What is a Sequester and What Does it Mean for You?

A sequester is federal spending cuts and we are facing a deadline of March 1, 2013 for congress to do something to keep a lot of things we need from being cut.  The federal cuts could be around $1.2 trillion that could lead to another recession.  This all could have been avoided back in December 2011 had action been taken, instead of pushed back.

 

(from: What the heck is the sequester? by CNNMoney)



Planned Cuts

• Aircraft purchases by the Air Force and Navy are cut by $3.5 billion.
• Military operations across the services are cut by about $13.5 billion.
• Military research is cut by $6.3 billion.
• The National Institutes of Health get cut by $1.6 billion.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are cut by about $323 million.
• Border security is cut by about $581 million.
• Immigration enforcement is cut by about $323 million.
• Airport security is cut by about $323 million.
• Head Start gets cut by $406 million, kicking 70,000 kids out of the program.
• FEMA’s disaster relief budget is cut by $375 million.
• Public housing support is cut by about $1.94 billion.
• The FDA is cut by $206 million.
• NASA gets cut by $970 million.
• Special education is cut by $840 million.
• The Energy Department’s program for securing our nukes is cut by $650 million.
• The National Science Foundation gets cut by about $388 million.
• The FBI gets cut by $480 million.
• The federal prison system gets cut by $355 million.
• State Department diplomatic functions are cut by $650 million.
• Global health programs are cut by $433 million; the Millenium Challenge Corp. sees a $46 million cut, and USAID a cut of about $291 million.
• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is cut by $55 million.
• The SEC is cut by $75.6 million.
• The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is cut by $2.6 million.
• The Library of Congress is cut by $31 million.
• The Patent and Trademark office is cut by $156 million.

What Wont Get Cut

•  Medicaid
• Social Security
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF/Welfare)
• Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP/Food Stamps)

What Else?

Well, beyond programs having their spending cut, people will lose jobs. Those that are government contractors, or even government employees, could be forced to take furloughs - time off, without pay.  Anytime that people are in jeopardy of losing their jobs, or even facing time off without pay, the amount of general spending done drops. The economy could suffer, and things could get worse.

Bottom Line

Congressinal leaders, the President, and Vice President need to play nice and get along. Our families are depending on it....

 

  

The Life and Times of the Resourceful Resourceless - Managing Day-to-Day

In today's times too many to count are struggling to survive simply because they are elderly or unable to work. The resources they need to survive are being played with like their lives are part of some giant game of monopoly. These tales are of and from one of the many who are forced to find resources where there are none. (These are the words of my own mother. She has always managed to make something from nothing - even if it wasn't much. I hope her words touch you as they do me, she surprises me everyday. She truly is my hero!)




In this household (I started to say mine, but it is my mothers actually, I only Parent the Parent). We do manage from day to day, moment to moment. Managing isn't always about money or resources but about life itself. Down to Earth and in your face life. Resources are not there for the toothache I have at least once a week.

I am a veteran but do not have 60% disability to warrant my teeth being pulled. Not tooth but teeth where more that likely the medicine that the VA Hospital put me on caused my teeth to break off and fall out or the dentist that used medication that I am allergic too,two shots at that. That is life and I manage to make it till another week without a toothache.

I manage to eat something from the 200.00 in Food Stamps I receive for me. The state I live in sees me as disabled twice. Workers Compensation Permanent Partial Diability (8% of my whole body) and the dreaded welfare department shows me as disabled to give me a Medical Card that no body takes. In your face life.

Money, resources, happy words too many but sad words for this household. Money a Retirement Social Security check meant for one, but remember I am a seperate household for Food Stamps and feed us on 200.00 a month in Food Stamps. I manage to do it. I won't be able to feed my mother if I have to make or buy babyfood to eat, so I do what I have to.

A little secret Medicaid will pull your teeth but that is all. That is a blessing if you find someone who is taking the Medical Card. Managing and in your face for a moment. Well will get back to you later mother fell or sat down in the floor. More than likely sat in the floor (she has Alzheimers and is more than a handful, but I manage to handle that too).

I was right sat in the floor and time to go manage from day to day, moment to moment. Life is calling me to reality.

The Life and Times of the Resourceful Resourceless

In today's times too many to count are struggling to survive simply because they are elderly or unable to work. The resources they need to survive are being played with like their lives are part of some giant game of monopoly. These tales are of and from one of the many who are forced to find resources where there are none.

Who is holding the Social Security checks, Veterans Adminstration, Medicaid, and Medicare hostage? Not the President of the United States. The Republicans and Democrats.

The way the Social Security works is a person receives a monthly check directly deposited into a bank account. The person cannot have over a certain amount of money in their account or they lose their benefits. So no savings allowed. They are suppose to be poor and needy right? Poor and needy people cannot have a savings for emergencies or anything else, according to the government.

With everything that is happening with the economy my mother, like many others, is facing the chance of losing her Social Security check - her means of survival - because the people in charge want to help those who have instead of the have-nots.

My mother lives on Social Security and knows that most days her medicine, rent, utilities, and groceries are being held hostage by the people she voted for to protect her. She can barely make due; if it wasn't for family and the few programs in our community she couldn't make it from month to month. Sadly, too many others are in the same position.

My mother just turned 75, is blind, has had 4 operations for eye cancer resulting in having her "good" eye removed, and suffers from Alzheimers. She worked until she could work no longer and now that she is in need she has to add worrying about her Social Security check to her health concerns. It doesn't seem fair. It's not fair.

Lack of Social Security for one month is worse to her than having an eye removed. Social Security is her only means of survivial, without it she will lose her home, be without the medicine she needs, and all the hard, back breaking labor she provided for her community - that promised to care for her as long as she pays into the Social Security fund - would be for not.

I hope she doesn't remember this part of her life since today she is a teenager again and none of this exists. But who knows what tomorrow brings or what she will be cognizant enough to understand.

Let my mother (and the countless others) continue to live or survive.

My grandmother - one of the many nameless, faceless, resourceless...