Sequester Apocalypse, everything shuts down friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Darwin333]

No, I got it. It's a huge #. Worse by a huge factor, the total debt.

For the bolded, we're hosed.

Yup, bigtime. Its a mathematical fact that we are hosed, its not a question of if but one of when. I am just ridding this baby until the train comes off the tracks, I couldn't tell you if it will be in a year or in 20 but eventually it will happen. Unfortunately math doesn't lie.

 

[Texashiker]

Yup, bigtime. Its a mathematical fact that we are hosed, its not a question of if but one of when. I am just ridding this baby until the train comes off the tracks, I couldn't tell you if it will be in a year or in 20 but eventually it will happen. Unfortunately math doesn't lie.

Like alen greenspan said, we can just print more money.

 

[boomerang]

Obama said, "let their be sequester" and there was sequester.

 

[Theb]

how did we ever make it through 2012?

I can't remember exactly but I believe everyone died due to a shortage of government.

 

[K1052]

That doesn't really invalidate his point, the average person considers a cut to mean less than. If they cut their own budge it means they spend less actual dollars than before but the government gets away with saying they cut spending while still spending more money. Furthermore, the .gov keeps saying that inflation is very low and frankly they are the cause of inflation.

The FAA isn't a company that can simply increase the price of their products to meet increases expenses each year. Congress has to fund them yearly and consequently that dollar figure will always have to go up because even in times of low inflation costs will still increase. The FAA funding/budget model needs to be redone so the agency can actually plan long term without getting turned in to a political football every single year.

 

[Darwin333]

Fed pay has already been frozen since what, 2010?

While median household income has basically been in a constant decline since 2000......

And I am pretty sure it was only frozen for 2011-2012 (maybe they got COLA before 2011?).

 

[Darwin333]

The FAA isn't a company that can simply increase the price of their products to meet increases expenses each year. Congress has to fund them yearly and consequently that dollar figure will always have to go up because even in times of low inflation costs will still increase. The FAA funding/budget model needs to be redone so the agency can actually plan long term without getting turned in to a political football every single year.

A metric fuckton of things need to be fixed long term so they aren't a political football every single year. Will they be, of course they won't. I must assume that the politicians enjoy the political football game probably because it distracts us from real issues while they are playing it. Another reason they don't fix some things permanently, like the AMT, is so they can "fudge" CBO numbers.

 

[Wreckem]

Airports can pay for their own security as well.

What other industry does the fed support like it does the airports? Maybe the banks?

Almost every airport is owned by a govt entity(local and state). Local and state govts can't afford to cover everything themselves.

 

[DrPizza]

Airports can pay for their own security as well.

What other industry does the fed support like it does the airports? Maybe the banks?

Gee, I don't know. How much infrastructure in the US has been built, paid for, or highly subsidized by the federal government. Roads? Maybe you want UPS and Fed-Ex to pave their own Interstate highways, since those businesses are supported by roads paid for with tax dollars.

 

[K1052]

A metric fuckton of things need to be fixed long term so they aren't a political football every single year. Will they be, of course they won't. I must assume that the politicians enjoy the political football game probably because it distracts us from real issues while they are playing it. Another reason they don't fix some things permanently, like the AMT, is so they can "fudge" CBO numbers.

They're too busy plotting their next election or their future as pundits/lobbyists.

 

[glenn1]

Measly 85 billion dollars? Ok, count to 1 billion, one number at a time, starting at one and without skipping any numbers. Let me know when you are finished.

I think you missed my point. I was trying to point out how large of a number a "measly" 85 billion is. If you were somehow able to start counting at birth you could not reach even close to 85 billion by death. There is nothing measly about it.

Sigh, I remember not long ago when a billion was a huge number even when it was the .gov spending it. Now people just shrug it off like its a rounding error.

In federal government spending terms it is measly. If you disagree, try counting to $3.803 trillion (the amount of money budgeted for FY2013) by $85 billion increments at a time starting without skipping any (e.g. $85 billion, $170 billion, $255 billion, etc). Let me know when you're finished. Next, count to the projected FY2023 national debt of $26 trillion, again by $85 billion dollar increments.

After you're done with the second, remind us again about how "massive" $85 billion really is once you've properly calibrated the scales involved.

