In April of this year, the U.S. government’s latest solution of sequestration for the country’s budget crisis will take full effect if our country does not find a solution quickly.
In August of 2011, President Barak Obama signed the Budget Control Act, a system of automatic budget cuts called sequestration, as a threat to the two major political parties to present a solution for the country’s budget dilemma.
The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate failed to present an agreement on how to solve the nation’s $1.2 trillion debt, which automatically activated sequestration.
Now the government will reduce federal spending to companies, organizations, and employees that are needed for a functional and safe country, because of their inadequacies.
This mandate will put into effect a cut of $85 billion on spending in the 2013 budget, resulting in the loss of 750,000 jobs, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This means that all services and institutions sustained by government funding will undergo unacceptable changes.
One such institution is the education system, which will be impacted greatly by sequestration where an estimated 7.8 percent of budget cuts will take place.
Over 10,000 teachers and 7,200 special education teachers will be furloughed or laid off nationwide, according to a press release from the White House.
College students are not exempt from this drastic measure either.
As many as 15 million college students who receive grants and financial support will be cut from various programs around the nation. Unfortunately, our education system, which is already damaged financially, will now deteriorate further.
Public health is also in jeopardy because of cuts in funding for health programs.
Sequestration will cut $600 million in health programs around the world according to the Global Health Technologies Coalition 2013 policy report.
President Obama also suggested $400 billion cuts on healthcare, mainly from Medicare, to help the budget. Additionally, the Republican party wants to cut even more funding from healthcare plans.
Our food safety, which also plays a huge role in health for Americans, is at stake due to 2,100 food safety inspectors being laid off which increases health risk to consumers, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Low-income families will also suffer. Over 600,000 women will be dropped from the Women, Infant, and Child program according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Jobless Americans, who receive unemployment benefits, will be cut off or reduced by 9.4 percent.
Already busy and crowded airports will get even more crowded due to closed runways which will cause delayed and cancelled flights as well as longer lines because employees will be laid off or furloughed.
The sequester could have been avoided by a bipartisan agreement from the Congress discussing how this year’s budget can be spent in order to reduce the national debt.
The main disagreement, which led to the idea of sequestration, is that the Republicans do not agree with the Democrat Party and oppose the proposal to increase taxes on the wealthy Americans, whom are only one percent of the American population.
Also, a majority of wealthy Americans support higher taxes on themselves as a solution for the government’s debt problems, according to a Consumer News and Business Channel poll from December 2012.
The political parties should realize that raising taxes would not only benefit the economy and increase revenue to cover the deficit, but that it would hurt less Americans who already have financial hardships.
The government is taking away from the people who need jobs, education, and financial resources instead of the one percent that don’t need financial help at all.
Republicans and Democrats should put their differences aside and come into accordance to quickly reach an agreement that prevents the sequester and save our nation from needless suffering.
