Sequestration: The Disarming of the United States of America

[American Patriot]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/105938112/...tration-Report

White House Sequestration Report

[American Patriot]

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Deco...e-consequences

Everything you need to know about budget 'sequestration' – except the consequences

The White House has reported on the $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts that are part of last year's debt ceiling deal. But how the cuts will impact individual programs remains unclear.


By David Grant, Staff writer / September 15, 2012

• 

A Stop Sequestration button that was given to Aerospace employees from Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky is seen at a rally to call to attention upcoming defense budget cuts, in West Palm Beach, Florida August 8, 2012.
Robert Sullivan/REUTERS

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You can now go line by line in the federal budget and see just how deep the spending cuts slated for January will go thanks to a White House report released Friday on the impact of what’s known as “sequestration.”
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  'Fiscal cliff'? 'Sequester'? Your guide to Congress's code language.
  
  
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What still isn’t there, however, is how the Selective Service (down 9.4 percent, or $2 million), managers for federal emergency food and shelter funding (down 8.2 percent, or $10 million) or operations and maintenance at the Marine Corps (down 9.4 percent, or $854 million) will actually cope with the reductions.

How many fewer tents will the Federal Emergency Management Agency buy? How will the Marine Corps maintain its combat readiness? That’s all still unclear.

“There will be some unintended consequences sooner or later,” says Pete Davis of Davis Capital Investment Ideas. “They’ve taken 8.2 percent out of embassy security which doesn’t seem like such a great idea right now…. What are you going to do if you’re building a ship and you’re going to take 9.4 percent out of it? It’s not like you can just buy 90 percent of a ship.”
RECOMMENDED: 'Fiscal cliff'? 'Sequester'? Your guide to Congress's code language.

Sequestration was the result of last summer’s debt ceiling deal, which cut $1 trillion in government spending over the next decade outright and then put responsibility for finding another $1.2 trillion on Congress.
Because Congress failed to agree on the mixture of lower spending and higher taxes to hit that figure, a mechanism in the debt ceiling-raising legislation causes automatic spending decreases to hit the $1.2 trillion figure: about $109 billion in lower government spending every year for the next decade.

The report itself comes about a week after the statutory deadline from the Sequestration Transparency Act, one of the last pieces of legislation Congress passed before adjourning for its August break. That legislation ordered the administration to create a report detailing the outlines of the sequester.

Overall, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget outlined the $109 billion in spending cuts for 2013 as follows:

• Hits to defense programs of either 9.4 percent or 10 percent, depending on how they receive their appropriations from Congress ($55 billion).
• Payments to Medicare providers will be reduced by 2 percent ($11 billion).
• Cuts to non-defense spending (like elementary and secondary education or rehabilitation services and disability research) will be cut at either 8.2 percent or 7.6 percent (totaling $43 billion).
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of which budget lines see what reductions, the document does not carry the down-the-middle, dispassionate tone presented by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, say, or the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Instead, it frequently rips Republican plans to turn off the sequester at various points as “unbalanced,” “irresponsible,” unrealistic, unfair, and unreasonable.

That tone reprised the same debate that the two parties have been having on Capitol Hill for months. Republicans on Capitol Hill released their own barrage in which they called the President’s leadership into question and criticized the report’s lack of granular description of exactly how the administration would cope with sequestration should it occur.

“Although the sequestration report lacks detail, it makes glaringly clear that those programs most closely related to combat readiness of the force will be severely cut,” said Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky in a statement. “And while the report claims that the President has offered ‘balanced and comprehensive deficit reduction’ solutions, his plan was so unserious that it was rejected by every single member of Congress.”

The chairman of the House Republican conference, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R) of Texas, concurred.

“When it comes to averting this looming national defense crisis, President Obama has been AWOL – absent without leadership,” Representative Hensarling said in a statement. “Even though the sequester was originally concocted by his administration, the president could not even manage to meet last week’s legal deadline for explaining how he plans to implement these cuts, in violation of the law he signed just last month.”

Democrats, on the other hand, again contended that the law which both parties profess to hate only lives on because the GOP will not bend on raising taxes.

