Posted on 03/01/2013 9:17:15 PM PST by Maelstorm
President Barack Obama ordered the start of $85 billion in government spending cuts, beginning a potentially decade-long wave of belt-tightening that risks curbing U.S. economic growth this year. The White House released the order tonight, the deadline set by a law passed two years ago to avoid a debt default, and the Office of Management and Budget sent Congress a detailed list of program cuts. The reductions’ impact will become clear over the next several weeks, as agencies inform affected government contractors and notify employees about furloughs, most of which wouldn’t begin until some time in April.
“What’s important to understand is that not everyone will feel the pain of these cuts right away,” Obama said at the White House earlier in the day, after meeting with the top four leaders of Congress. “The pain, though, will be real.”
The across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, were intended to be so onerous that Congress and the president wouldn’t let them occur and would come up with a plan to replace them. Instead, Democrats and Republicans deadlocked on an alternative. Obama insisted that any plan must include new tax revenue and Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner, rejected that approach.
The amount to be cut under the law totals $1.2 trillion over nine years. Of that, $85 billion comes out of the budget for the remaining seven months of this fiscal year, making for effective reductions of about 13 percent for defense programs and 9 percent for non-defense programs, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Boehner needs to be the one who manages cost, being no one else will. Man up, Speaker.
Another obscurity is the tax revenue to GDP, it’s down to 16% because there is less economic activity, not because Democrats need to raise taxes to increase the tax revenue to GDP ratio, Mr Julian(FOX Business Block), that’s not how Macroeconomics works, your only advocating tax increases that have been shown to decrease total GDP.
Government did get a raise, that’s another point Boehner needs to follow up on, Democrats got their tax increases, Republicans needs to show the data it decreases tax revenue collected.
Well Obama, if you so regret having to issue these orders, you can always resign the office. Then you need not suffer such anguish.
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