 

[Texashiker]

Gee, I don't know. How much infrastructure in the US has been built, paid for, or highly subsidized by the federal government. Roads?

Don't we pay a fuel tax to support our roads? Isn't that why there is a price break on offroad diesel?

Are air traffic controllers and the FAA funded entirely by taxes placed on people who use the airlines?

Almost every airport is owned by a govt entity(local and state). Local and state govts can't afford to cover everything themselves.

That is part of the problem, why should the government support stuff like airports? Privatize it and take the burden off the tax payers.

Let the people who use it pay for it.

 

[waggy]

Maybe that's the day that we'll find out what the DHS is going to do with all those bullets and APCs they purchased recently.

they planed on this. they are going to put the bullets up for sale for a huge markup. that way the government makes a profit. :hmm:

 

[Matt1970]

This is what we get with a budget cut of just over 2%. We are in trouble. Big time.

 

[Jimzz]

Something will happen but it will be in smaller steps. The Gov has to give most employees a 30 day notice. The other stuff is contracts will not be picked up etc...

So nothing right away but you will notice during summer rush at parks, airports, etc...

<-- Works DHS/CBP

 

[BoberFett]

There seems to be some erroneous assumption that it should cost the same amount of money (in total $ amounts) year after year and somehow aren't susceptible to any outside influences like inflation or rising costs.

The government keeps telling us there is no inflation right now.

 

[PokerGuy]

This is what we get with a budget cut of just over 2%. We are in trouble. Big time.

.... and to think that it's not even a cut of 2%, it's lowering of the projected increase in budget. We are screwed, and the willing media idiots are helping obummer and his minions present it as the end of the world when the increase in spending is slightly smaller than planned.

 

[K1052]

Don't we pay a fuel tax to support our roads? Isn't that why there is a price break on offroad diesel?

Are air traffic controllers and the FAA funded entirely by taxes placed on people who use the airlines?

A federal fuel tax which hasn't risen from it's current level since 1993. There is a reason congress has been dumping billions of dollars into the Highway Trust fund...it would be insolvent and faces that possibility again in the near future. Not that it was actually meeting our needs anyway as is.

The FAA gets about 2/3rds of it's funding from taxes paid by the airlines into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. This fund really wasn't designed to pay for all the operations of the FAA (more for system investments) and so they get to go to Congress every year.

 

[Texashiker]

A federal fuel tax which hasn't risen from it's current level since 1993. There is a reason congress has been dumping billions of dollars into the Highway Trust fund...it would be insolvent and faces that possibility again in the near future. Not that it was actually meeting our needs anyway as is.

The FAA gets about 2/3rds of it's funding from taxes paid by the airlines into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. This fund really wasn't designed to pay for all the operations of the FAA (more for system investments) and so they get to go to Congress every year.

In other words, programs that are not supporting themselves are being funded by a general fund?

We can not do that forever. We can not rob peter to pay paul.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Gee, I don't know. How much infrastructure in the US has been built, paid for, or highly subsidized by the federal government. Roads? Maybe you want UPS and Fed-Ex to pave their own Interstate highways, since those businesses are supported by roads paid for with tax dollars.

I'm wondering if this subsidizing for air traffic controllers took place around the Reagan "Go to work or lose your job" demand. Would make sense.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Well for the most part we are all in agreement that cutting the $85 billion should have little or no effect. However I do not put it past politicians to seize an opportunity to take advantage of a manufactured "emergency".

 

[highland145]

Well for the most part we are all in agreement that cutting the $85 billion should have little or no effect. However I do not put it past politicians to seize an opportunity to take advantage of a manufactured "emergency".

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...sands-illegal-immigrants-blaming-budget-cuts/

 

[Thump553]

OP has a real reading comprehension problem. Intentionally forcing the USA back into recession in order to gain "win" points for the Congressional teabaggers is hardly something to mock or celebrate.

 

[Ausm]

Every poll I have seen will blame the fallout on Congressional Republicans, In my book this is a win for America.

 

[EagleKeeper]

OP has a real reading comprehension problem. Intentionally forcing the USA back into recession in order to gain "win" points for the Congressional teabaggers is hardly something to mock or celebrate.

Please explain how cutting back the GROWTH of spending will cause a recession