The sequester cuts are too deep? More like, not deep enough
No doubt there will be those who find such fear-mongering persuasive. But for the rest of us, it suggests a rather pressing and relevant question: Just what, precisely, did we get from doubling the cost of the federal government between 2000 and 2010?
If the bureaucrats can’t produce an explanation for the price increase of government, then they should not expect their budgets to be rubber-stamped by an already suffering public. …
We are living with the results: National debt greater than 100% of annual gross domestic product and no end in sight, just as the baby boomers stop working and start sucking down expensive federal entitlements.
Even if borrowing costs remain at their historic lows in perpetuity, this kind of debt overhang is more dangerous than any mild bureaucratic shuffle necessitated by the 1% trim. Why? In their controversial April 2012 National Bureau for Economic Research working paper, economists Carmen M. Reinhart, Vincent R. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff concluded that when countries carry debt of more than 90% of GDP for five or more consecutive years, economic growth gets chopped down by more than a whole percentage point each year for decades.
Blowback
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If I was forced to adjust my budget last month because of the increase in Payroll taxes – 2% of my income – then the federal behemoth that is our government should be able to adjust theirs.
MoreLiberty on February 27, 2013 at 10:32 AM
Bottom line is that the oceans will freeze AND dry up, billions of species will go extinct, fires will burn unchecked, and trillions will die if we don’t do something to avert this man caused disaster that is known as the sequester, or “all the republicans fault” as Obamas been calling it.
Gatsu on February 27, 2013 at 10:34 AM
When Obama said it will cost two million jobs to cut about 2 percent of the federal budget he expects us to gasp in horror.
I did gasp in horro. If two f’ing percent of the budget is TWO MILLION jobs our gov’t is waaaaaaaayyyyyyyy too big and needs to be slashed much more.
levi on February 27, 2013 at 10:48 AM
The cuts are not deep enough because there are no cuts.
A decrease in the rate of acceleration is not the same thing as slowing down; it’s speeding up more slowly.
Only in the fetid swamp of Washington D.C. could a decrease in the rate of growth be called a budget cut. In the rest of the world, it’s just slightly slower growth.
Steven on February 27, 2013 at 11:21 AM
I keep trying to make the same point, but I think we’re pissing into the wind. People who agree are already apoplectic about the continuing goodspeak and everyone else is saying “so what?”.
Fenris on February 27, 2013 at 12:01 PM
Exactly
GWB on February 27, 2013 at 12:04 PM