The Sequester: Federal Government Post George W. Bush

It seems objections to “paying our national debts” via raising the debt ceiling became unacceptable once President Obama took office.  Now, that beckons questions as to why?

Recognizing the Federal Deficit at $16 trillion in 2013 Vs. the following reference to 2011 $14 trillion, we find the follwoing graphic relevant and expedient in locating. 

It is noteworthy to point out Obama’s deficit increases are distributed between fighting off an economic depression, healthcare reform and a ‘surge’ in Afghanistan (foolish decision).

Which US President is “king’ of Debt Ceiling increases through 2011? Remember, the ‘sequester’ was hatched in the fall of 2011. 

As we come closer to yet another artificial deadline in the nation’s battles over the deficit, we thought it might be good to find as basic an explanation of the “mess” as we can locate.

Govloop dot com provides such an opportunity.  Emily Jarvis keyed a piece easily readable in three minutes. The piece is also accompanied by an audio embed.

Sequestration 101 — Do you actually know how it would work?

• Posted by Emily Jarvis on September 26, 2012 at 2:30pm
• View Blog

Be honest. You have heard us all talking/worrying/complaining about the potential for sequestration since August of 2011, but do you actually know how it would work? I, for one, only had a loose understanding of the process. 

Todd Harrison is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He gave Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER a detailed breakdown of sequestration and its impact government wide.

 

Harrison’s Take

First Off: A History Lesson 

Back in July/August of 2011 when we were approaching the debt ceiling, Congress came together for some last minute negotiations to raise the debt ceiling. That agreement was called the Budget Control Act of 2011. The Act formed the Super Committee tasked with finding $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions. But, the Act also created a binding way to force the cuts in the case the Super Committee failed — that binding resolution was sequestration.

Sequestration was created from an old 1985 law that Congress amended to make sequestration legal. 

Not surprisingly the Super Committee failed. So that leaves us with the January 2nd deadline for all agencies to cut their accounts across the government not just at the Defense Department. 

How Sequestration Actually Works 

Agencies must calculate the amount of cuts required overall. That’s roughly $109 billon that they have to find in savings by fiscal 2013. Half of that (roughly $55 billon) will be taken from DoD.

The cuts have to be applied as a uniform percentage cut across all accounts down at the project level. That amounts to a roughly 10% cut on all projects.

There is one exception, the President has the option to exempt military personnel accounts. President Obama has indicated that he will do that. 

White House Sequestration Plan 

Congress started to get nervous with what the cuts would actually look like, so they passed a new law to force the White House outline in a transparent way what sequestration will look like. 

In a 300 page document the White House went line by line through the budget to show what would by cut and by how much. 

Across the Board Cuts 

Across the board cuts are a cop out. But the real problem, is cuts can have some unintended consequences. Imagine your family budget. You budget so much money every month for rent, food, car and insurance. Imagine if you had to cut each of those areas by 10%. Some things like your grocery bill you can cut fairly easily. But your rent for example you just can’t cut by 10%. That would mean moving and breaking your lease.

This is the same problem for the DoD.

Take the 200 tomahawk cruise missiles the DoD buys each year from the contractor Raytheon. The contractor is set up to build at that production rate. So if the DoD comes to Raytheon and says I’ve got to cut 10%, I can only buy 180 units. The government is going to have to break the current contract and negotiate a new deal. Raytheon is going to need to adjust it’s production so maybe they have to lay off some people or change the price per unit. So really with that 10% cut you are paying more for each missile. So in the end you don’t end up with 180 missiles you end up with fewer for the the 10% cut. 

Some Program Just Can’t Be Cut 

For example the Defense Health Program is the military help system. It is not covered under the military personnel exemption so by law it will have to cut its services by 10%. That means about $3 billon will have to come out of the budget. But they system provides health benefits to 10 million active and retired military personnel. It’s not possible for them to make the cuts. So they will have to go to Congress and submit a re-programming request and hope for Congressional approval. 

