Sequestration: How Quickly We Forget. Does It Not Affect You?

Just saw this Scientists Consider Leaving US and became a bit concerned that America has once again just bent over and took another one without a fight, or much of one. I work in healthcare where the number of ways sequestration complicates our jobs are too numerous to list and in a very direct way this translates into hardships for everyone.

My question is: would you share other ways you know this will adversely affect you and yours? Is there ANY good side to it other than the propaganda that has been shoved down our throats and been used to crush any media coverage or open discussion? Finally, why hasn't there been more of a backlash? This is far more serious than I have seen discussed.

As always, thanks for any input.

If I may? I think the biggest problem is that people don't understand what sequestration IS...where the concept and legal framework came from or what it's actually doing and how.

The fact people are still debating the National Debt figure not moving in a long time says everything, quite literally, by that one question. That, by definition, cannot move under the circumstances which, by definition, triggers sequestration. Debt normally rising? Well..it's still adding up. It's just pushing DOWN into existing programs and expenses outside 'Mandatory' items like Medicare. It's eating everything that can be eaten before running out of money, even there.

I think, until the very basic concept being seen here is understood? Nothing will make anyone mad because they don't realize so much wrong right this moment IS from that ONE action.

It's also a problem that Obama IS at fault for having thought this crap up to put into the budget as a zinger ....when and how it happened. So it's HIS fault right!? Well..... no.... Not quite..and so, there goes everyone who loves to hate Obama but pass on issues where it isn't clear.

Obama did it...but only because Congress couldn't write a budget if the nation literally depended on it. Which it does ...and they still aren't doing.

People will get mad beyond measure ...if or when they ever realize the general simplicity behind an issue the White House, Congress and the Media have spent GREAT effort to confuse so badly, even economists seem confused at a basic thing.

reply to post by wrabbit2000

Wrabbit!! Haven't seen you in my threads for a while. Good to see you again, and hope you and yours are doing well.

Of course your points are perfectly correct. I wanted to add that my daughter moved to DC eight years ago (BTW, I'm going to be a grandpa for the first time for a Christmas present in four months) and she still has trouble believing the vast difference in local perception. She thinks that in DC, there has until recently been a much more tolerant attitude regarding items such as sequestration because they just wasn't affected to the degree the rest of the nation has been and will be. Such a large percentage of the population regionally is employed by the government, and to a very great degree they will always be exempt to the most harmful damage brought about by governmental fiscal abuse/neglect. Whereas here in Fort Worth, we are also shielded a bit because our economy is largely intact and still prospering, just at a reduced rate. That doesn't mean those of us in specific industries such as healthcare (you mentioned Medicare) aren't more aware of how it affects everyone. I worry that the masses not only don't grasp the situation, but are terribly ill equipped in a variety of ways to see the end results. In your opinion, I'm curious, would you say that our fellow citizens are too lazy to do the homework, it has been presented in such a fashion as to obfuscate the details to where normally intelligent people just scratch their heads and move on, or is it simply the case that the majority of the world either can't or doesn't plan ahead?

Anxious for your input.

reply to post by samstone11


Well, you ask some good questions here. Why don't Americans care? Hmm... I think it's a combination of your reasoning.

In your opinion, I'm curious, would you say that our fellow citizens are too lazy to do the homework, it has been presented in such a fashion as to obfuscate the details to where normally intelligent people just scratch their heads and move on, or is it simply the case that the majority of the world either can't or doesn't plan ahead?

I don't think Americans literally don't care. That doesn't strike me as right. We all care about health (as one major area this is hitting) and if not our own, we all have family. Immediate and otherwise...and who doesn't care about their Mom or Dad or Sibling as the case may be? For the same reason, lazy doesn't fit either. On many things? Yeah..but not health. It touches us all directly or someday will, in ways nothing else does. As we all know, Health is only one of many sides of sequestration's reach.

I think two major factors come in here, building on your points.

First, people who really DO care are too busy anymore. If they aren't rushing between 2 jobs to make ends meet and keep everything running at min. levels? They're overwhelmed by crisis every day, sometimes more than one per day..but always something on a national level of "You MUST care!!! or You MUST fear!!!". I think it builds a weariness after awhile where people are too exhausted once life in general is added in.

