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Don't let the President's threats of sequestration scare you

Posted: Feb 21, 2013

I've looked at a few sources and the link I'm going to post spells it out better than anything else. The President has stated that health programs, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veteran's and other public employees will all be hurt, but I truly think he's just trying to scare people because according to the below link, I really don't think it will happen. Maybe he's talking about years later down the line, but I'm sure Congress will find a way to change it if it will really hurt the people of this country.

A few paragraphs here sets the stage:

Non-defense sequestration. The $54.7 billion in non-defense cuts will come from both mandatory (entitlement) and discretionary (non-entitlement) programs. The mandatory cuts will include:

Cuts in Medicare payments to providers and insurance plans; those cuts are limited to 2 percent of such payments in any year, or $11 billion in 2013. This means that Medicare providers will continue to bill Medicare in the normal way but will be reimbursed at a rate of 98 cents on the dollar.
About $5.2 billion in cuts in the other mandatory programs that are subject to sequestration, the biggest of which supports farm prices; other affected programs include student loans, vocational rehabilitation, mineral leasing payments, the Social Services Block Grant, and dozens of smaller programs. A number of key mandatory programs are exempt from sequestration, including Social Security, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), SNAP (formerly known as the Food Stamp Program), child nutrition, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), refundable tax credits such as the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit, veterans’ compensation and other benefits, and federal retirement.[2]

Thus, in 2013, about $16.2 billion of the $54.7 billion in non-defense cuts will come from mandatory programs. The remaining non-defense cuts — about $38.5 billion in 2013 — will come from discretionary programs. For fiscal year 2013, the non-defense cuts would occur through across-the-board, proportional reductions in the new funding provided for each discretionary program in the appropriations bills, which Congress should already have enacted before the January 2013 sequestration order is issued.[3] The BCA exempts most veterans’ funding and Pell Grants from those cuts.[4] In addition, the Act limits to 2 percent the cuts in funding for community and migrant health centers and for Indian health services and facilities. War costs within the International Affairs function, specified funding to strengthen program integrity, and disaster funding are not exempt from sequestration, even though certain types and amounts of such funding are effectively outsidethe discretionary caps the BCA created.

Table 2: Sequestration in 2013 if Appropriations Match 2013 Caps In billions of dollars
		Resources Before Sequestration	Sequestration
			Dollar reduction	Percent reduction
Defense		$728	$54.7
	Funding subject to cap	546	41.1	7.5%
	War funding, outside of cap^a	96	7.2	7.5%
	Unobligated balances from prior years	84	6.3	7.5%
Non-Defense discretionary (NDD) programs		535	38.5
	Non-exempt programs	421	35.5	8.4%
	Veterans’ health and Pell Grants, exempt	74	0.0	0.0%
	Health centers and Indian health, 2% limit	6	0.1	2.0%
	Subtotal, funding subject to the cap	501
	Above-cap funding that is offset by CHIMPs^b	19	1.6	8.4%
	Program integrity and disaster funding, outside of cap	7	0.6	8.4%
	War funding, outside of cap^a	9	0.8	8.4%
Non-Defense mandatory programs that are not exempt		617	16.2
	Medicare payments to providers and plans, 2% limit	549	11.0	2.0%
	Other non-exempt mandatory programs^c	65	5.2	8.0%

	Non-Defense Total, Discretionary and Mandatory		54.7

http://www.cbpp.org/files/12-2-11bud2.pdf

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Why the dislike? Is it the Link? Is it because I highlighted - Truthhurts

[ In Reply To ..]
some of the things that show the President isn't being truthful?

It's the moniker probably. It happens to anyone who uses one consistently. - VP

[ In Reply To ..]
Let it roll off your back.

I just disliked this post just to be a jerk... lol

: )

Aw, ya hurt my feelin's. ;-( - Truthhurts

[ In Reply To ..]
Not really. I was just curious because I thought it was a good article.

Yep, I agree. I don't even see them anymore - grits

[ In Reply To ..]
I expect them, so my eyes just scroll right past them.

It's because what you're saying - is true!

