You may remember the grim warnings of draconian budgets cuts issued by liberal pundits, congressional Democrats, and the Obama administration in early 2013. That was just before “sequester” took effect—a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which ordered automatic, across-the-board budget cuts…
President Trump's budget request for defense spending is at once too much and not enough.
The Marine's Hymn might need some amending. No longer is the venerable military force ready to "fight our country's battles ... In the air, on land, and sea."
The government was spending too much money. And wasting a lot of it. The need to cut back was obvious and pressing. So Congress passed something called the “sequester,” that would force frugality upon the government and oblige Washington, Inc. to endure the kind of downsizing that had been…
In Washington, folks are celebrating a new bipartisan budget deal that saves us from another full round of reductions in federal spending mandated by the “sequester.” Far fewer are lamenting the dwindling of the sequester itself. As usual, Washington has things upside down.
A future historian would describe the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) as having a profound effect on the United States. The BCA, he would write, was a critical step toward making America into a social democracy while ensuring its decline as a global military power. He would conclude that the law…
The budget deal announced today is a good deal for conservatives and Republicans.
If the public is to understand the full awfulness of the sequester, it seems that it must first suffer. So, as Eric Katz reports at Government Executive, the FBI will be furloughing agents and cutting costs in a way that, according to its departing director will:
The latest dire consequence of the Sequester may be an increase in the number of cases of the flu and, consequently, increased absenteeism among the civilian Air Force employees.
The Department of Defense is looking at some serious cutbacks in its civilian workforce, as Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg writes:
The latest sequester victim: lawyers. As of September 1, court-appointed panel attorneys for the federal defender program will be hit with a $15/hour reduction in compensation. The following announcement appeared Monday on the United States Courts website:
The effects of the sequester would be dire. Or so we were told. The massive furloughing of bureaucrats across all agencies and departments would result in cutbacks, or even elimination, of essential services. The bonds on civilization would be strained.
Sequestration has been blamed for everything from cancelled White House tours to military cutbacks that threaten national security to government worker furloughs. The latest victim of sequestration, however, might have a more difficult time garnering sympathy: corporate tax credits. The Internal…
The Washington Post editorial board criticizes the Obama administration's dereliction of duty on defense spending:
When Congress was debating implementation of the sequester, the Pentagon released a report saying that if the cuts were to kick in, civilian personnel could be furloughed for 22 days -- nearly a month's worth of work. But now that the sequester has kicked in, those furlough days appear to have been…
Remember how the sequester was supposed to ravage the landscape? The automatic spending cuts would, we were told, cause all manner of pain and suffering – inconvenience, even – as David A. Fahrenthold & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post report, we were warned:
Recently I spent some time surrounded by people who are smarter than I am, who are braver and more committed to human progress, who know more about science and technology, more about business and industry, and more about budgets and expenditures.
Democratic National Committee communications director Brad Woodhouse blamed the latest jobs report on the sequester and the Republicans:
It becomes more and more difficult to find the bad news about the sequester. Unless, that is, you are in the Pentagon and trying to figure out how to keep the Marine Corps fully equipped and trained and up to strength.
[G]ood news for our employees, good news for our visitors as we start the summer season this Memorial Day Weekend, and good news for the security of our nation’s icons -- the places that the dedicated men and women of the U.S. Park Police protect every day.” This was National Park Service Director…
The State Department today announced the dedication of a new "environmentally-sustainable" embassy in Bujumbura, Burundi. The cost of the building project is $133 million.
From Eric Katz, at Government Executive, we learn:
The show will go on. Sequestration may have cost Washington D.C. tourists a chance to tour the White House, but the Independence Day fireworks will go off as planned. A contract was awarded yesterday to Garden State Fireworks of Millington, NJ for $221,819.77. The listing for bids on the…
The Fed earlier this week blamed sequester for the economy faltering. As Forbes reported then:
Furloughed federal employees who like to play golf are in luck. There's a deal waiting for them, courtesy of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.
For the third weekend in a row, President Obama is hitting the links. CBS's Mark Knoller reports on Twitter:
Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz made a special request of the United States Capitol Police for her staff members to be treated well during sequester:
The White House will furlough the assistant chef because of sequestration, the Associated Press reports.
Last week, the U.S. embassy in Macedonia hosted a fashion show "with a goal of supporting Macedonia’s economic development, the fashion and textile sectors, and youth entrepreneurship."
The White House announced two days of garden tours, but visitors will still be barred from entering the White House--a policy that's been blamed on sequestration. Here's the White House announcement:
Mackenzie Eaglen, writing for Time:
John Kerry, who is worth an estimated $198.65 million, will donate $9,175 because of the so-called sequestration.