Will Sequestration Happen? 

It may depend on the election outcome.

If Congress/White House maintain the status quo: Its reasonable that there would be an incentive for lawmakers to work out a compromise in the lame duck session.

If there is a significant change in control in either branch: there may be incentive for the party that is going to gain power to delay things and not work out a compromise until they take power. But sequestration goes into effect on the 2nd of January, the President gets sworn in on the 4, and Congress not until the 20th, so in that case sequestration could go into effect.

A last minute compromise is also possible where they delay starting sequestration until April. Pass the ball down the field a little bit to take the pressure off.

Either way, we won’t know until the last minute. 

How Should You Prepare? 

Plan for uncertainty. But that’s hard because a 10% cut is a big uncertainty.

Agencies should be looking at funding sources and how they would be affected, they should start to develop contingency plans. This is especially important for civilian employees because they will be the first to be affected. So if sequestration happens, furloughs will also happen to reduce funding in all accounts. Contractors have a little more time to deal with sequestration. The impact will be delayed because they depend on the outlays for funding. Sequestration acts on budget authority (how much money an agency actually has). Contractors probably won’t feel a huge delay for 3 years. But uncertainty makes it almost impossible for contractors to hire new employees or build new factories. 

Cuts No Matter What  

No matter if sequestration happens are not the government needs to understand that cuts are coming. It’s two fold. First we are facing a record federal deficit. Second, we have very low revenues.

The President has proposed reducing the war budget and reducing the DoD’s base budget slightly, and then keeping it stagnant for a few years. 

But if you really want to see major deficit reduction you need to look at Medicare and Social Security. Currently the DoD accounts for 15% of the budget, Medicare 14% and Social Security 22%. But the Social Security and Medicare percentages will continue to grow with the babyboomers expected to retire over the next 10 years. We are facing a big deficit no matter what unless we reform those two elements 

We understand US Politics, and we understand the nature of US politics since the late 1970s and early 1980s.  For the informed, we know GOP mantra about fiscal conservatism is nothing more than the party’s egregious use of a southern strategy as a campaign tool in national elections.  As tragic as anything political in 2012/13, 47% of voters fell for GOP mantra, political acuity (even with horrid candidates), and mind altering propaganda from highly compensation media demagogues.  We do not understand how people who consider themselves conservatives have little to no influence over forcing their obstructionist representatives to “See the light”. The “light” of potential progress in ridding ourselves of the vestiges of the Bush financial record.  How can so many Americans avoid empirical data, and avoid post election observation (post 2010) as factors that influence their votes.

I find so many conservatives expended inordinate energy and cognitive processes following right-wing social biases, bigotry and divisiveness. 

They watch their politicians write and propose legislation after legislation related to abortion while not taking a moment to rial about jobs.  They fully support GOP efforts to cut Human Services programs without one iota of contemplation of future personal need.  And they do so without pressing for reduction defense spending and raising taxes on the nation’s wealthy.

The Federal Deficit is fed by expenditures that costume 57% of the nation’s discretionary spending.

The GOP lives and breathes defense spending. Yet, for some reason post 2009 after supporting Bush for eight years, they obstruct at paying debts they helped to accumulate.

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Additional Sequester basics source: 2012: http://www.nationalskillscoalition.org/about/summit/2012-summit/2012-materials/nsc_sequestration101_2012-02.pdf

History Channel On Black History Month and The USS Constellation’s Role In Our History

We thought a brief clip on the origins of Black History Month should be part of this month’s archive. As you may know we devote a page to African American History and matters related to Civil Rights in America: History Buff Page.  The following are postings we are going to run here for a couple of days before moving to the History Buff Page.  While we see little need to focus on African American History over the course of a 28 days (Leap Year,  29 day) month, we recognize others may differ.  We post here today to be followed a more lengthy posting run on the History Buff Page.   

A brief look at the history of African Americans and Black History Month.

