CQ Roll Call May 18, 2013 | Register

Sequestration Isn't All That Bad

Posted at 9:45 a.m. on March 1

Matthew Yglesias argues that “while sequestration is hardly optimal budget policy, it really isn’t all that bad in the scheme of things and really going through with it would be better than repealing it.”

“The key reason is that fully half the cuts are cuts to ‘defense’ spending…  and yet nobody from either party is seriously trying to maintain that America will be left defenselessin the wake of this reduced military spending… That’s half the cuts with basically zero real public policy harm.”

“So then you look at the domestic side. Your basic transfer payments to poor people are spared, your transfer payments to the elderly are basically spared, and then everything else gets cut willy-nilly. That leads to some real policy harms… But obviously there’s somewaste and fat in this domestic discretionary spending.”

Josh Barro argues that this view is “wrongheaded.”

“Yglesias underestimates the magnitude of the negative economic impacts of the sequester, which hurts in two ways. One is that deficit reduction is destimulative, a fact that would be similarly true of any sequester replacement with the same deficit impact. The other, unique to the sequester, is that it is haphazard and unpredictable.”

2comments
Budget & Taxes, Economy, Military & Security

Headlines

  • Wynstone

    Cutting the budget of a federal agency or program is no guarantee that the result will be elimination of waste! That would be the ideal outcome, but much of the waste is in the salaries of upper and middle managers who really don’t produce anything, but do have some say in where money goes and they won’t eliminate themselves. They will lay off people further down the chain and curtail actual services and products.

    Eliminating waste is hard work that needs to be done by experts who study restructure of operations. Government should be taking this step instead of just handing out less money.

    • Michael Renn

      Face it Wyn, it’s about time that the American people allowed their President to be a Strongman, and force the Republicans to cry uncle. Obama recently said that he can have guards blocking the House doors. The F*** he can’t! It’s confirming what I’ve said about Obama all along…..that he’s a toothless Mr. Rogers…..please won’t you be…..my neighbor:D

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