Uh-Oh! The Sequester Show Could Go On and On

Well, it happened. The big bad sequester went into effect and guess what? The earth is still rotating on its axis. Planes are still flying, the Coast Guard is still patrolling U.S. waters, and there haven’t been any mass breakouts from federal penitentiaries. On Wall Street, the Dow closed up thirty-five points, leaving it just seventy-five points below its all-time high. Outside of the public sector and the media bubble, I suspect, many Americans greeted the whole thing with a yawn—just more Washington squabbling about the budget.

That’s not really accurate, though. As President Obama pointed out during an extended appearance at the White House press room on Friday, the budget-cutting process that the sequester mandates is “going to hurt. It’s going to hurt individual people, and it’s going to hurt the economy overall.” For many federal workers, such as civilians employed at the Pentagon and employees of the Justice Department and other agencies, it will mean furloughs and lower pay. As these folks see their incomes drop, they will spend less on all sorts of things, which will have an impact on countless businesses in the private sector.”

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