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Health & Fitness

The East End, What is the Sequester, and What Will Happen Here?

After four years of cuts, is there more that can be cut?

The sequester is a really interesting concept, if it goes into effect on March 1, 2013. Website Ideamoneywatch.com explains what the sequester is and how and why it was created.

“The Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) established a 12 member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction  (or “super committee”) charged with reducing the deficit by an additional $1.2 - $1.5 trillion over ten years. The BCA also included a sequestration hammer should the super committee fail; a provision intended to “force” the super committee to act.

Despite the threat of sequestration, the super committee failed. Announcing its inability to reach an agreement on November 21, 2011, the members of the bipartisan committee stated that "after months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee's deadline."

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So, as established in the BCA, sequestration was triggered when the super committee failed to reach an agreement. Sequestration generates automatic cuts for each of nine years, FY 13-21, totaling $1.2 trillion. Sequestration was originally scheduled to take effect on Jan. 2, 2013. However, it was delayed for two months — until March 1 by the deal struck on New Year's Eve, called the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

Now, without Congressional action to prevent sequestration, the first round of cuts will take place on March 1, 2013.

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The 2013 cuts apply to “discretionary” spending and are divided between reductions to defense ($500 billion) and non-defense ($700 billion)."

The truth is the country just can’t keep spending a lot more money than it takes in forever. The other truth is the country has a responsibility to fulfill the obligations it took on with private citizens who paid in to Social Security, and others who had contracts of employment with the Federal Government, not to mention the veterans. I fear money will be cut to states, thus counties, thus towns, and federal aide to local school districts too. In the end, with State Town Tax laws limiting increases at 2% well it’s all going to get messy. What’s sad is the blame game going on all over along with the let’s kick the can down the road game that is also going on. Our leaders in Washington; President Obama, Senators Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand along with Congressman Tim Bishop all were just re-elected, now it’s time they really do what they were elected to do. That is to do, The Right Thing. Get ready to duck, the mud slinging is about to really start happening.

If you keep on spending more money than you take in, something is going to happen someday. If you cut huge amounts of spending something also is going to happen. What do you think?

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