The New York Times reports:
As the sequester bore down on Washington, the dire warnings from the Obama administration gave the impression that wild horses couldn't drag another dime out of the treasury for a whole host of vital government services. Aircraft carrier refueling, the Head Start program, and White House tours were…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on President Obama's bad sequester calculus. Hosted by Michael Graham.
As it turns out, Vice President Joe Biden's London stay in February was not the most expensive part of his trip. A government document released on February 14, 2013 shows that the contract for the Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand came in at $585,000.50.
Congressional aides may not be able to pay the price of a decent meal in Washington D.C. if this sequester madness continues. This, anyway, is what Debbie Wasserman Schultz is saying.
President Obama’s outreach to congressional Republicans isn’t a minor tactical shift. It’s a course correction. Five days after denouncing Republicans as tools of “the well-off and well-connected,” he had dinner at the swanky Jefferson Hotel in Washington with a dozen GOP senators. Not only had…
President Obama joked about the budget cuts known as the sequester, suggesting that seats had been take from his event because of the cuts:
Forget the sequester. If you're Chuck Schumer, there are ways around it. Consider the recent example of a U.S. Marine Corps band cancelling its scheduled performance at a St. Patrick's Day parade due to the "sequester"--and Chuck Schumer's successful "push" for the band to come anyway.
Barack Obama is fond of saying that “the majority of Americans” agree with him on his “balanced approach” to deficit reduction—which these days seems to mean increasing tax revenues through rate hikes and big defense spending cuts with relatively insignificant cuts elsewhere. At the beginning of…
President Obama says he's not the one who canceled the White House tours. He made the comments in an interview with ABC News.
Lines to get into the Capitol today are “ridiculous” and a “disaster,” according to staffers who work in members’ offices on Capitol Hill.
CNN reports that the commandant of the Marine Corps is ordering the personnel under his command to:
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Stephen Hayes:
ABC News reports this evening that the White House is saving $18,000 per week by cancelling tours:
One can expect a fair amount of exaggeration, spin, and dissembling regarding the effects of the sequester. No claims, so far, that Americans are chewing hides and lacing their boots with the sinews of game they have killed and eaten in order to survive. President Obama did warn, however, that…
ABC reports that most folks support spending cuts, as long as defense budgets aren't slashed:
With the White House closing its doors to public tour groups in order to save money for the sequester, it's worth remembering some of the other costs the White House incurs annually.
Buildings in the same complex as Vice President Joe Biden's official residence in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Naval Observatory, will be closing doors to tour groups due to the mandatory budget cuts of sequestration.
Stephen D. Abney, the chief public affairs official for the Army’s Joint Munitions Command, recently sent a message to all 6,000 employees he speaks for: Don’t criticize President Barack Obama or any political party to members of the press. The message was received by civilian contractors as well.
In the days leading up to sequestration, President Obama and other administration officials often singled out Head Start as one of the vital programs that would be severely impacted by the automatic spending cuts. Phrases like "70,000 kids get thrown off of Head Start" and "70,000 young children…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Bill Kristol:
Inside the beltway, there is a pervasive sense of impending doom. The rest of the country may not much care, but sequestration is here. According to warnings by the Obama administration, failure to avert these automatic spending cuts will lead to planes falling from the skies, bridges collapsing,…
Poor kids to go without lunches and vaccinations, meat sold without being inspected, firemen and cops laid off, illegal aliens released from prison, 17,200 teachers fired, airports closed, long lines at airports, and 700,000 workers laid off. Egypt in ferment? Syria at war? Austerity-ridden Greece?…
President Barack Obama orders sequestration. Here’s the text of the executive order:
In a sharply written statement, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama blasts President Obama for campaigning and not governing. He calls Obama's response to the sequestration "the most cynical behavior I have seen during my time in Washington."
President Barack Obama suggested today he'd be able to negotiation with the opposition better if they didn't "paint horns on [his] head":
President Obama warned that the pain from the sequestration cuts "will be real":
The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell released a statement this morning saying that "there will be no last-minute, back-room deal and absolutely no agreement to increase taxes." McConnell's statement came out before he, along with other congressional leaders, is scheduled to meet with…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Bill Kristol to discuss the Republicans' response on the sequester.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Fred Barnes on the sequester and Chuck Hagel.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Bill Kristol on why President Obama's sequester isn't the answer -- reform is.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with contributing editor Irwin Stelzer, on how to discuss the sequester at (presumably boring) cocktail parties.
The president has returned from Florida and is back in form, warning against the imposition of the drastic spending cuts called for by what is known as the "sequester."
It’s understandable that Republicans are tempted by the prospect of allowing the “sequester”—the automatic cut to defense and domestic discretionary spending agreed to as an enforcement mechanism for the 2011 debt ceiling deal—to go into effect on March 1. It’s understandable because Republicans…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Fred Barnes hosted by Michael Graham: