Article

2013-02-24 Government

The Big Gamble - How Much Will the Cuts Hurt?

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Posted by Bobby 2013-02-24 08:30|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ] Top

#1 Rumor has it the DC and surrounding areas will be especially hard hitsnicker snicker.

Posted by DepotGuy 2013-02-24 10:53|| 2013-02-24 10:53|| Front Page Top

#2 Cuts will be implemented so as to inflict serious pain to the maximum number of people so they will demand their representatives 'fix' things by restoring spending cuts. It's how budget 'cuts' have been done for decades (that I know of) at all levels of government.

Posted by Glenmore 2013-02-24 11:40|| 2013-02-24 11:40|| Front Page Top

#3 Oh yes, I'm the great pretender

Posted by Besoeker 2013-02-24 11:56|| 2013-02-24 11:56|| Front Page Top

#4 And of course there's:
The Other Sequestration That No One Is Talking About

Posted by tipper 2013-02-24 13:30|| 2013-02-24 13:30|| Front Page Top

#5 I have a simple solution: return all federal spending, social security excepted, to 2007 levels.

You remember how heartless 2007 was, right? How we weren't spending nearly enough money? Oh, right, that was Dubya's last full budget before the financial crisis, and even the Democrats were lamenting the spending and the $300 billion deficit.

Fact is, we managed to get by in 2007, and we could get by on 2007 spending today. We'd cinch a few belts.

The biggest complaint I have about the deficit and the spending today is this: not the amount of spending, not the size of the deficit, but the fact that I can't tell what we're getting for all that extra spending. We have a trillion-dollar plus deficit. Where's it all going?

If I max'd all my credit cards, took a signature loan, blew through all my savings, and cracked open my 401k, eventually I'd be flat busted and have to pay up. But at least I'd know where all the money went and what a good time I had before that day.

Where's all the money going? I'm reasonably good at reading a budget sheet, I do it at work frequently enough. But I look at a summary of the federal budget and then I look around me. The roads are a mess. The poor are still poor. The environment isn't any cleaner. The military is getting downsized. We have no green cars or green anything. Inflation is up, unemployment is up, personal and business spending are down.

Where's all the federal spending?

Posted by Steve White 2013-02-24 13:53|| 2013-02-24 13:53|| Front Page Top

#6 Steve - The money has mostly been flushed down every rathole in every blue state mismanaged big city or its been blown away by a windmill stimulus investment thats why if you are a working person you can't see any evidence of it.

Posted by warthogswife 2013-02-24 16:11|| 2013-02-24 16:11|| Front Page Top

#7 Myself, Steve, I like 1969. We had a large army fighting a war to protect us from Communism, landed a man on the moon, and were smack in the middle of the largest public works project in history - the Interstate Highway System. But the Feds only built the Interstates (80%) - the states have to maintain them. That's why they're falling apart.

Another big difference is that 1969 was - more or less - the start of the War on Poverty.

Many things cost more today - not just from inflation. Building and making things was a lot easier in 1969. Now the environment is a lot cleaner, but that cost goes to - who else? - the consumer. How many permits would it take to build an oil refinery? That cost, and the cost of all the extra hardware, also come to the consumer.

It's so easy to spend other people's money. That's the real problem.

Posted by Bobby 2013-02-24 17:20|| 2013-02-24 17:20|| Front Page Top

#8 Bobby I'm thinking it's high time we went to the peace table with Poverty. Poverty's getting too damn expensive to fight and is a fierce foe.
Let's learn to co-exist with poverty, maybe even have a detente of some sort.

Posted by Shipman 2013-02-24 18:51|| 2013-02-24 18:51|| Front Page Top

#9 1969-War on Poverty
2013-War on Wealth

Posted by Grunter 2013-02-24 19:20|| 2013-02-24 19:20|| Front Page Top

#10 "The money has mostly been flushed down every rathole in every blue state mismanaged big city"

Don't forget into the pockets of Bambi's cronies, warthogswife. >:-(

Posted by Barbara 2013-02-24 19:45|| 2013-02-24 19:45|| Front Page Top

#11 All it will really hurt is the Federal Employee. A few of which are overpaid, most of which are suitably paid, and more than a few that are underpaid for the type of work they are doing.
Contractors, politicians and the usual pack of rent seekers, ticks and interlocutors will still be right up front to slop around in the trough. So I'm a little confused why everyone is soooo excited about this. Mark my words, there will be no "savings" in monies spent, it will just go out another door as "entitlements" or some other horseshit giveaway. The muslim brunderband may get an aircraft carrier next year or something.
Other than that, you may well succeed in lowering the bar and making a Federal job as shitty as the lowest paying equivalent in the private sector, but then you'll get the same quality employee for the money.
Supporting your agency's mission is great and all, but it wont pay the rent in and of itself.
Be careful what you (collectively) wish for, it looks like you may just be going to get it.

Posted by bigjim-CA 2013-02-24 19:45|| 2013-02-24 19:45|| Front Page Top

#12 FOX NEWS AM > POLITICAL INSIDER > PAT CADDELL, former Democrat Pol Strategist, Pollster for Jimmy Carter = opined that POTUS Bammer has the advantage because the GOP ...

- DOESN'T KNOW HOT TO FIGHT OBAMA + DEMS.
- ARE COLLECTIVELY "UNWILLING TO LEARN TO HOW TO FIGHT" OBAMA + DEMS - IIRC, the GOP-Right wanna do it their way + only their way even iff its NOT working.

CADDELL = the GOP will likely lose the Midterms + 2016, until they change NO MATTER WHAT CANDIDATE(S) THEY CHOOSE.

----------------

In the game of OWG-NWO ...

BOLSHEVIKS = WINNER.
MENSHEVIKS = LOSER.

We all know what the Bolsheviks did to the Mesnheviks, while Radical Islam will just behead the BOTH of 'em.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2013-02-24 20:58|| 2013-02-24 20:58|| Front Page Top

#13 The thing is THE MOB now. Not competent in protection, but they spread your money out like RAIN!

Notice where the water cuts off? The only true legitimate operation of The Executive Branch.

Posted by newc 2013-02-24 22:53|| 2013-02-24 22:53|| Front Page Top

#14 Be careful what you (collectively) wish for, it looks like you may just be going to get it.

Unfortunately, bigjim-CA, this is one of those pay now/pay later thingies. Or pain now/pain later, if you will. We've been borrowing from the kids for a couple of generations now, and the debt has gotten too big for the kids to absorb. We as a nation are going to finally have to make some decisions about what we are no longer willing to have the government do, and either turn it over to the private sector or give it up altogether. Unfortunately, the good, hardworking government workers like you, who are not responsible for the situation, happen to be the ones caught in the avalanche.

The alternative being to become a Greece, laughingstock of the world.

Posted by trailing wife 2013-02-24 23:21|| 2013-02-24 23:21|| Front Page Top

23:21 trailing wife
22:58 tipper
22:53 trailing wife
22:53 newc
22:33 newc
22:00 KBK
21:59 KBK
21:53 KBK
21:46 Procopius2k
21:05 JosephMendiola
20:58 JosephMendiola
20:37 KBK
20:31 Lone Ranger
20:29 Raider
20:23 Richard Aubrey
20:23 Raider
20:05 trailing wife
19:53 M. Murcek
19:50 bigjim-CA
19:45 bigjim-CA
19:45 Barbara
19:41 Barbara
19:38 Barbara
19:35 trailing wife