I wish these genius pundits would/could get it through their thick skulls that federal budget cuts have NO-NO-NO-NO effect on the firefighters who in 99+% of cases are paid by local and state funds. And teachers-— same story, and others.
In addition, the cuts amount to less that 3% of our bloated budget which could handle a 10-20% pruning without pain.
Sequestration insulates most of the entitlement programs and mandatory spending from cuts, so the real impact is almost 10% of the discretionary budget. This is what is causing the pain along with the fact that agencies don't have the freedom to move money from various accounts.