In his weekly address delivered to the nation this morning, President Obama told the American people that a series of harmful budget cuts—called the sequester—have taken effect because Congress failed to act. President Obama had been warning for weeks about the impact of "sequestration" on the nation. The time has come as the President issued the following order to the government agencies impacted.
By the authority vested in me as President by the laws of the United States of America, and in accordance with section 251A of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended (the "Act"), 2 U.S.C. 901a, I hereby order that budgetary resources in each non-exempt budget account be reduced by the amount calculated by the Office of Management and Budget in its report to the Congress of March 1, 2013.
Pursuant to sections 250(c)(6), 251A, and 255(e) of the Act, budgetary resources subject to sequestration shall be new budget authority, unobligated balances of defense function accounts carried over from prior fiscal years, direct spending authority, and obligation limitations.
All sequestrations shall be made in strict accordance with the requirements of section 251A of the Act and the specifications of the Office of Management and Budget's report of March 1, 2013, prepared pursuant to section 251A(11) of the Act.
What does it it mean?
Here is how President Obama explained in his address. "Beginning this week, businesses that work with the military will have to lay folks off. Communities near military bases will take a serious blow. Hundreds of thousands of Americans who serve their country – Border Patrol agents, FBI agents, civilians who work for the Defense Department – will see their wages cut and their hours reduced."
The impact is what President Obama calls having "a ripple effect across the economy," as businesses will suffer because customers will have less money to spend.
President Obama emphasized the cumulative effect of these cuts. "The longer these cuts remain in place, the greater the damage. Economists estimate they could eventually cost us more than 750,000 jobs and slow our economy by over one-half of one percent."
President Obama called out the Republicans because "they decided that protecting special interest tax breaks for the well-off and well-connected is more important than protecting our military and middle-class families from these cuts."
President Obama said that both sides must give. Republicans must close "tax loopholes" and Democrats must do "smart entitlement reform."
President Obama called for an end to the careening "from one manufactured crisis to another."
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John is the author of an award-winning book, the 2010 Winner of the USA National Best Book award for African-American studies, published by The Elevator Group Mr. and Mrs. Grassroots: How Barack Obama, Two Bookstore Owners, and 300 Volunteers did it. Also available an eBook on Amazon. John is also a member of the Society of Midland Authors and is a book reviewer of political books for the New York Journal of Books. John has volunteered for many political campaigns.
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