[ In Reply To ..]
If you take away the scare tactics, the dems have nothing to use to attack the repubs with - that's what this is all about anyway, the shifting of blame. Midterm elections are just next year, after all.

What I don't get is why doesn't the House pass a bill giving the various departments the ability to transfer money around - that way once the cuts are made, they can move accounts. Then they could take money from, let's say a conference fund and put it in the account that they had to cut. That way no one loses their job (or at least fewer people lose their jobs). The House should do this and send it to the Senate and then watch what happens.

When has he made those exact claims? Where? - Prove it

[ In Reply To ..]

I have no problem with your link/source, made me breathe a sigh of relief that at least those things are exempt. This I do have a problem with:

"The President has stated that health programs, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veteran's and other public employees will all be hurt, but I truly think he's just trying to scare people because according to the below link, I really don't think it will happen."

Yes, some health programs would be hurt and some public employees. But where did he mention Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.? Here's a transcript, show me anything he's mentioned that would be affected that's really exempt (like in your link) and actually wouldn't be.

"Now, if Congress allows this meat-cleaver approach to take place, it will jeopardize our military readiness; it will eviscerate job-creating investments in education and energy and medical research. It won’t consider whether we’re cutting some bloated program that has outlived its usefulness, or a vital service that Americans depend on every single day. It doesn’t make those distinctions.

Emergency responders like the ones who are here today — their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded. Border Patrol agents will see their hours reduced. FBI agents will be furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays at airports across the country. Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find childcare for their kids. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings.

And already, the threat of these cuts has forced the Navy to delay an aircraft carrier that was supposed to deploy to the Persian Gulf. And as our military leaders have made clear, changes like this — not well thought through, not phased in properly — changes like this affect our ability to respond to threats in unstable parts of the world.

So these cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy. They will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls. This is not an abstraction — people will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again."

"Are you willing to see a bunch of first responders lose their job because you want to protect some special interest tax loophole? Are you willing to have teachers laid off, or kids not have access to Head Start, or deeper cuts in student loan programs just because you want to protect a special tax interest loophole that the vast majority of Americans don't benefit from? That's the choice. That's the question."

Thanks for correcting me...so much is happening that - Truthhurts

[ In Reply To ..]
I got confused between the sequester threats and the debt limit threats he made earlier.

Glad you cleared it up for me.

you're so very welcome - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
:}

So scare tactics are out, then? - They're taking all our guns!

[ In Reply To ..]
.

I didn't dislike your post :) - Fanatical Hypocrite

[ In Reply To ..]
I definitely never dislike a post because of the moniker. Admittedly you and I are probably polar opposites politically, so I do end up at a lot of your posts to offer a counterpoint. One of these days we've got to find something we agree on... let me think... wait, politicians. They're awful aren't they? I think that's the best thing to unify the whole country, our mutual hatred for Congress and whatever dummy is in the White House at any given point.

I do believe the sequestration is a really terrible idea and I can't believe that even Congress would be dumb enough to throw their own budget under the bus while knowing all along that there is no way two such diametrically opposed parties would ever work together on an issue. Whether or not the situation is dire is hard to say. The media is making a huge deal out of it and 9 times out of 10 that typically means nothing is going to happen. Like killer bees, bird flu, SARS, etc. On the other hand, wow Congress, thanks for failing both parties simultaneously. It's nice to see a bipartisan effort to ruin our lives again.

As for Obama, I assume he probably is exaggerating. I don't think I've ever seen a politician that didn't threaten greater consequences than would happen and promise greater rewards than they can give. However, I've never seen him really threaten much on sequestration, just that it's a very bad idea and on that I agree with him. Since the entire economy is imaginary anyway, it's hard to tell on such things.

Bingo! We finally agree on something! - Truthhurts

[ In Reply To ..]
The media does exaggerate a lot on both sides. Congress lies a lot on both sides.

Obama? I'll let that alone.

As for the economy, if they would stop playing with the rates and let rates go up or down naturally, I think the economy would straighten out a whole lot quicker. Ups and downs happen in all economies and have done so since using money in the beginning. When they fiddle with the rates, it's artificial and sooner or later, it will come crashing down.

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