How Bad is the Sequester?

Written By: Maci Woods 

How bad is the Sequester?

As a part of a military program run by the Department of Defense, I felt the wrath of the sequester cuts. Commanding Officers of summer programs were found without funding and military bases closed their doors with lack of funds as well. Along with the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps, I wondered what other valuable programs were cut because of the sequester. With a little bit of research I found an astounding number of victims to this budget cut that had numerous effects on the economy.

Of the many things cut, education is the most affected. Many states will find themselves without government funding. $54.5 billion dollars will be cut just in the state of Florida for educational funding. The department of defense also lost a large amount of funding to each of its branches. 90,000 civilian employees that work for the DoD will find themselves unemployed as well as maintenance workers for naval vessels in Norfolk, VA.

President Obama recently held a press conference, stating that the sequester took a huge toll on job growth. Although the unemployment rate dropped to 7.6 percent in March, the budget cut has cut as many as 750,000 jobs this year.

 So after all this bad news, how is this $1.1 trillion budget cut going to be fixed up in Washington? As us AP students have learned, will a fiscal policy be the answer?

Politicians have been scheming a plan for the past months on whether to increase government spending, decrease taxes, or vise versa.

On the republican side, congressman want to give more power to the executive branch to decide on what exactly needs to be cut. Programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security would not change; only defense and domestic spending would be affected.

The democrats want to have a policy that increases taxes by cutting tax expenditures and cuts spending.

In your opinion, is giving the power to the white house to cut what they want too risky? Or is a contractionary fiscal policy the answer?

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