IMPACT OF SEQUESTER ON CALIFORNIA
WRITTEN BY CHRISS W. STREET
Over the weekend, the White House released a report detailing some of the programs and services in California that would be impacted beginning Friday, March 1st, by the White House Budget cuts necessary to meet sequestration requirements. The Administration has threatened that the cuts will result in a massive contraction of the national economy. The breakdown of the effects on California was politically structured as an emotional call for Republicans to commit Hari-kari by compromising the demands of their base for fiscal discipline. With sequester only amounting to 2% of spending, the cuts do seem to be as earth shattering as the media has predicted.
Sequester is defined as the act of removing, separating, or seizing anything from the possession of its owner under process of law for the benefit of creditors or the state. The term “budget sequestration” was first used to describe as a section of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act of 1985 under President Ronal Reagan that set hard caps on spending. The sequestration was abandoned under President H.W. Bush and replaced by a required PAYGO under the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 that lasted until 2002, when President G.W. Bush abandoned budget discipline.
California will suffer the following cuts according to the Obama Administration: Continue reading
