Just the Facts

Growing up, we used to watch a lot of retro-television in my family.  One such show was Dragnet, a police drama from the early sixties featuring two sobering cops who used to always tell suspects and witnesses that all they wanted was, “just the facts.”

Watching the coverage leading up to today’s sequestration cuts, I feel a “just the facts” attitude is needed to set the record straight.

FACT:  Today, March 1^st, $85 billion in federal cuts will take effect.

FACT: The White House proposed, and the Republican Congress agreed to, the sequester thus making both parties responsible for the situation.

FACT: The sequester does not touch the two biggest drivers of America’s national debt and deficit: entitlement spending and healthcare.  This effectively proves, what a stupid idea the sequester was to begin with (okay this last sentence was more of an opinion than fact).

FACT: Despite numerous threats from the Obama Administration, it really remains to be seen what the real effects of the sequester will be in each state.

These are the facts of the sequester as they currently stand.  If there is one word to describe the sequester, events surrounding the sequester and the behavior of our political leaders it is this: Cowardice.

Never has a solution so stupid, been proposed for a problem so serious.  And never has our political leadership failed to adequately respond to a preemptive crisis.

This blog has written numerous times about the need to tackle our debt, and will remain focused on the issue.  The facts remain that unless serious reform of our tax, entitlement and healthcare systems are enacted, the monetary and economic fate of the United States will not be pleasant.

May I recommend that for all our citizens and political leaders, we skip the theatrics, and proceed with just the facts.