Second, the media and political establishment have made it appear so multi-layered and complex to even grasp that when people DO "get it" they figure it can't be because it wasn't hard enough to figure out. Why be furious...this can't be that simple?? Right?

I wish more people would take the few hours it may take. Really.. It's one of the first lessons I think anyone really going behind the curtain on things gets, right between the eyes. I sure did and I've heard others talk about the same thing. It's the utter shocking realization that most of what we're led to believe is 'above our level' of comprehension ...so requires we be spoon fed the info? IS NOT that complex and is NOT hidden or somehow mystical knowledge.

Simply leading people to believe that, then making sure they're too stressed and busy staying afloat one day to the next? Well... It insures even those who care won't usually have the ability to fully understand the issues. That makes for any resistance to be ineffective from the first try, IMHO.

Instead of just talking about whether or not people are idiots you guys could actually post something to help explain it?

The link in the OP takes me to a Syria poll story.

Simple answer: Sequestration hasn't forced the cut of anything which didn't already need to experience cuts. The fear mongering before the sequester kicked in, predicting we'd all be wearing sack cloth and standing in bread lines if it was allowed to happen, were bullcrap, pure and simple.

Here's the link I suspect you were intending to include in the OP, by the way: www.huffingtonpost.com...

"Globally, the United States invests more real dollars in research and development than any other country," the study notes. "However, in terms of percentage of gross domestic product, the United States is reducing its investment in scientific research. In fact, of the 10 countries investing the most money in scientific research, the United States is the only country that has reduced its investment in scientific research as a percentage of GDP since 2011."

Let's grasp some perspective here... the mandated drains on the "budget" (I put it in parentheses because this administration has never operated under a budget) don't care about GDP or anything else... they continue to increase every year. Interest on the debt, Medicare, SS outlays, etc... then there's the untouchables like defense spending and welfare spending, neither of which seem to ever go down. Research funding is one of the few remaining discretionary spending honey pots. So, as tax intakes have remained stagnant and mandatory spending has increased, something MUST give.

Furthermore, why in the hell do HuffPo readers always focus on percentages over concrete numbers? They pull this crappola with taxes, too. It isn't enough that 50% of the nation pays 98% in taxes, they want those folks to pay a higher percentage of their personal wealth. Sorry to break this news, but most of us will happily hold the door open for those scientists if they want to leave, especially if doing so saves us all some $$$.

reply to post by MikeNice81

Sorry I didn't explain this better in the original post. You are correct about the link to a poll about Syria. The idea is that budget cuts, grants, opportunities, and other means of funding as a direct consequence of sequestration is causing scientists to consider taking their research elsewhere. There can be an argument that this is good in some areas of research, but it is the concept of losing out on potentially great strides in a variety of different arenas that should be of concern. As I tried to point out, maybe poorly, is that if you look sequestration is affecting us from so many different directions it is almost impossible to list it all. This is only one minor sampling that got me thinking in the direction this thread was headed.

Again, sorry for any confusion.

reply to post by burdman30ott6

I gotta take two different roads here. First, thanks for saving my butt on the bad link. You found a different one than I intended, but seems to have come from the same information source. Also, I have become greatly dissatisfied with HuffPost in general because they quite often push their own agendas deep down the reader's throat and there is less and less pretense of anything close to fair and balanced.

However, although I agree that research is often "discretionary", as a society we cannot ever afford to allow forward thinking and progress through research to fully stagnate. Also, what is discretionary to you and I takes on a very different view for someone laying in a hospital bed dying, waiting for a cure from some disease that may be found the day after this person passes away. I'm sure you are right that many budgets need curtailing, and that sequestration may have been a part of the scheme of things longer and deeper than we realized. What I am saying is that incompetence, ignorance, and inaction on the part of our government should not carry such a hefty penalty on the common citizen who may or may not have voted for change and has no understanding or recourse regarding what happens to him/her and their loved ones.

In the end, it is what it is and the "haves" will always outmaneuver the "have-nots" because it seems they've sewn up the legislative and regulatory positions worldwide. IMHO.