a week off last week, leaving only a few days to solve this.

2. Heath care reform (aka ObamaCare) is in place. Some find aspects they dislike or that they think will harm the economy. The only call I hear from these groups is “repeal” or “repeal and replace”. Since we have already passed health care reform and it has passed constitutional muster, why not work to fix those part that you disagree with?

When the going gets tough, Congress gets going

When the going gets tough, Congress gets going

We avoided the fiscal cliff at the beginning of the year by just delaying the massive budget cuts known as sequestration.

So now that the delay is almost up and we have less than 2 weeks to solve the problem (or delay again) was does Congress do? They leave town (go into recess) for a week.

The old saying is “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Does this mean our Congress is tough?