Regarding the Feb. 27 Columbian front page story “Obama rejects GOP offer of more say over spending cuts,” nowhere in all that space does AP writer Josh Lederman point out the “looming spending cuts” are not really cuts at all. With the sequester, our federal government still is spending more money during this fiscal year than the last, and will spend even more during the next.
Many of us have had a boss say we have to go another year without a raise. The sequester amounts to the boss saying, “Sorry, but this year’s raise is going to be a tiny bit smaller.” It appears most of the challenge presented by the sequester is that departments seem not to have much latitude to make decisions about what accounts can be reduced, and the president doesn’t want to be active in that decision or have it given to anyone else. Capable leadership at the top could manage this sequester (2 percent of the overall increased budget amount; not cutting or reducing anything from previous levels) without all the drama.
Nearly every working person in America has 2 percent less in their paychecks. Maybe the president needs some ordinary folks and business owners to show him how living within a real budget can be done.
Jim Borden
Vancouver