USS Constellation: Battling For Freedom (1:28:21) TV-PG L

The USS Constellation was a Navy flagship on a mission to halt slave smuggling off the coast of Africa. Watch this heroic tale unfold though the eyes of a young hunter who was captured from his village

For clarity sake, we much prefer more study of the black experience in North and South America throughout the year.

Ancestry And History Forgotten Will Be History Lost!

Native American – Honoring our Ancestors, Culture & Spirituality Unraveling the Origins of the Mysterious ancient Olmec People

The ancient Olmec civilization thrived from about 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE in the south-central American regions knows and identified today as Vera Cruz and Tabasco, México. The ancient Olmec Natives are believed to be the 1st of the Mesoamerican civilizations, from which many other civilizations and cultures developed. It is also known from the archeological information derived from ancient Olmec cities that their culture and civilization had trade routes spanning at least as far as Guatemala. Many artistic representations of the ancient Olmec people bear Ethiopian features, leading many researchers to speculate that the fore-bearers of the Olmec’s were great travelers.

There are many ancient ruins sites throughout the area known today as Veracruz, México. If you ask most people today about their knowledge of the ancient cultures in México, most will automatically respond to and refer to the Mayan and the Aztec civilizations. True, but the fact is in the area now known as Veracruz, México, other ancient cultures had also flourished as well, those being the Huasteca, Totonac, and very ancient Olmec people. In fact, the Olmec people are considered to be the oldest known culture in all of the American continent. They are believed to be the first of the Mesoamerican civilizations from which most other civilizations developed thereafter. Most of the artistic representations of these ancient Olmec people bear Ethiopian features, leading many researchers to only speculate that the fore-bearers of the Olmec’s were great travelers. It is also known from the archeological information derived from ancient Olmec cities that the civilization had trade routes spanning at least as far as Guatemala.

It is believed the spirituality of the ancient Olmec people closely resembles the Shamanism of the Native American cultures in which humans take on certain features of revered animals. In the case of the Olmec people, their most powerful animal spirit was the Jaguar.

In northern Veracruz, México there is a huge ruins site known as El Tajin. In southern Veracruz, México giant carved stone heads were found dating back to the Olmec period around 1250 B.C. Some are burial sites and some have impressive stone pyramids, temples, ball courts, and stories of human sacrifices to their gods carved in stone.

Modern “scholars” today are completely baffled by the true origins of these mysterious Olmec people. They cannot explain how a megalithic culture suddenly “appeared”, fully formed and fully functional in Mesoamerica. The huge African-looking stone heads along side the obviously Caucasian looking stone heads on the stelae of La Venta and Monte Alban only further the confusion and continue to baffle archaeologists and anthropologists today. Instead of taking heed of the Native traditions and the works of the earliest historians of the Middle Ages, these modern “experts” today are literally stumbling around in darkness, capable of only inventing hypothesis after hypothesis which neither satisfy nor solve the riddles of the ancient Olmec people. So the mystery of these mysterious people continue today.

Just thought I would introduce some of you to these ancient Olmec People who once inhabited the region known today as Veracruz, México . Not many people know about the Olmec’s or that they even existed. I learned of the ancient Olmec’s while tracing my own family ancestry as back as the history goes. My own father’s family history only “suggests” ties and lineage to these ancient people through his grandmother. My great grandmother was a true born Native from Veracruz, México who had migrated here to the North America after meeting and marrying my great grandfather while he was visiting Veracruz as a “tourist” so many, many, many years go. They built their home raised their family here by working the lands by “share cropping” in East Texas. It was a hard life, according to my father, but they survived. After my great grandmother passed away at the age of 72, my great grandfather returned to Veracruz, México and he, too eventually passed away there years later and is buried there.

***Note to readers – I am sharing some of my own personal family history and ancestry, my father married my CHOCTAW mother in 1948 so my Native ancestry is a mix of both North and South American First Peoples and cultures so….absolute NATIVE PRIDE HERE!!

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Obama, Hillary, 60 Minutes And Hateful Fox News!