“It’s the American people who will pay the price for Republican intransigence,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D) of Maryland, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, in a statement. “It’s time to stop the political games and start working together to prevent the sequester, protect the economic recovery, and get our fiscal house in order.”

Outside the bounds of the report, Mr. Davis of Capital Investment Ideas points out, there are plenty of questions. What, exactly, will the funding levels for these programs be in 2013? That will be sorted out soon by a resolution funding the government through March, but what happens after that? Because the sequester doesn’t allow a reduction in personnel, what happens to budget lines that are 85 percent salary cost, Davis wonders.

Because the sequester begins three months into the fiscal year (which begins Oct. 1), departments will have a higher level of funding authorized at the beginning of the year – and could keep spending at that level expecting the sequester to be turned off even if it does go into effect Jan. 1, Davis says. If that happens, these departments could be forced to “double and triple” their efforts to reduce spending toward the end of the year to get in line with the annual budget allotments.

And so in many ways, the report leaves the discussion much as it found it: Everybody hates the sequester but nobody will do anything to make it go away.

“No amount of planning can mitigate the significant impact of the sequestration,” the report reads. “The destructive across-the-board cuts required by the sequestration are not a substitute for a responsible deficit reduction plan.”

And that means continued suffering for hiring and investment in both the public and private sectors as everyone continues to wonder how Washington will clean up its fiscal mess.

“To have this much self-imposed uncertainty on business is just senseless,” Davis says. “Let alone this much uncertainty on the government.”

[American Patriot]

On January 1st, be prepared.

Many of us may simply no longer be working.

America is in a shambles economically as it is.

Wait until this bitch kicks in and see how many contractors are suddenly out on the street to increase those lost jobs numbers.

Bet the White House spins that too.

[Malsua]

The budget has to be cut, but I guess Obama fone and foo stance are more important than Helicopters and other defense line items.

[American Patriot]

Well... If we gut the military we'll have a lot of money left over to pay for... ummm... well, all those veterans on the street and their free fone and food stamps, huh?

[American Patriot]

Wow...

123,000 Lockheed Martin people would be getting layoff slips.

Hearing this on FNC.

LM was going to send the slips prior to the elections. Washington is raising hell with them and they have backed off of doing this.

OMB is trying to say "You're not getting laid off".

If Obama stays in office, it's GOING TO HAPPEN.

[American Patriot]

Politics.

Let them KNOW so they can prepare.

God.

[Malsua]

The employees know...they just don't want the public to know.

[American Patriot]

Um... No, the employees do NOT know.

No one knows who will be cut and who won't. I know this. The majority of our force is LM.

I work for a different company, but a subcontractor. That means ALL of us are probably gone.

We're all just guessing. No one knows.

[American Patriot]

Regardless of how this goes... the White House has decided to take the "risk" off the contractors... it is the law the contractors MUST let people know two months out.

That would be just prior to the election (thereby fucking Obama royally) and thus the WH has told them to "Hold off" (it's the LAW they must do this notification). And the GOVERNMENT will eat the cost of "liability".

And while they "know" as Mal put it, they don't KNOW legally.

Now the companies are OFF the HOOK for letting people go without notice.

[Malsua]

Um... No, the employees do NOT know.

No one knows who will be cut and who won't. I know this. The majority of our force is LM.

I work for a different company, but a subcontractor. That means ALL of us are probably gone.

We're all just guessing. No one knows.

I wasn't suggesting that everyone knows if their job is secure or not. What I'm saying is they know their job is at risk and should be actively looking at alternatives NOW. When the axe comes, they're not taken cold.

It's a real peachy move by Obama to stop bad news to help his election. That's some real class there.

[American Patriot]

Problem is... MOST of those people (which I am included in) are very specific to their jobs.

If you're working in Missile Defense in some capacity, other than the IT field, then you're more or less locked into a career path that you really can't divert from.

I'm a glorified burglar alarm repairman. Can I get a job elsewhere? Possibly. Can I lock it it before the time comes? Probably NOT unless I drop what I am doing and leave early. The other two "burglar alarm repair people" will be out at the same time as me.

