WASHINGTON — In the first week of March, a laid-off person living on $300 a week in unemployment benefits is liable to find a surprise in the mailbox: notification from Uncle Sam that come April the check will be $33 lighter.
Sequestration, that arcane budget term consuming Washington lately, is about to move from political abstraction to reality for millions of Americans. Barring an unlikely last-minute deal, about $85 billion is set to be cut from military, domestic, and certain health care programs beginning Friday.
Comments
Bittersweet tea for a pyrrhic victory
Boy, the Obamasequester is going to hurt some people. I'll bet the president really regrets thinking up this bonehead move.
The boneheads are the moronic right wing Republicans in Congress who forget that they LOST the election, and will keep losing elections because they are idiots. Don't forget - a majority of Republicans voted for the sequester too.
You gotta love the politial nonsense. The "Obamasequester"? The "Republicansequester"?" It isn't even worth going into on how neither of these two own the "sequester" all to themselves. What's the point right wingers don't want to hear it and neither do those on the left. But it is beyond me why some folks want to go through life with their eyes closed. All you have to do is read the Wall St. Journal on Boehner and his happiness with the sequester, "I got 98% of what I wanted." Or Obama in the same paper, "this will lead to deductions.". Neither party wanted this. They couldn't cut a deal on the debt ceiling, tried to finesse it and now are caught with their pants down.
And all the zealots and folks with their heads up their political right or left side won't change the damage it will cause the economy. Frankly from my perspective, Every zealot out there has it coming.
And Maine has that good Christian Tea Party governor of yours doing? You've made national news as the cruelist state in the union. Man it's tough to beat Arizona on killing through medical care denial.
Attaturk...you do know that Obama and his cronies just closed the "high risk insurance pool"... those that need it most, can't get it.
That is obamacare for ya.... talk about medical care denial..... and theres more to come. Unless you are a high-ranking DNC member, healthcare is going to get a lot worse for you.
You see this is the problem with you folks on both sides. You can't just deal with facts you gotta make a political statement. Obama didn't "close" the high risk pool, it ran out of money. What was the purpose of the pool. It was meant as a bridge to 2014 full implimentation of ACA. The number of people in need of the "high risk pool" actually shows how out of whack the total medical system was and is currently.
So if there is an influx of monies the pool will be reopened. If not it will remain closed until 2014 when the ACA is fully enacted. However, you write it us as if Obama desired to close the "high risk pool" as LePage did Medicaid which is of course untrue. So did you receive false information or simply seek to make a political statement.?
Sheeple take note...
Rather than cut out funding for ILLEGAL ALIENS..... Obama and Panetta have chosen to go after federal employee's....
All you need to know about a the facist liberals..... they put staying in office ahead of CITIZENS and the safety of the nation...
I voted for the war hero and the guy with the magic underwear.....this disaster is fully on those that voted for "the one"...
One there is no funding for illegal aliens. Two the President has no choice in what or what is not cut. These are across the board cuts approved by both Houses of Congress and signed by the President. The fact is this is a result a failure to govern by both parties. They could not reach an agreement on the "debt ceiling" cut a deal neither thought the other would follow through on and now are caught with their pants down. Now folks who go through life with just their "left eye" open or their "right eye" open will find fault with the "other" guy when it fact it is both of their faults.
You all have fun wrecking your country over your pet ideology.
attaturk -
there most certainly is money going to illegals.
The fact that you try to deny this speaks volumes.
You are either woefully ignorant of what is going on .... or you are complicit in it.
We need only look at Aunt Zetunia. Politics aside...she is an ILLEGAL ALIEN, and she was living in public funding subsidized housing. She is an ILLEGAL ALIEN - should have been detained and deported.
Or, perhaps like Gov Deval, you would say this is just an anecdote?
Try visiting a ED department at any hospital. If you are a citizen...you need to get in line behind the ILLEGALS who are getting their free care.
Swing by. Check it out.
