The Sequester

By: Sam M.

The sequester was a deal made by congress on New Year’s Day to stall the coming of the fiscal cliff. This sequestration is a deal from congress, that when it hits, will trigger automatic budget cuts to government agencies. The idea behind the sequestration at the time that it was agreed upon was to simply make a deal for the time being, and find a better way out before the sequestration was to be put in to place. That is not what happened. Beginning in April, the budget cuts will begin and hit almost every government agency. The dollar amount of cuts will be split evenly between defense and nondefense programs, but the White House is yet to publicize which individual agencies will suffer the largest cuts. Programs that will be spared include but are not limited to, Veteran’s Administration Programs, the Children's Health Insurance Program, food stamps, Medicaid, and Medicare, where benefits won't get cut, but payments to providers will shrink by two percent. Overall, the cuts will accumulate to $85 billion over the next ten months, and totaling $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. Neither political party is comfortable with the sequester, Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner said, “I don't like the sequester. I think it's taking a meat ax to our government, a meat ax to many programs that will weaken our national defense,” and President Obama said, “Washington cannot continually operate under a cloud of crisis. That freezes up consumers."