Welcome to the era of sequestration.
The political grandstanding between the Tea Party and the Sane People have come to the point where, due to the fact that they couldn't agree on a budget, on tax cuts, on anything, taxes have been arbitrarily increased and spending has been arbitrarily slashed. Some of the more egregious cuts?
Education: Goodbye Head Start and other programs that were federally funded. Hope you parents can find a way to deal with your kids after school.
Healthcare: In my home town, 3 major hospitals are closing in high need areas: SUNY Downstate, Brooklyn Hospital, LICH.
Immigration: several thousand illegal immigrants that were being detained in advance of obtaining paperwork have been released. Take that Arizona!
Defense: The military took huge and deep cuts, slashing it's size by at least 10%
Unemployment and Social Security: Both saw cuts of 6%, meaning the amount and duration of these benefits have been cut.
Oh, yeah, something like a million jobs have been lost in the process.
Now, the same people who were clamoring for smaller government are hamstrung and are wondering where the government support is. And the legislators who let this happen seem convinced that government is supposed to be run like a business, and turn a profit. They're wrong. Whenever government has extra money, it's not called profit, it's called surplus. There's a reason for that.
Well, now that TP has gotten what they want, I wonder if they'll be happy now?
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