Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
To hear the President tell it, the sequester cuts are so deep, so devastating, the very existence of the nation is threatened: mass poverty, rain of fire, dogs and cats living together, the end of days.
The actual amount of spending cuts that take effect in 2013 is around $50 billion.
By odd coincidence, the US foreign aid budget for 2013 is also around $50 billion.
Seems to me any fifth grader could figure out a way to implement the sequester cuts without harming a hair on any American’s head.
The question then becomes: is the President smarter than a fifth grader?
Joe Doakes
Como Park
Perhaps a more relevant question: does he need to be?
Why, everybody knows there’s no waste in the Pentagon. Besides, it’s critical that they have the proper equipment to save NATO from the Warsaw Pact.
Compared with our military and entitlement budgets, this is loose change. Since the 1970s, aid spending has hovered around 1 percent of the federal budget.
This is one of of your most ignorant statements and you would know better if you took the trouble to find out a fact or two before writing nonsense.
Emery, you have not supported your conclusion that the above is an ignorant statement or written nonsense. In fact, you have reinforced the argument that there are easily identifiable areas that can be cut to meet the required shortfall without harm. You just disagree (for no stated reason) with the area Joe Doakes identified.
/”Compared with our military and entitlement budgets, this is loose change. Since the 1970s, aid spending has hovered around 1 percent of the federal budget.”/
In poll after poll, Americans overwhelmingly say they believe that foreign aid makes up a larger portion of the federal budget than defense spending, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, or spending on roads and other infrastructure.
Any further questions?
I don’t think Emery understood what you said, Loren.
Not that it’s a surprise.
Swing and a miss, Emery.
You still never supported an ignorant statement or written nonsense.
The % of the budget is largely irrelevant since the question was looking for a set number, not a percentage. And 1% of the continuing resolution federal ” budget “, whether taken from one category or spread across all, still adds up to $50 billion.
And foreign aid cuts would have limited, if any negative domestic impact.