I'd take easily a 50% pay cut if I left now.

Many of the other contractors who do the day to day work around this particular place honestly have no place else to go unless it's Walmart, or some other sales position. This town is NOT doing well, and a lot of people are already out of jobs.

I don't know the EXACT number of people we have in the MDA (alone - and we're not the only organization that will get zapped either around here) but I can tell you that the local community can NOT absorb a few thousand people who have decent homes, have been paying their bills and are moving along in the world when the time comes.

This is the beginning of the Crash.

When these folks all drive out to work on the day the shit hits the fan (and it WILL) there will thousands of people walking up to the portals to come in. Most will turn around and walk away knowing what happened. Some won't.

It's those that everyone else should be worried about that day too.

It won't be pretty.

[Ryan Ruck]

I can't see these companies complying. Surely they know that an Obama win means a slashed military and cut orders for nearly everything across the board. So holding off on the notices to curry favor will likely result in little or no gain. Only thing I can think of is fear of IRS involvement but these companies are large enough to have small armies of lawyers to deal with such things.

They have to understand that a Romney win would be nothing but beneficial to them.

[vector7]

Sounds familiar...


Barack Obama: NASA must try to make Muslims 'feel good'

The head of the Nasa has said Barack Obama told him to make "reaching out to the Muslim world" one of the space agency's top priorities.

By Toby Harnden in Washington
Published: 8:00PM BST 06 Jul 2010



Barack Obama wants Nasa to acknowledge Muslim achievements and contributions to science maths and engineering Photo: AFP/GETTY

Charles Bolden, a retired United States Marines Corps major-general and former astronaut, said in an interview with al-Jazeera that Nasa was not only a space exploration agency but also an "Earth improvement agency".

Mr Bolden said: "When I became the Nasa administrator, he [Mr Obama] charged me with three things.

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"One, he wanted me to help reinspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering."

He added: "It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best of all worlds, if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the contributions that are possible from the Muslim [nations]."

Byron York, a conservative columnist for the Washington Examiner, characterised Mr Obama's space policy shift as moving "from moon landings to promoting self-esteem"

Earlier this year, Mr Obama announced the scrapping of the moon programme in favour of an aspiration to visit Mars, cancelling the Constellation programme for manned space flight, the successor to the Space Shuttle.

It means Nasa would not be able to travel beyond the Earth's lower orbit without international assistance and need the help of allies to make it to Mars.

The proposal angered Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan, the first and last men to walk on the moon.

Along with Jim Lovell, the Apollo 13 commander, they issued a statement denouncing the decision "devastating" and a plan that "destines our nation to become one of second- or even third-rate stature."

Obama; the man who killed the American Dream has cut off the Eagles wings...

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Today Is a Day That Shall Live in Infamy. Obama Has Shut down the US Space Program




Barack Hussain Obama’s ill-conceived, adventure took another disastrous turn! As America bids We say farewell to the space shuttle era. Not only have we lost over 4,000 jobs, but American is now put in the position of being a “PASSENGER” of the Russians when it come to the Space program. Our Dear Leader has decided to put 4,000 people on welfare and food stamps rather than running NASA.. Obama wants us to feed,, illegals, give them food-stamps, put them on welfare send them to our schools but say good-bye to NASA and hello to the to dead beat lazy bums on the corner who are too damn lazy to work .

Gone are the days when America was the leader in technology and innovation in space. It was the end of an era a three decade era of space travel when NASA’s shuttle program came to a end this morning. Atlantis came back to Earth and Obama sent us to Libya.

Fantastic, isn’t it! Go figure.. Has there ever been a President that has been so deaf when it come to the will of the American people? We could have continued the program with the money that Our Dear First Lady piss’s away on her vacations alone. And Obama finds it more important funding and renovating Mosques all over the world. John Kennedy must be turning over in his grave. It's a disgrace, 50 years of space travel going to down the drain, and handing it over to the Russians. We should be flying our flags at half mast. Oh well, I guess my Son won’t grow up to be an Astronaut.

