Doomed by the Sequester? Maybe Not.

How many times will we allow our government to claim the sky is falling before we stop believing them? Anyone remember as recently as January 1st of this year that the “fiscal cliff” was going to end life as we know it. Before that it was a succession of debt ceiling confrontations. Somehow it seems that America just keeps chugging along. So now the fearmongers have turned to the word “sequester,” which is scheduled to kick in on March 1st (since our elected representatives can’t seem to work out a budget to save their lives).

Sequester is simply a word that means automatic cuts. With President Obama having yet to deliver a single budget in either of his administrations, we’ve got to start hacking away at our national insolvency at some point. While there’s no doubt that the cuts will cause a certain level of pain and aggravation to some people, the overall effect isn’t going to be nearly the calamity that the President and his lackeys love to get in front of a camera and proclaim.

Here’s one example.

Transportation Secretary LaHood tells us that air travelers can expect substantial delays as air traffic controllers are forced out of work by the drastic budget cuts that are coming our way courtesy of the sequester. This esteemed bureaucrat goes on to say that some smaller airports might even have to close.

Jason Hartman likes numbers and suggests we look at few. The Department of Transportation’s budget for 2013 is $74.2 billion. The automatic spending cuts will take $1 billion away, a reduction of about 1.4 percent, still leaving the agency with a budget ($73.2 billion) that exceeds the 2012 level of $72.6 billion. Does this sound like airborne Armegeddon to you? Sounds more like bloviating politicians to us.

The bottom line is that we are never going to right our financial ship if we don’t start controlling expenses. We do, in fact, have a national spending problem, and it should be obvious to all but the most dense among us that neither political party has the spine to do anything about it.

Let’s hear it for automatic spending cuts. Hip, hip, hooray!

In case you’re interested, follow this link to read about 57 Terrible Consequences of the Sequester. Apparently our nuclear weapons will be left untended and there will be a catastrophic chicken shortage. Hey, nobody said it was going to be easy extracting ourselves from this economic hellhole we’ve created. (Top image: Flickr | Geraint Warlow)

The Holistic Survival Team