Paying More, Getting Less, Sequestering

NO MATTER WHAT we're trying to talk about, we absolutely have to have some kind of clever, catchy name for it. Maybe it has to do with our five second sound byte fifteen minutes of fame culture.

The dreadful fiscal cliff, that horrible reduction of government which was scheduled to automatically take place on january first, until congress and obama postponed it, has now been renamed  the "sequester", and is scheduled to occur march first. Heaven only knows why, where that dazzling term came from.

Once again, the can is being kicked down the road. Avoiding dealing with the problem. Just like climate change, rising sea levels, out of control debt,problems being avoided, solutions being postponed from fear of losing political power.

And to think, we always thought that the word "seqauester" meant to remove from view, to isolate, as in, sequestering a jury for the purpose of conducting a trial and finding a verdict. In this case, it is government services and payments, such as social security payments, that are in danger of disappearing.

And, once again, the impending budget slashing is being described as a disaster in waiting, a looming catastrophe to the american enonomy. And, undoubtedly, it would be painful. Federal meat inspectors would be laid off. Once again hot dogs would be made of pig intestines, just like the good old days before upton sinclair.

Bring on the sequester! Pinful medicine indeed, but at this late stage in our national economic deterioration, whatever medicine we take, whatever solutions we choose will be harsh, of necessity. There seems to good a good chance  of it happening.

The republicans are not in a mood to cooperate with obama. Currently they are even fillibustering obama's nominee for defense secretary, and the nominee is a republican! Obama isn't helping matters. He lamented that he does not have a defense secretary, and he is trying to fight a war in afghanistan.

Well, leon panetta agreed to stay on as long as needed. Obama has a defense secretary, and the war in afghanistan is basically over. But, the president had to have his whine-ful sound byte. Obama and the republicans in congress are already blaming the impasse over the budget and the sequester on each other, as if its already happened, and that can't be good.

Meanwhile, the rest of us might be wise to prepare to pay higher taxes, and to get less for our money, for a very long time.