The Sequester

You've probably been hearing about "The Sequester" ad nauseum for the past few weeks, and maybe it has been going in one ear and out the other.  If our lives are going well, and we are not very acutely effected, it's easy to say, "Leave it to Washington.  They're all a bunch of crooks, but they'll get it sorted out sooner or later."  Well, I'm embarrassed to say it has taken really acutely effecting my life to light a fire under me, and get me learning and reading about what this sequester really is.

Here is what the official White House website has to say about it:

What Is the Sequester? Why Now? 

In the last few years, President Obama and both parties in Congress have worked together to reduce our deficit by more than $2.5 trillion through a combination of spending cuts and increased tax rates. 

In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that if they couldn’t agree on a plan to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion — including the $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction lawmakers in both parties have already accomplished over the last few years — about $1 trillion in automatic, arbitrary and across the board budget cuts would start to take effect in 2013. 

Unfortunately, Congress hasn’t compromised, and as a consequence, harmful cuts — known as the sequester — begin March 1.
These cuts will jeopardize our military readiness and eviscerate job-creating investments in education and energy and medical research, and don’t take into account whether they eliminate some bloated program that has outlived its usefulness, or cut a vital service that Americans depend on every single day.

"Unfortunately, Congress hasn't compromised."   That, Dear Readers, is what I really want to talk about.  Alexander Tytler was apparently misquoted when this was attributed to him, but regardless of the source I think these ideas are worth thinking about as stages of democracy:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.

We Americans have great abundance, and we really do seem to be in the complacency or maybe even apathy portion of these 8 stages traditionally attributed to Tytler.  We don't have to go the way of other democracies.  We can learn from history.  Above all, WE CAN'T BE COMPLACENT.

Now, I don't think that we are headed for a dictatorship or "bondage".  I do however think that because of our complacency, US Representatives and Senators have become wildly out of control in the way they flippantly treat the lives of the every day Americans they claim to represent.

This sequester is the most current installment in a list of scare tactic/threats that our government has imposed on its people.  The House of Representatives KEEPS imposing these arbitrary deadlines, that they inevitably ignore and bicker about.  This is not a reasonable way to discuss and deal with problems.  There should be COMPROMISE and talks that lead to actions.  This is the way adults deal with problems on the level of family, small business, upper level management, etc.  Instead there is stalemate.  Representatives are interested in themselves above their constituents at a level that I still can't believe.

Why Does This Apply to Me?  

My husband Alex works for the contracting department of the Department of Defense (DoD) as a civilian.  Last year at about this time, we were facing furlough and in the 11th hour Congress miraculously pulled out a compromise that saved the department from a melt down.  We were glad that this ridiculous display of egos was over.  Alex went to work, and we were little effected.

This year, the representatives seem to have gotten somehow even worse.  Democrats are using the republicans' plan to slash Medicaid as a jockeying point.  Republicans are using democrats' plan for tax hikes.  Meanwhile, because of the sequester my husband will be furloughed effective in APRIL.  That means a 20% pay cut and forcing him to stay home an extra day each week, which this family of 6 can't afford.  Are you kidding me?  Since when is this sophomoric behavior okay from adults?  Would this be acceptable behavior in a private sector job?

Sit down with PEN and PAPER and write to your representative.  I'm not giving you a form letter to sign.  YOU do it.  Tell him or her you won't be re-electing them unless they start actually compromising.  Not blaming.  Not lying.  Your congressman represents YOU, not himself.  Do the right thing.