The Impact of Sequestration in Texas

David Jennings of Big Jolly Politics says the fiscal cliff was a fabricated lie. Well, maybe he's right to a certain extent. The term "fiscal cliff" implies that our economy is going to take a nosedive now that sequestration has taken hold. That may not be the case, however, letting it happen in the first place was sloppy politics all around. Shame on Congress and the White House for letting their egos get in the way of compromise. Or perhaps it was some other motive that got in the way of resolving this issue. While both sides agree that some budget cuts are necessary to our future economic well being, the manner in which they did it was cowardly and wrong. By letting the deadline pass they side stepped accountability as usual and are now blaming each other as expected. Coming from an industry that is directly affected by sequestration I'll admit that I am personally biased, but I also accept the fact that the government needs to reduce its spending. When it comes to the United State’s economic future I have no problem finding a new job if it comes to that. I just hope that unemployment benefits aren’t the next to be cut.

One thing I absolutely disagree with David Jennings is his dogmatic stance on taxes. He says "if Republicans vote to increase tax rates on anyone, we lose." Taxes have already gone up for everyone this year. If Obama plans to close the loopholes that allow corporate executives and the super rich from paying their share of taxes, I say go for it. The media made a big stink when Mitt Romney revealed that he only paid about 13 percent in taxes on his multimillion-dollar income despite the fact that he should have been taxed twice for corporate earnings. Yet this is nothing out of the ordinary. The average tax rate for executives is just over 12 percent which is considerably less than their secretaries pay in income taxes. So when it comes to raising the marginal tax rate for wealthy Americans I fully support it, but the rich do have access to options that make it incredibly difficult to enforce. They can claim citizenship in one tax haven nation and do business here. They can also hide their wealth among other tactics, but any step in the right direction is a worthy cause.

Some of the effects of sequestration are already being felt in Texas. Border agents are being subjected to furloughs and some detention centers have let out undocumented immigrants in retaliation to having their budgets cut. Protests have popped up around city halls in Texas, especially in Houston where clashes between government workers and Tea Partiers have gotten ugly. This tug of rope between Democrats and Republicans is going to cost us because they can't find a compromise between taxes and spending cuts. Both issues are key to our economic future and need to be addressed.