THE NATION HELD HOSTAGE
Dorian Valenzuela
The Signal
The U.S. national debt currently rests at more than $16 trillion.
In light of America’s growing budget deficit and a lack of compromise in Washington D.C., as of March 2013, the budget has been sequestered.
Sequestration is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a noun that describes: “the action of taking legal possession of assets until a debt has been paid or other claims have been met…the action of making a general cut in government spending.”
In Aug. 2011, Republican and Democratic leaders could not agree on the most effective way to reduce the budget deficit. Democrats did not want to extend tax cuts to families making $250,000 or more based on the notion that wealthier groups could best afford higher taxes in order to bring in more revenue. With this plan in place, mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare would be spared.
Republicans argue that a tax increase on the wealthy would not help with job creation among small businesses and that mandatory entitlement programs are the real source of our national debt. Both parties’ inability to make an agreement has led this nation into sequestration for the first time in American history.
The gridlock between Republicans and Democrats has led the nation to automatic, across the board, spending cuts to federal agencies including: military defense, NASA, and Medicare.
“The inability of the Republican leaders to get the rank and file members to compromise and the White House’s inability to forge a long-term deal to cut spending created an environment where both sides needed some kind of trigger to initiate a deal,” said Brandon J. Rottinghaus, associate professor of political science at the University of Houston.
The history of sequestration traces back to 1985 with the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act; this was the first time a mechanism was generated in order to reduce the size of the federal budget.
The Budget Control Act of 2011, also known as the debt ceiling compromise, has been automatically put into effect because congress failed to create a deficit reduction plan in the amount of $1.2 trillion to lower the U.S. debt ceiling by Dec. 2012, the original deadline. An extended deadline was added and congress failed once again to come to an agreement before March 1, 2013.
“Sequestration is a poor exercise in showing the GOP and conservatives that increased taxes are needed to move this country forward,” said William Hoston, professor of political science at the UHCL. “If we can’t increase taxes, then the alternative is deep budget cuts. While GOP members are split over support, they understand without raising taxes it is necessary to address budgetary issues. The main reason the sequestration is taking place is because GOP lawmakers held the American economy hostage and did not extend an olive branch to the Obama administration.”
In 2011, experts predicted consequences as a result of sequestration, but not many were able to fully explain to Americans which programs would be hit first and to what extent, generating uncertainty across the nation.
“This tactic is unsettling because much needed governmental programs have been hit,” Hoston said. “It is imperative to cut spending, but the sequestration is [a] grim and dangerous way to do it. Its day-to-day impact will have an effect on important factions in our society.”
The automatic cuts will be evenly split between domestic and defense programs. The defense sector will feel the effect in its discretionary spending, which includes weapon purchases, base operations, construction work, etc. In the domestic sector, mandatory and discretionary spending will be affected.
It is expected that the cuts will reach $85 million this fiscal year and $1.2 trillion over the next decade.
“Several government units will have to tighten their belts and reduce their outlays.” Rottinghaus said. “This will cause government entities to make hard choices about how to remedy the loss of funds.”
In the wake of President Barack Obama’s re-election, many Americans are looking toward the White House in search of answers and hope that the current administration can find some form of tactic to deal with the current economic crisis.
“The president has few options other than some shifting of funds within departments to lessen the harm of the across-the-board cuts,” said Richard W. Murray, professor of political science at the University of Houston.
Many short-term effects are expected among the different federal agencies. The projected immediate result of sequestration includes: air travel disruption, slower extreme-weather forecasts, immigration backlog, increased risk of homelessness among Americans, etc.
While there will be short-term effects, long-term effects of sequestration might not be as bad as some Americans expect.
“There is probably no long-term economic or financial consequence,” Rottinghaus concluded. “The cuts are too modest to reform larger structural economic issues facing the budget. In the short term, some sectors of the government (and those working for or with the government) will feel a pinch.”
