Just a sampling here of spending cuts (sequester) brought on by Washington’s failure to make a deal:
- Cut more than $400 million from Head Start, forcing roughly 70,000 children out of the program.
- Slash nearly $725 million from Title I — the largest federal education program (schools serving more than 1 million disadvantaged students must find other sources to pay for teachers and tutors.)
- Equipment and staffing needs for police and fire departments cut by more than $35 million.
- Furloughs in the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration would mean more delayed flights and even longer wait times at the airport.
- Cut funding to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, resulting in more than 2,100 fewer food inspections.
- Home-delivered meals to the elderly cut by more than $43 million.
- More than 830,000 fewer workers receive services, such as job training, provided by the Labor Department’s Employment Services Operations and Job Corps.
Source: Center for American Progress
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65 Responses to The Look of Sequester
Now on The Trail
them sidewindin’, hornswaggling, bush-whacking congress critters! what good are they not working but half a week if that and the little they do not worth a hill of beans. wait, they are a hill of beans. bean heads, every gol-darn last one of them.
durn, dang and drat it all!
psst, sturge, your sam harris link doesn’t work.
Only the 3rd & 4th of the above matter at all to the RW idiots in Congress -- the rest don’t affect their constituents -- or so they must think -- and the third isn’t really important to them. Don’t pass any legislation restricting gun acquisition, cut funding to crime prevention and response …. no problem.
If you are in some way disadvantaged it looks like sequester is going to effect you disproportionately.
Small wonder that republicans aren’t anxious to do anything about it.
Of all of the cuts, the most concern to me is the lesser food inspections…who is going to mislabel my seafood? Make me think I am eating Cod instead of bottom feeders from Egypt.
sequester BS, I can only go to someone who I trust and that’s Elizabeth Warren.
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) condemned the possibility of sequestration and urged her fellow lawmakers on Monday to reach a deal to avoid the automatic spending cuts.
…Warren described the sequester as “just plain dumb,”
Warren also conveyed her disgust for how negotiations in Washington work.
We seem to have a government that works only by holdout,” she said, according to the Globe. “I don’t know anything more to do but get up and talk to the American people.”
Yep, she’s got their number.
Most of those people need to be looking for work next election go round. We could do it. Don’t worry about them though, they have enough of our money socked away to get by.
Don’t know what happened there. My link got attached to that blue stuff I wrote there. To see the article, clink on it.
Jamie,
Thanks for the Van Cliburn vid. in the previous thread.
How fitting.
The baby boom generation is retiring, somewhat sooner than expected for many, and NOW the can’ts want to cut food and medical attempt to the elderly? The same party of punitive, old white men, did the same to the mentally ill during Reagan’s terms. Now we arm the mentally ill. A mess for sure, but if you concentrate on humans and their needs especially in old age…the problem will resolve itself.
If I were overly religious or superstitious, I might think it appears Richard Nixon has reincarnated as the soul of the republican’t party. Tricky Dick is getting his revenge on the hippies!
“Cut more than $400 million from Head Start, forcing roughly 70,000 children out of the program.
Slash nearly $725 million from Title I — the largest federal education program (schools serving more than 1 million disadvantaged students must find other sources to pay for teachers and tutors.)”
Perhaps what we need is a children’s march on Washington. Right to the steps of the capitol.
Maybe we could serve them hot lunch from the congressional dining rooms.
The hypocrisy of the can’ts is alarming…always claiming they are looking out for their children’s future? Freaks…young humans of today are suffering from the can’ts knife. A strong country needs healthy and educated youngsters. Instead, we have the highest rate of child abuse, hunger in America, education cuts across the board — all because of the stingy can’ts. Save the real money for the wealthy. History will be very unkind to the obstructionists.
And the baby boom generation retiring…didn’t the can’ts see that coming? That huge population bulge that has been with us for 65 years or so? Clueless Cant’s!!
Listening to Van Cliburn play anything by Beethoven always gave me chills… R.I.P.
I wish I could be as outraged as I think I should be over the sequester… but I will admit, at this point, I’m sick and tired of being outraged over the obstructionist Repubs.
I haven’t voted for one since before Bush… and unless they change back into a reasonable party, I’ll never vote for one again.
Let’s play Sequester Roulette.
Find the dumbest cuts.
Here’s another:
Childhood vaccinations don’t just save lives; they save money too
I appreciate the use of the word “Washington’s” in the topic and not “Republican’s” and/or “Democrat’s”. Both Parties seem more than willing to reap this shameful incident for political hay, rather than actually doing their jobs and finding solutions.
Republicans continue to be the usual suspects in deliberate governmental ineffectiveness ( call them what they are -- jealous brats ). Democratic leadership has failed time and again to seize golden opportunities to crush the obstructionists. Are the Dems using this -- letting the GOP’s rope get longer and longer with which to hang itself, at the expense of real statemanship -- as their political strategy? Kick the chair out from under their feet, please. Then clean up the mess and remember you work for us.
