Sequestration...it seems a lifetime ago the government was "shutdown," $24 billion tax payer dollars (read: yours and mine) defecated to the winds and, sociopathic politicians that caused it posing in front of cameras and veterans memorials as if they hadn't. Bereft in the back-and-forth finger-pointing was an appreciation for The Scientific Method* and critical thinking skills when they are promoted.
* Problem - Research - Hypothesis - Test Hypothesis - Data Analysis - Conclusion - Retest
Problem: Government (supposedly a "collectivist conspiracy" from those other Founding Fathers).
Research: Milton Friedman et al, see "Seven Bad Ideas" by Jeff Madrick.
Hypothesis - Libertarian philosophies encapsulated by Ayn Rand and Grover Norquist:"My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." We The People await with baited breath (in said bathtub) the omnipotent, invisible hand of the deified "Free Market" to cure all ills.
Test Hypothesis: They came (2010); they saw (2011 - 2012); they sequestered (2013), outside of any rational beings' natural minds and common sense.
Data Analysis - As illustrative points-of-fact:
- It has been suggested that the sequester left the Secret Service at less than optimum levels. I'd say < ~500 agents is leaning heavily in that direction.
- This resulted in Defense Department Force-Level cuts, a "good" thing to do with the rise of ISIS/ISIL (sarcasm).
- It negatively impacted Department of Defense Schools, i.e. the schools our men and women in the armed forces enroll their children in while they fight for this nation in our name. Supporting the troops...
- Our public schools started this year with reading, writing, arithmetic and budget cuts, or to everyone else, less teachers and more pupils - classroom Nirvana, I'm sure.
- This impacted negatively inner-city youth, poor and special needs in all demographics.
- Our scientific research and overall global competitiveness is suffering.
- The CDC points to it as eroding their response to the Ebola epidemic in Africa and the US. See also here and here.
- Harvard Law gives a list of impact areas (it sounds like I'm discussing craters from meteors or missiles, but the analogy is not too far off): Medicare; FDA (ahem: how we eat safely); the CDC cut by $490 million; the NIH cut by $2.5 billion; ACA programs in prevention and public healthcare.
Conclusion: #2014TheDayofReckoning, 4 November, we shall see what kind of democratic republic we really are.
Retest: Eh, do you really want to?
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