We survived them all. We have grown strong at the broken places. But now the polls have come up with a new word to panic us: sequester.
It is supposed to scare us witless. But, in truth, hearing a politician tell us, “We are heading toward sequester” is really no scarier than hearing the words, “I don’t like the looks of that mole” or “Welcome to Carnival Cruise Lines.”
The sequester was designed to be so horrible that both the Republicans and Democrats in Congress would recoil from it.
All sorts of things will be cut under a sequester: border security, airport security, Head Start, public housing support, NASA, special education, the FBI, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and national defense.
But do you know what does not get cut? Take a guess. That’s right:
The salaries of senators and representatives do not get cut under sequester. Congressional staffers — those people who actually read and write the laws, get coffee and have to go before the cameras to explain why their boss has been found in a Motel 6 with a pole dancer named Mercedes Dee Lite — face a 20 percent pay cut through furloughs.
But members of Congress? Their six-figure salaries will continue to roll in, even as money to Medicare patients gets cut.
So why did anybody expect Congress to be repelled by a sequester?
Read more: Sequestration: Bring it on! - Roger Simon - POLITICO.com
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