As an American , I am pissed.But where is the outrage from the left? Humm.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Thank You Obama: Russia declares 'era of Soyuz'

Moscow on Thursday declared it is now "the era of the Soyuz" after the US shuttle's last flight left the Russian system as the sole means for delivering astronauts to the International Space Station.

Far less glamorous than the horizontal-landing winged shuttle, the principle of Russia's Soyuz rocket and capsule system for sending humans into space has changed little since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in orbit in 1961.

But after the successful landing of the US Space Shuttle Atlantis Thursday drew the curtain on the 30-year US space shuttle programme, it is now the only vehicle which can propel astronauts towards the ISS.

"From today, the era of the Soyuz has started in manned space flight, the era of reliability," the Russian space agency Roskosmos said in a statement.


Obama’s new mission for NASA: Reach out to the Muslim World

In a far-reaching restatement of goals for the nation’s space agency, NASA administrator Charles Bolden says President Obama has ordered him to pursue three new objectives: to “re-inspire children” to study science and math, to “expand our international relationships,” and to “reach out to the Muslim world.” Of those three goals, Bolden said in a recent interview with al-Jazeera, the mission to reach out to Muslims is “perhaps foremost,” because it will help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific accomplishments.

Bolden: When I became the NASA Administrator — before I became the NASA Administrator — [Obama] charged me with three things: One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.

[vector7]

Obama Admin Offers To Reimburse Defense Contractors For Severance Costs If They Wait Until After Election To Send Layoff Notices…




The Obama administration issued guidance Friday that said defense firms’ costs would be covered if they have to layoff workers due to canceled contracts under the across-the-board cuts set to take effect Jan. 2.


Graham and other Republicans were livid after the Obama administration issued the guidance on Friday telling contractors that their legal costs would be covered due to canceled contracts under sequestration, but only if they did not issue layoff notices before sequestration occurs — and before the November election.


“I will do everything in my power to make sure not one taxpayer dollar is spent reimbursing companies for failure to comply with WARN Act,” Graham told The Hill in a phone interview Monday. “That is so beyond the pale — I think it’s patently illegal.”


More http://weaselzippers.us/




Obama administration tries to block sequester layoff notices

posted at 10:01 am on September 29, 2012 by Ed Morrissey



The latest durable-goods orders report must have the Obama administration — and the Obama campaign — more worried than they publicly let on.

According to the National Journal, the White House will press government contractors to hold off on issuing layoff notices in October in anticipation of the sequestration cuts, afraid of the political backlash that will ensue.

In fact, the Obama administration is offering to indemnify government contractors for losses and fines for delaying those notices:

The White House moved to prevent defense and other government contractors from issuing mass layoff notices in anticipation of sequestration, even going so far to say that the contracting agencies would cover any potential litigation costs or employee compensation costs that could follow.

Some defense companies—including Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and EADS North America—have said they expect to send notices to their employees 60 days before sequestration takes effect to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires companies to give advance warning to workers deemed reasonably likely to lose their jobs.

Companies appeared undeterred by a July 30 guidance from the Labor Department, which said issuing such notices would be inappropriate, due to the possibility that sequestration may be averted. The Labor Department also said companies do not have enough information about how the cuts might be implemented to determine which workers or specific programs could be affected should Congress fail to reach a compromise to reduce the deficit, triggering $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, half from defense, half non-defense. For 2013, that would amount to $109 billion in spending cuts.

Yesterday, the OMB went a little farther in wheedling contractors into playing ball:

So the Office of Management and Budget went a step further in guidance issued late Friday afternoon. If an agency terminates or modifies a contract, and the contractor must close a plant or lay off workers en masse, the company could treat employee compensation costs for WARN Act liability, attorneys’ fees and other litigation costs as allowable costs to be covered by the contracting agency—so long as the contractor has followed a course of action consistent with the Labor Department’s guidance.

The legal fees would be covered regardless of the outcome of the litigation, according to the OMB guidance issued by Daniel Werfel, controller of the Office of Federal Financial Management, and Joseph Jordan, the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy.
In other words, taxpayers will cover the costs of these layoffs through more spending, even though the point of sequestration was to force cuts in government spending. Instead of paying contractors — mainly defense workers — to work, we’ll start paying them not to work.

