Our government seems to be able to clear every hurdle, EXCEPT the Sequester cuts that force the Dod (at about 18% of the budget) to pay for 50% of the massive cuts.
The Congress agreed to tax increases, but would not solve the Sequester. The Congress agreed to a debt limit extension, but would not address the Sequester. The Congress agreed to debate amnesty, but would not re-address the looming Sequester.
The House is now admitting to what the Joint Chiefs told them yesterday and today - that the CR (on top of the $487 in cuts started in 2011 and the Sequester that has now risen to a 13% cut) was killing the military.
This is a "bone" - but does not remove the threat to the military. All of the Sequester money has to come from Operations and Maintenance, because Obama said they could not address military pay and service contracts are off the table. So the military O&M budget is going to be raped.
I wish they would simply get beyond this. Our military deserves better.
The fact is, the US military is being held hostage by both parties because of......Medicare. The Republicans admitted as much this week, saying it was the biggest deficit driver, and Jay Carney said Obama would not put raising the Medicare age from 65 to 67 (as he did back in 2011) back on the table.
So, the gutting of Defense will remain on the calendar.
New promises same crap.....
Sheesh, whose side are they on anyway?! Oh wait, nevermind.
As someone once said, “We don’t need a third party. But a second one would sure be nice.”
This one is simple, are more voters in the military or on medicare?
Considering the options, I might favor continued spending for the next four years at 2012 levels. It’s harder to call it is “cut” if there is no agreement, particularly if it is exactly level with last year. That might be our best bet for a step toward responsible spending. Granted, it’ll take a couple decades to balance the budget if they won’t cut, but at least we’ll be moving in that direction. Considering the republicans we have, that may be the best option we can get.
“All of the sequester money has to come from Operations and Maintenance”. Not correct. Only military pay and wounded warrior programs are shielded. All other programs and activities are taking the same cut. The biggest problems are in the operations and maintenance accounts but that is because the other programs may have more flexibility in how they deal with the cuts.
Much of the size of the impact is due to political decisions made by this administration not to allow the services to plan for sequestration.
‘Massive’ cuts, pretty funny.
Maybe the GOP should have looked a bit further down the road than pass the 60B in Sandy ‘relief’ (90% that had NOTHING to do with Sandy). Possibly, shut down all those duplicate programs/etc. that cost $B; that report came out and was quickly shelved. No? How about 0-balance those Unconstitutional departments, I’ve got a long list if they need a few examples, and use the funds to do one of the FEW things they are obligated.
Hell, they should just pass amnesty. Then they’ll have a whole new pool of taxpayers to suck dry.
Let ‘em own it. They kicked the can down the road and raised the dept limit while, as usual, waiting for the ‘catastrophe’ to ‘run up’ on them. The party should die a horrible slow death...I can only dream it’s soon, so we can get REAL/good people to FINALLY represent We the People.
Idiots. If you are going to pass a stopgap spending bill, then REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF SPENDING INSIDE THE BILL!
It was always on the calendar, and no deal will take it off. Obama gets everything he wants and the GOPe gets the blame.
Maybe you think differently, but I’d rather have the cuts than have a tax increase on “the rich”.
When do you think they should cut defense and by how much? Can’t a few billion here and there add up to 50 billion? It is pretty myopic to think otherwise. Defense is very myopic, we don’t need billion dollar nonprofits like MITRE full of useless twits. You said in another thread we need airbases in Europe and elsewhere. Does that require 80,000 personnel in Europe and over $3B a year? Your whining is endless but your solutions are sparse.
Tell it to all the FReepers who balk at cutting medicare and social security. “It’s not an entitlement”. Yes, yes, it is.
Even here, medicare and social security > funding for the military.
What is the point of deadline solutions if your just going to ignore them.
For the love of god and country just let the cuts take place!
We should only be so lucky to have Washington bug out of our lives for a few days. But even federal republicans treat that like some kind of apocalyptic. I find theses republican to be the lowest of the low.
I will not vote or campaign for theses ‘republican’ lowlifes. They can and should rot in hell next to their beloved democrat & socialist colleges.
Our defense is one of the few right purposes for government spending. Federal funding to state and local civilian governments is too high (pork). There are extreme numbers of planners and inspectors doing nothing except plotting and scheming detrimental efforts against production and property rights. There’s nearly no building development happening except for federally funded projects.
There are increases for salaries and ever more hiring in public education, while most schools see fewer children each year. As our population gets older, social services is no more than a support for drug abuse (and its associate, alcoholism). Funding for environmentalism and animal worship is deleterious and shouldn’t be happening.
There’s plenty of money for our military forces. It needs to be rightfully stopped from going to useless/counterproductive civilian programs.