sequestration – Page 2 – Behind The Black

“We are not going to do anything.”

December 20, 2012 2:27 pm Robert Zimmerman

Senate Democrats in action: “We are not going to do anything.”

But of course, it will be the Republicans’ fault, even though their proposed bill is one that Harry Reid himself considered acceptable earlier this year.

Sequestration and NASA

December 14, 2012 9:49 am Robert Zimmerman

Here we go again. Yesterday an aerospace organization, Aerospace Industries Association, released a sixteen page report [pdf] claiming that NASA will lose 20,500 jobs and NOAA 2,500 if the federal government goes over the “fiscal cliff” and sequestration happens.

Immediately, a slew of news articles xeroxed this report to pound home this point, noting the job loses for the specific cities of each newspaper and how disaster awaits the country if sequestration is allowed to take place and we go over that blessed “fiscal cliff”:

The trouble is, this is all hogwash and bad journalism.
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Boeing to cut 30 percent of its management ranks.

November 7, 2012 2:20 pm Robert Zimmerman

Boeing to cut 30 percent of its management ranks.

This could be good news for the company. If they do this right, they will reduce their costs without hurting their ability to produce. That they made this announcement today, the day after the election, and that the cuts mostly involve their defense work also suggests it is linked to sequestration, despite the company’s denial.

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The automatic budget cuts triggered by sequestration appear increasingly likely according to two defense analysts.

September 18, 2012 4:47 pm Robert Zimmerman

Good news: The automatic budget cuts triggered by sequestration appear increasingly likely according to two defense analysts.

Now that the Obama administration has released some details on how these 8.2 and 9.4 percent cuts will be imposed, I find them a refreshing change from business-as-usual in Washington. As far as I can tell, the only thing really wrong with them is that they only scratch the surface of the federal budget debt.

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“Sequestration would come at ‘great cost’ to NASA.”

September 16, 2012 8:06 pm Robert Zimmerman

Another whining article about sequestration: “Sequestration would come at ‘great cost’ to NASA.”

Let’s be blunt. An 8.2 percent cut in NASA’s budget will not destroy the agency. It will hurt them, surely, but it will only bring their budget back the agency’s 2005 budget. Considering the deficit and debt, this is hardly a draconian cut.

If the Republicans are serious about getting the budget under control — as they say they are — then these automatic cuts imposed by sequestration should not give them heartburn.

As for the Democrats, no point in caring what they think or do. We already know they aren’t serious about getting the budget under control, considering the budgets Obama has proposed, all of which were rejected unanimously by both Houses of Congress, and the refusal of the Democrats in the Senate to even offer a budget for the past three years.

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The science cuts from sequestration

September 14, 2012 3:47 pm Robert Zimmerman

The journal Science today published this detailed look at the cuts that would occur in all the federal government’s various science programs should the automatic budget cuts outlined in the sequestration legislation occur on January 2, 2013.

Not surprising, the article includes a great deal of moaning and groaning about the terrible harm the cuts would have on science research should they occur. From the Obama administration:
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The Obama administration will miss the legal deadline — from a law he signed only less than a month ago — to provide details on implementing the required budget cuts under sequestration.

September 7, 2012 7:01 pm Robert Zimmerman

The law is such an inconvenient thing: The Obama administration will miss the legal deadline — set by a law he signed only a month ago — to provide details on implementing the required budget cuts under sequestration.

This is only one data point in a long string of data points that have consistently illustrated how disinterested the Obama administration is in dealing with budget issues and the federal debt. And disinterested might be too kind a word. Incompetent also comes to mind.