            What a Small Person?

“It’s the Same Old Song.”  Fox News highly paid demagogues attempt to ‘trash’ 60 Minutes Obama/Hillary Clinton interview.

A few days before the Fox News Segment below Carlson Tweeted the following.

Tucker Carlson ✔ @TuckerCarlson

The administration boasts about sending women to the front lines on the same day Democrats push the Violence Against Women Act.

4:16 AM – 24 Jan 13

“Taliban” Carlson was in classic form.  Say whatever it takes to getting the revenue flowing via entertaining those who find his drivel satiating. Even the off-handed mention of a man beating his wife, is disgusting.  I should say disgusting to most people. Obviously Carlson does not see the horror in this drivel.  

Even more intriguing, I read nor heard any outcry of contempt form Fox News, nor Fox news viewers.  When people do not speak out against wrongs they are factually an enabler  Where are the sane Fox News viewers? I suspect I answered my question with the last sentence.

By the way, the video segment was broadcast on January 28, 2013.

Do you guys actually vote as do these people? 

Christianity And Modern Black Enslavement

Cross posted from Whirlwind.com

Christianity And Modern Black Enslavement (Part II)

Posted on February 8, 2013

by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.

Christianity And Modern Black Enslavement (Part I)

Christianity And Modern Black Enslavement 

When we speak of Christianity and Modern Black Enslavement, we’re not so much talking about the enslavement of the body so much as the mind. If nothing else, Black people are people of faith! In some very real ways, this has worked to their detriment. When you look at the actuarial tables, you will notice that Black people here in the United States, have a lifespan significantly shorter than that of White people on average. Why? Ironically, the age at which one receives Social Security seems to be linked to the average lifespan of the Black male. As the lifespan of the Black male has increased, so too has the age at which one can begin receiving Social Security. Of course – tongue firmly pressed in cheek – that is merely a coincidence.

Notice that based on statistics, a Black Male living an average lifespan will only get a couple of years of his Social Security.

When we finally do go to the doctor, our condition is much worse than if we’d gone when we first developed symptoms.

One of the things that must be considered is the teachings within the Black Church that encouraged Black people to trust Jesus and to pray for their health and healing. Going to a doctor was almost seen as a lack of faith. Of course if you don’t have medical insurance because you cannot afford it, trusting Jesus becomes your only viable alternative. When Black people do go to the doctor, often the problem has become so advanced that the treatment options are limited and extremely expensive. Thus our mortality rate. I have several relatives who were born at home with the aid of a midwife. Not because there were no hospitals readily available, but because that was our culture at that time.

You can have a perfectly healthy home delivery. However, what happens if there are complications? What if the child has some sort of issue? I have a son who would not be alive today had it not been for the attention and skill of the hospital and the attending physician.

It is easy to slip through the cracks.

The effects of Christianity and Modern Black Enslavement are also manifested in the Black culture’s approach to education and employment. Faith and belief supersede preparation and performance. If you’re not getting your lesson in school, pray and ask God for help. I have no problem with prayer, but the reality is, a tutor or an after school session with your instructor will probably do you more good.

Christian Iconography And The Work Place

If the earliest depictions of Jesus and the Apostles showed African looking people, why was it necessary to change them?

The earliest depictions of Jesus and the Apostles all showed extremely dark men. Many wore “Afros.” So how did we arrive at this blond haired, blue eyed, white skinned Jesus? According to the stories, this was by design. None other than Michael Angelo was commissioned to paint the image of Jesus that is still widely used today. You say but it doesn’t matter what color Jesus is? Oh, but it obviously did matter. If it didn’t, Michael Angelo would not have been paid to do it.

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem

Let’s examine the ethnicity of Jesus and the real Hebrews/Jews. First of all, the only Europeans in the area at that time were the Greeks and the Romans. Jesus was neither Greek nor Roman so he clearly wasn’t what anyone could mistake for white. In the Gospel account of Herod seeking to kill him, Joseph takes Jesus and his family and flees into Egypt. The Egyptians were predominately African except for those who had mixed with the Greeks. If I were trying to hide from an assassin, the RNC Convention wouldn’t really be my first choice. I would be pretty easy to spot. You would want to blend into a crowd that looked a lot like you.