Let me get this straight. I give you the facts regarding a "Mis-statement" you made, (I'll be kind) and now you want to rewrite the argument. You stated and I quote "the President closed the high risk program", which is in fact not true. It ran out of money. Mr. LePage did not run out of money he in fact turned away money. Now perhaps you want to go through life making it up as you go along and that is of course your choice. But don't accuse me of misstating facts as I am giving you direct quotes or direct facts. I've got no dog in this fight I'm just watching folks screw the pooch.
Your statement regarding illegal aliens holds that there is funding put aside within the budget for illegal aliens this is of course untrue. One cannot get welfare or any other number of benefits without prrof of citizenship. Now one can get hospital treatment but that is due by law that was put in place by Ronald Reagan.
You want to dislike Obama I don't care. I'm not some zealot or big fan. I just like to call bs when I see it. You think you can prove what you stated. Point out that "illegal alien" line in the federal budget.
Is Aunt Zetunia an ILLEGAL ALIEN, or is she not?
You say she cannot get benefits without proof...and yet she is living in subsidized public housing.
Who is spouting the bs?
While not enough, there would be much more money if not a penny was spent on illegals. And yet BILLIONS are. Hundreds of millions in state dollars (recent report in the globe) and billions at the federal level.
Sorry, but true. As the saying goes - you can have your own opinion, but you can't have your own facts.
Aunt Zetunia is a wonderful political talking point. It has nothing to do with policy. I, you nor anyone else I know of understands quite what the story is with Aunt Zetunia. I assume she's still here. It still does not change in the inaccuracy of anything you have stated. Again I repeat this is why we cannot get anything done in this country. You have no real interest in policy solutions. You are only interested in making political noise about Barak Obama. Whereas I'll take good ideas from conservatives or liberals, pretty much does not matter to me who's idea it is, long as it works.
Billions are indeed spent on illegals on items ranging from their child welfare, educating children, health care costs, etc. However, for a rational discussion you would also have to take into account the billions that illegals pay into SS, Medicare etc. Whether these dollars are paid under false numbers or not it doesn't matter as the money goes to the feds. Certainly funds are lost to workers under the table but that's our fault for a poor workers visa program.
There are pleny of things I can find wrong and I can document them. What I object to is just making the statement up so it supports your view.
You are absolutely right you can have your own opinion but not your own facts. You want to attack a particular party or person therefore you need to create facts that support your position. I don't give a hoot in terms of either party or any person.
Let me add you confuse "funding" with "spending" and there is a big difference. That's why you can't prove your position regarding illegals. There is no federal line item for it. It simply gets spent under both federal and state what would actually fall under "uncontrollable" expenses. In fact if the feds or the state exhausts their funding in those catagories and refuses to replenish then the hospital and the consumer eats the cost. But for you this isn't important all you care about is political talking points.
I agree with Attaturk with respect to political ideology. Regardless of what your ideology is, the fact that our political leaders can't sit down and resolve this, leaving it up a to the sequester, is outrageous. True leaders make hard choices and compromise. They shouldn't be in office if they can't get this done.
All this doggerel about Auntiie Zinnia and various other Barry the O relatives seems irrelevant to me. . . As, in its own way, does the Janet the Nappy decision to dump the illegal aliens from a hoosegow to the local streets. What seems more relevant is a question of whether the regular paychecks will continue to be disbursed to President Barry and Mrs t he O; Secretary of State John 'Liveshot' Kerry and his good frau, Teresa Heinz; U.S. Rep. Eddy 'Loudmouth' Markey and his Mrs.; and U.S. Rep. Stephen 'Brickhead' Lynch and his Mrs. In other words, are these yoyos federal employees who face furloughs and one-day-per -week lost pay? Or is the august stature of their esteemed selves far enough about the maddening crowd to make sure that Liveshot and Barry the O won't have to worry about having security guys around in enough numbers that they won't have to start carrying cash?
The phrase is "madding crowd," not maddening. All I really learn from this post is that you enjoy creating pejorative nicknames for political figures. Everyone needs a hobby I suppose.