Chris Elliott’s “FDR -- A One Man Show” has a scene in which Bob Elliott plays a make-up artist. Between scenes, Chris ( FDR) and Bob are making small talk. The camera lingers on Bob. After a couple minutes, Chris asks, “How do I look?” To which Bob answers, “You look great. (beat…beat…)Wilkommen.” Cut to Chris, utterly clueless. He has been made up to look like Joel Grey’s character in Cabaret.
Be careful where you place your trust. Wilkommen.
Key concepts in “liberal” economics:
(1) Government spending can stimulate a weak economy.
And conversely…
(2) Reducing government spending in a weak economy will make it worse.
All those idiots out there who call themselves “conservatives” but are directly or indirectly affected by government spending (which is, of course, ALL OF THEM) are about to get a lesson in “liberal” economics.
Senator Mark Warner calls out the cuts.
“I don’t think the public realizes how stupid these cuts are. In many places we will end up cutting things that will cost the taxpayer more money than the cuts.”
Warner is one whose state the White House warned would be disproportionately affected by the cuts.
Jason Furman, the deputy director of the Obama administration’s National Economic Council, told reporters on a conference call Sunday that the cuts could compromise some military readiness in Virginia. About 90,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed, and maintenance on 11 ships could be canceled, Furman said.
Warner gave three examples of how he said the cuts would affect his state — “975 separate line items” would be cut. It would also have to cut some long-term contracts with ship- and plane-builders, which Warner said would end up costing the state more. And it would have to cut back some National Institute of Health grants, meaning the price of meat could rise.”
Bob Woodward, trying to save himself from oblivion, has merely made himself the Fu-ked up news poster boy.
The Credit Report You Never Knew You Had, And How It Can Victimize You
February 28, 2013
Natalie Martin has a post up at Credit Slips about an paper by Ginger Chouinard on a form of credit reporting that has managed to remain beneath the policy radar despite its considerable importance, and how it can do even more harm that the sort we’ve all come to know and hate.
This is Martin’s overview:
nearly 90% of financial institutions use ChexSystems or similar reports in their account opening process, yet they are under no duty to disclose this to consumers until an account is denied due to information contained in the report. For those consumers denied accounts, it is too late. They had no idea information was being collected on their checking account usage, much less that it could be used to deny them an account in the future, and are subsequently forced to go outside the mainstream and use expensive alternatives like check cashing services and money orders to conduct their everyday financial business…
Unlike credit reports, little positive account information is included in an account screening report. The report provides no account details such as where the consumer has had a checking accounts, account opening dates, or voluntary account closure dates. With respect to account usage, the report essentially contains only negative information such as involuntary account closures or returned check information. For example, a consumer may have successfully managed the checking accounts for 20 years. After a job layoff, the consumer may have had his/her checking account closed for a negative balance. The report for this consumer would just show that closure and not the fact that the consumer had been a responsible checking account user for most of his or her financial life.
And the article itself makes clear these reports are very powerful:
Toots is working directly with in-trouble school kids, mostly high school, trying to design educational programs of any sort that will thrill the children and potential employers. These kids have no desire in going to college.
I’ve made substantial, for me, contributions to this non-governmental program which does receive limited federal grant funding to partially pay staff salaries. And, I’m not alone in supporting this program. But the schools, which had agreed to pick-up 30-pct of direct costs within their walls, have often pleaded poverty. The sequestration is not going to make this better.
Only Democracy Now has done any real reporting on the current pope’s resignation. Everyone else is just a happy spectator --the networks use their Catholic correspondents to be cheerleaders at the event. Cokie Roberts is a blithering idiot
If you want a completely different picture. Listen to Amy Goodman’s interview with Mathew Fox.
CNN has rendered itself more unwatchable then fox.
I watched ‘the other Colbert’ being interviewed by Chuck Todd on MSNBC this morning. What a dismal candidate. It sounded as if she was a POW determined to provide nothing but name, rank, service number, and date of birth.
In the SF Bay area meals on wheels in just one county would be providing 285 less meals aday — these go to indigent home bound seniors — good job congress figured out a way to kill people without the death panels
Flatus says:
02/28/2013 at 11:55 AM
I watched ‘the other Colbert’ being interviewed by Chuck Todd on MSNBC this morning. What a dismal candidate. It sounded as if she was a POW determined to provide nothing but name, rank, service number, and date of birth.
If I were being interviewed by Chuck Load the Toad that’s about what I would say
IMO, the real shame of this sequester is what it will do to children…. and this country will feel those effects for years to come.
Flatus… even if she were a dynamo… would she really have a chance as a Democrat in your state…
What she has to do, to be elected, is give a strong Blue Dog message to the people of the 1st Cong Dist.
Certainly she could have reassured people on both sides by articulating a grown-up, I’m here to do business, and here’s how I’m going to do it, message.