And why? Because the White House doesn’t want massive numbers of layoff notices coming in the last few days ahead of the election. And make no mistake — with overall durable goods orders dropping 13.2% in a month and defense orders dropping 40%, those layoff notices would otherwise be coming, and sooner rather than later.

In other words, the White House wants taxpayers to pay to cover up the inevitable outcome of sequestration to keep Barack Obama from suffering the political consequences of his own deal. Unless those funds are coming from Team Obama, this looks pretty corrupt — which is undoubtedly why Obama chose to have this OMB edict issued late on Friday afternoon, when few would be paying attention.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/09/2...ayoff-notices/

[AGEUSAF]

We are talking about this alot in my little corner of the DoD as well. I know (the GS-15 types) know what is going to the curb with all these cuts but they come to our sites take questions and then play dumb, I freaking hate that. All these sites that I am involved in don't run by themselves but management and tax payers seem to be conviced that is the case. I go to one site on the web and they say good fire all the feds, they say this in the same breath with we need to do more for our veterans lol. I go to work and some say Romney will can us all, others say no Obama is going to do it.

At this point with all the talk I assume that my job is doomed, will wait and see. At 37 I don't get to cash out early I get to start over AGAIN and I don't really have too many do overs left in me.

The other thing I hate, they will say well see if you have a job but then get an email from the big bird saying we need more folks to deploy to Afghanistan lol oh ok. I could go on and on here in some rant but to hell with it.

So if anyone needs someone who can troubleshoot all day long and read prints a mile long and even make R and D equipment come back to life with no prints keep me in mind LOL.

[Phil Fiord]

Add the new taxes January 1. Quite the double whammy.

There is no legal variance to serving the layoff notices, so if they do not serve these, they will break the law. The only thing there is, who will enforce it? Not this Administration.

[Malsua]

This is a really dirty move. I really hope people give Obama his 10 week notice on November 6.

[American Patriot]

Well boys and girls, welcome to the beginning of the end.

Because you're looking at it.

Dump the people who keep the wheels turning, tax the fuck out of everyone else, shut down the defense systems and viola, you've got an invasion or insurrection.

Just like the fuckers wanted.

[vector7]

Pentagon begins planning for sequestration

By Marcus Weisgerber - Staff writer
Posted: Wednesday Dec 5, 2012 15:56:53 EST

The Pentagon has officially begun planning for how it would carry out the first $50 billion across-the-board spending cut as part of the 10-year, $500 billion sequestration cuts set to take effect Jan. 2.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has issued guidance to the Defense Department instructing officials to look at how these cuts will affect military personnel, programs and operations.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said that it is “prudent at this stage” to begin some initial planning.

“We don’t have all of the details firmed up,” Little said during a Dec. 5 briefing. “Naturally, we hope very much that sequestration will be avoided.”

Related reading:

Fiscal cliff offers hint at more defense cuts

DoD officials are “going to have to do some detailed planning at some point on the numbers and the specific consequences of sequestration, many of which we’ve anticipated already, and talked about very publicly,” Little said. “We’re not at that stage yet.”

Through this planning, DoD expects to indentify specific numbers and how to communicate the ramifications of spending cuts to its 3 million-strong workforce.

Sequestration calls for $500 billion in defense spending cuts over a decade, which amounts to about $50 billion annually.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top defense officials have called for Congress to come up with a deficit reduction deal that averts cuts to defense spending.

Democrats and Republicans in the current lame-duck session of Congress have been going back and forth on a way to come up with a plan to stave off sequestration and the expiration of tax cuts, commonly referred to as the “fiscal cliff.”

Speaking before the presidential election, Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall said he expects “a delay for a few months” until the new Congress is seated before the sequestration situation is finalized.

Military pay is exempt from sequestration. However, DoD and budget analysts expect widespread furloughs of DoD civilians to pay for military operations.

http://www.navytimes.com/mobile/news...ing-web-120512