Sequestration Victory for Defense Industry!

Well, for those who weren't paying attention, sequestration did in fact come to pass last Friday. Among it's "minor cuts" include 10,000 teaching jobs (and God knows we have too many teachers), 70,000 spots for preschoolers in Head Start (only one of the most effective poverty abatement programs ever created), $43 million for food programs for Seniors (let them eat bed pans), $35 million for local fire departments (let it rain), and access to nutritional information for 500,000 women and their families (on the bright side, McDonald's stock price should be rising about now). 

While these cuts are predicted to cut GDP growth and possibly lead us toward a recession, it was refreshing to learn that Republicans made sure the cuts to defense spending were restored before they headed home to their constituents (Slate). And on top of this, the always entertaining John Boehner informed us that "I don't know whether it's going to hurt the economy or not ... I don't think anyone quite understands how the sequester is really going to work." Well, maybe he doesn't but most of the rest of the country do and it is a little troubling that our elected officials don't know basic economics. Of course he probably does and is just counting on the least informed members of the public, those who watch Fox News and/or listen to Christian radio according to Pew Research Center studies over the past few years, not paying enough attention.

The Republican Party, in fact, seems to be banking on enough people either not knowing basic economics (I know plenty of Ph.D.s who don't) or not caring about their less fortunate neighbors. Maybe in a broader sense they are simply counting on the underlying sociopathic tendencies of a public that probably has been too influenced by television, movies and commercials that sell a form of individualism without empathy that serves consumer culture, but does little to make us a happier, healthier and more caring and just society. But thank God we kept that money flowing to the military!

On another positive note, there are more radical right-wing groups today then at the height of the militia movement in the 1990s (Salon). Thank God they are keeping us safe from the government and paving the way for more mass shooting in the future. Long live the false reading of the Second Amendment!