Instead, she came across as a cretin.
KGC…
it sounds like you don’t get MSNBC in your area. If so, that’s too bad. Yeah… I know they still have Tweety, but some of their daytime programming is excellent, IMO. Hosts such as Alex Wagner and Tamron Hall are so much better, IMO, than anyone over at CNN
RR, I agree. And the young man from Columbia is an excellent interviewer; his name escapes me. He’s destined for bigger things.
Later--He’s Craig Melvin. One day he was doing the local news on channel 10, and the next he was national.
RR
We don’t get MSNBC and we miss Rachael and the Chris Hays show..with CNN having rendered itself ridiculous we don’t watch any of the cable news programs except Democracy Now
and we watch ABC nightly new because I am forever astonished
at what a fake empath Diane Sawyer is…..now that is someone who is truly ridiculous.
Greetings from the desert. Not In My Backyard! Our Pinal County Sheriff is livid over the sequester reduction by ICE which resulted in 500 immigrants in AZ being released yesterday (back into the desert?). Cuts are perfectly ok until it hits in one’s backyard. And, if the sheriff is ticked off, the Governor is having an absolute hissy-fit. Let the fun begin!
eProf,
Your guv is so, um, animated
eProf,
Your guv is so, um, animated Smile
is she pointing her finger at herself this time?
some more beethoven for renee
and a comment on the issue of today
“Pathétique”
My latest banana trees ready for spring planting (Trail Mix Southern Command, Orlando) … click to enlarge:
I started looking for some Fidelio but came across Lenny doing Mahler’s numero uno instead.
As an outsider looking in, I just shake my head at the idiocy of congress. Haven’t they seen what austerity has done in Europe? The UK is in TRIPLE-dip recession. You can’t grow a changing economy by slashing spending. But GOP knows that. They don’t give a rat’s ass.
Congress doesn’t care if you eat adulterated food
patd… thanks for that interlude with Beethoven…. toooo funny…
Congress doesn’t care if we eat cake…
beautiful eden you’ve got there, craig.
and the banana trees are nice too. can’t wait to see the exotic blooms and luscious fruit. but for now…
Are you telling us that when we click on the pic of the banana it grows bigger ? Some kinda voudou at work there.
Poor Bob Woodward needs an enema sooooooo bad !
Time for some 18th c diddle diddle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3kQZBh3NJU
Illustrated with 16th & 17th c paintings.
The only Bob Woodward I like is Robert Redford
Who was complaining about the fish?
Schubert’s Trout will fix that:
KB-N2
Craig
Love your Florida greenery.. Amazing little tree’s you have there..
From Reporter to Economic Activist, Bob Woodward In White House Crosshairs [Email Text]
by Taylor Marsh
Practicing random acts of kindness Redwood Credit Union stopped by the Santa Rosa Farmers Market and paid for people’s groceries.
The market has no association with them at all, did not know they were coming and it was the most wonderful surprise for everyone. It was a great way to support local Sonoma businesses and give back they said.
Bob Woodward is and always has been a conservative
and while he might have been a decent reporter once he is nothing but a pompous stuffed shirt who cherry picks facts to support his own story line.
He was quite the reporter during the run up to Iraq next to Judith Miller he might look good --another fox favorite these days
Flatus,
The Mahler hit me where I live.
Thanks
Crooks and Liars featuring Woodward…a perfect fit
So there was a media kerfuffle hyped by the wingnuts yesterday, which featured none other than Bob Woodward, who’s been a dangerous Villager buffoon for a very long time. He claimed he was threatened by the White House over his ridiculous piece on the sequester.
Syria, sequester, immigration, climate change and gun violence, oh did I mention unemployment?
I am so certain that threatening Bob Woodward is very high on the White House priority list just now.
Really Bob, you need to stop taking yourself so seriously, nobody else does.
Woodward is the next “douche bag of liberty*”
* John Stewart’s pet name for Robert Novack
“douche bag of liberty*”
KGC,
I love it when you talk dirty.
That’s always been one of my favorite insults I thought it might die with Novack but I think it may live on
It is an insult worth preserving.
I wodner if Schubert ever wrote one for the sturgeon…….I bet he did…….
Sorry Sturg,
This is the closest I could come. Sure to be a classic.
Jacqueline du Pré “Cello Concerto ” Dvorak (1. Mov.)
Something for me to watch while I wait. Patiently.
Flatus,
First the Mahler and then the Dvorak.
You are on a roll today.! Or tonight.
jace
KGC,
The Redwood Credit Union story is a lovely way to end the day. Thanks for sharing.
Korean school kids sing a song
Ignex, Flatus:
Both of your offerings are a lovely way to start the morning. Thank You x 2 for sharing.
If this show of national embarrassment,total ineptness,kindergaerten actions doesn’t compel the American electorate to vote out EVERY incumbent,then “We the People” are much more dumber than I thought.