What the Sequester Will Do: Exacerbate Inequality

     The GOP can't figure out what it thinks the sequester cuts will do. Mitch McConnell doesn't think they'll be so bad. Boehner "doesn't know" how bad they'll be-risking the fragile recovery is obviously the best way to do it.

      http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/03/boehner-on-sequester-lets-gamble-with.html

      We've also heard that Obama was being alarmist in predicting all these early cuts. It is true, you might wonder how quick the pain will be felt, although some are already feeling it:

      “These people are very, very, very poor,” said Sheila Crowley, the president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, speaking of recipients of federal housing support across the country. “They don’t have resources to fall back on.”

In some places, officials have already started carrying out cuts. For instance, King County in Washington State, which includes Seattle, stopped issuing new housing vouchers on Friday.

    “Sequestration will result in some 600 fewer families in our local communities receiving crucial rental assistance over the next year,” Stephen Norman, the executive director of the county housing authority, said in a statement. “Because rents are so high, many of these families may, quite literally, find themselves out on the street.”

    "Members of Congress have indicated that they might give agencies more discretion in fulfilling the cuts, to help blunt their impact. But policy experts said that in the case of many low-income programs, budget cuts would necessarily mean fewer people get help."

    “There’s no loose change in the cushions,” Ms. Crowley said. “Anything you take out of HUD is going to reduce services and cut programs. There’s just no fat there. There hasn’t been for a long time.”

      http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/03/yes-some-sequester-cuts-are-already.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiaryOfARepublicanHater+%28Diary+of+a+Republican+Hater%29

      It clearly will hit the poorest quicker and it will only increase inequality as we've seen profits rise with weak job growth during this recession.

      "With the Dow Jones industrial average flirting with a record high, the split between American workers and the companies that employ them is widening and could worsen in the next few months as federal budget cuts take hold."

       http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/business/economy/corporate-profits-soar-as-worker-income-limps.html

       However, there will be more than enough pain for everyone as Janet Napolitano tells us:

       "Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says U.S. airports, including Los Angeles International and O'Hare International in Chicago, are already experiencing delays as a result of automatic federal spending cuts."

       "Both of those big-city airports routinely suffer delays."

       "Napolitano said Monday that delays will become worse. The Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection agencies, which are part of the Homeland Security Department, are sending furlough notices and have cut overtime for employees."

       "Napolitano said she expects a cascading effect during the week, with wait times expected to double in worst cases."

        http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/janet-napolitano-sequestration_n_2805380.html

        In a way we're back in 1995 again. Then many Republicans were claiming that the government shutdown would be no big deal-there would be little to no pain. After all, their ideology claims that government is the problem that it does nothing right. After the shutdown it became clear that it was a big deal. The GOP gamble here is that the sequester really won't be such a big deal. 

         Ok, if we shut government down overnight that's a lot of pain. We can't do that. But maybe, if we just have a deep across the board budget cut that won't be a problem.