If Jesus were walking down the street at night wearing a hoodie…

The facts are that if Jesus were walking down the street today, dressed as we are, he would find it extremely difficult to hail a cab. He probably would have cause to be concerned when passing a policeman. Wearing a “hoodie?” Definitely out of the question! So why do we have this white skinned, blond haired, blue eyed Jesus today? Because It is much easier to worship a God who looks like you look. If God is white and you’re white, you’re much more related to God than someone who is not white.

If when you close your eyes and picture Jesus, the image you’re seeing looks like your boss… or a co-worker, you’re at a disadvantage.

Now think about this from the Black perspective. If you have been programmed in your mind to believe that Jesus looks like a white man, how then can you deal from a position of equality with your boss, the police or your school teacher? They look like your God. Close your eyes and picture Jesus. What do you see? Whom does your “Lord and Saviour” look like? Lord and Saviour or Lord and Slaver?

One thing that must be asked, had the original iconography not been supplanted with the Europeanized versions, how would that have affected the way Europeans interacted with and treated Africans? Would the African Slave Trade ever occurred? Prior to every atrocity the victims of that atrocity are first dehumanized, then demonized.

Before Auschwitz, Dachau, Chelmno, Jasenovac, the Jewish people first had to be demonized.

We saw this in graphic form during WWII. Government propaganda departments produced posters, cartoons and movies designed to dehumanize and demonize the “enemy” to gin up public support for their war efforts. Jews in Germany were depicted as money grubbing, bestial, rats and described as being parasites, feeding on German society. We know how that turned out.

Over here, the Japanese were done the same way. They were depicted as slant eyed, slope forehead, fang toothed, nearly simian beasts. They were depicted as creatures of nightmares. The added problem here in the United States was, we had naturalized and American born, Japanese citizens who had been living here for years. The racial hatred engendered didn’t just apply to the Japanese soldiers we were fighting. It crossed over to the Japanese Americans living and working right alongside us.

Like Germany did to the Jews, we also demonized the Japanese.

The results? Many Japanese citizens were rounded up and placed in concentration camps just like the German Jews in Nazi Germany were. The difference? We called ours, “Internment Camps.” It might well have gone the same way for the Japanese here as it did for the Jews in Germany. Let us not kid ourselves into believing that human nature is somehow improved based on geographical location.

The only thing that prevented a Japanese Holocaust right here in the United States was, our form of government – thankfully – spreads power between 3 branches. In Germany, Hitler’s word was law. Even so, we dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan – which were unnecessary – wiping out soft civilian targets. This met the definition of a war crime. Perhaps this has something to do with why we never signed on to the Geneva Convention?

Iconography And The Enslavement Of Black People

The depiction of Black people historically and currently has been used to foster and maintain a policy of degradation and oppression. The 1915 film“The Birth Of A Nation” by D.W. Griffith is an excellent example of this. The film is based loosely on “The Clansman” which was a propaganda piece for the Ku Klux Klan. It is a silent film which shows two families, one from the North and the other from the South, going through the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Eating chicken and trimming their toe nails in the Statehouse… Really???

In this film Black people – usually played by white people in “black face” – are shown taking advantage of white women. They’re is a scene showing newly elected Black congressmen, eating chicken and trimming their toe nails in the House Chambers, with their feet up on the desks. They’re showed preventing white people from voting. Ironically, they’re shown treating white people in the same ways white people treated Black Slaves. I don’t need to tell you that this film scared white people to death. It probably did more to set the tone for Black and White relations from it’s release until today than anything else. Iconography and depictions domatter. They shape not only the perceptions of the public, but the victims as well.

I see scary Black People. From Birth Of A Nation

To Be Continued In Part III