Charles Schumer, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, hold a news conference at the U.S Capitol on the eve of the budget sequester.
(Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
The sequester, which brings automatic, across-the-board spending cuts, officially went into effect last Friday. Furloughs are on the horizon for federal workers in Washington and The Takeaway has discussed the sequester's potential impact on scientific research, education, toxic waste clean up and even the price of meat.
Lawrence White, a professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business, explains how sequestration will impact the economy, particularly unemployment and the markets. White worked in Washington in the late 1970s, and he compares the problems facing President Obama and the 113th Congress to President Carter's era.
He says of the sequester policy: "Not good policy. Dumb. It’s nuts," but, he contends, "it's not cataclysmic." White admits that because the economy is still weak, this is not a good time for sharp cuts in spending, but the result will not break the economy as Washington has lead us to believe. "The markets…whatever effect there is going to be, they’ve long ago anticipated it. So the fact that there isn’t any immediate reaction is not surprising," he says.
"There just doesn’t seem to be that ability to work across the aisle," says White, pointing to the compromise reached after New Years as an example. In that instance, Republicans agreed to modest tax increases on the very wealthy only to have Democrats respond with what he calls "sniping."
According to White, "The pattern is one of 'gotcha' and 'sniping,' not of 'reach across the aisle and try to move together.'"
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Comments [8]
Mr White accidentally answered the question. Under Carter the system seemed broken, then Reagan got in and was able to broker deals. The difference is having someone lead. Obama prefers to lead from behind(known as following in old speak), which is clearly not working.
Fast & Furious, Benghazi, campaign finance, drone killing,the price of gas, anti-Obama protests over seas and of course "shoot off a few rounds" Biden. Without the media running cover Obama would have lost by a large margin.
Now more than ever we need straight talk about what is really going on, which do its es NOT mean something in between Republicans which is mostly way over on the loony right, hemmed in by their rigid ideology which does not take into account reality and the wishy washy Democrats who would be considered moderate Republicans in an earlier day. Unfortunately, your station like PBS feels that it has to seem so "non partisan" that you are missing the takeover of national discourse by a destructive right wing agenda that will weaken our economy and turn us into third world country! Your show Take Away starts with the moderator saying "we've been sold a bill of goods" the sequester isnt that bad, plays intothis loony destructive complacancy about the irection of our country. We should be concentrating on job growth now not the deficit! This is madness! This should be emphasized on independent media because its true and not being heard enough elsewhere. Your guest economist is trying to make that point but your host keeps saying going in conventional wrongheaded distracions. Even this economist makes the false equivalency argument when explaining whats wrong with Washington. Its mostly Republicans who are not acting in the best interest of our country. This might sound partisan but the problem is it is true but the media is so afraid of sounding nonpartisan and so inundated with conventional blather, they can't say it. I'm not saying Democrats are blameless but the share of blame is not equal! Mostly however the huge neglected story is why we are fixated on destructive austery when we should now have a stimulus and deal with the deficit when the economy is better. The stock market is a dumb casino for the rich not a barometer for the economy as your host suggests!
My financial life has deteriorated over time since the recession. I used to have money in my pocket to buy something, whenever I wanted it. Not anymore. I used to have money for an overpriced burger and didn't think about it. Every dollar which goes out now I account for.
I wish I were accountable for my money when I had money...I'd have money now.
A great story on the Obama-fed hysteria over sequestration:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-appears-have-exaggerated-effects-sequester-head-start_706475.html
A story of the kind that readers of the Weekly Standard would get, but which would be more or less systematically denied to public radio listeners.
When John Hockenberry says that he feels like he has been sold a bill of goods by the folks down in Washington, that attention really needs to be focused on the Obama Administration. Because by and large, Republicans have confessed that sequestration is a very blunt instrument but they haven't oversold the "cataclysm" aspect of budget-cutting. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky; other so-called "Tea Party" Republicans; they have said that for all of its problems, sequestration is better than allowing th President to dictate tax increases.
It is President Obama who appears to be desperate to turn the situation into a disaster, so as to make points against Congress for his own advantage in the 2014 congressional elections.
So note well how when he thinks Republicans can be blamed, John Hockenberry has no hesitation about naming them. But when the blame ought to be rightly placed on Obama, Hockenberry talks about the problems "in Washington."
If the sequester cuts are so dumb, I have an idea. Use executive discretion -- indeed, Presidential authority -- to make smarter cuts. I suspect that the House of Representatives would grant to the President the sole authority to make the cuts in whatever way the President deems appropriate. And surely, the Democrat-controlled Senate would not deny their President the power to turn the "dumb" sequester cuts into "smart" cuts.
How could such a proposal be rejected by the White House and Democrats?
Neither side of the American Political Plutocracy is serious about responsible fiscal policy. As one tiny example, there has been little, if any, discussion about closing any of our thousand plus (1000+) overseas bases. To give one tiny instance, there are approximately 40 bases in Okinawa, Japan’s poorest province, where given our track record with the local Okinawans, we are not welcomed. We don’t need all those Okinawan bases to protect ourselves against the Chinese and the North Koreans, especially given our other bases in South Korea, the rest of Japan and God knows, er I mean the CIA knows where else.
Our distinguished economics professor tells us the sequester is a "bad thing" and "dumb".
What would be a good thing and smart?
Perhaps that would be the Democratic Party leadership not spending five trillion dollars in four years and actually providing a budget in 2010 explaining a responsible way of dealing with their spending instead of playing demagogic political games that torment us to this day?
The administration, journalism and academia are wholly unserious and offer nothing but
a gross insult to the intelligence of the public.
Yes the sequester is dumb.
But all reasoning is relative.
The sequester is actually pretty smart for congress.
They have done much dumber things.
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