The White House got around to releasing its report on how sequestration will affect the budgets of the various and sundry portions of the federal government. As Nick Gillespie notes, this report has already been seized upon as a warning that the potential cuts will lead to increased mayhem abroad and likely doom at home.
It’s unvarnished nonsense. And for the bipartisan chorus of Virginia pols who wail that these cuts — which they once supported in the hope that a super committee would do the heavy lifting for them — will hasten The End, it’s time to square their rhetoric with this chart:
Yes, it’s true that Virginia, which is firmly attached to the federal teat, could suffer the expensive ignominy of a debt downgrade if federal spending slows just a touch. But relying upon our impoverished Uncle on the Potomac to shore up our own balance sheet has been a risky proposition for some time.
I do not expect the local political class to admit that their sequester fears are so much bunk. To quote Gillespie again:
Let’s leave aside the mad rush by every part of the government to link its current failures to a future spending cut and instead point out the obvious: Sequestration in no way threatens any basic governmental function. Period.
Federal spending has ballooned since George W. Bush first darkened the door at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and was then succeeded by Barack Obama, who continues to max out the credit cards (both had the help of Congress). Over the next decade, the GOP’s budget envisions spending around $40 trillion (in current dollars) and the president estimates spending around $48 trillion (in current dollars).
To pretend that shaving $1.2 trillion off either those totals means any government program anywhere is going to go begging is the biggest con in a long, long time. If we can’t cut spending – or even hold it steady for a few years in a row, fer chrissakes – shouldn’t we just give up now?
I’m beginning to think we should.
