Politics cause pain, not sequestration

That’s right, President Obama’s sequestration, it was his idea, his plan, trying to outsmart the Republicans. Well guess what — it didn’t work. And now, for the first time in four years, the first time since Obama’s been president, he is meeting with Republican leadership. What bipartisan leadership he has shown.

I sit here and shake my head at the writings of the underinformed voter. First, with sequestration, there are no cuts in the budget. I know Obama and other top Democrats were predicting the end of the world. Everything he is doing is trying to cause pain on the American people for political gain and the blame the Republicans for it.

Defense cuts? Yes, there are those, but they have nothing to do with sequestration. Those are planned budget cuts by the president. The only thing sequestration is doing is limiting growth. The way the federal budget works is there are automatic increases every year. What sequestration does is lower those increases. No cuts, just limiting growth.

Say you’re making $100,000 a year. Every year you’ve always gotten a 7 percent raise. This year you’re still getting a raise, but it’s only a 3 percent raise. You’re so upset you go home and tell your family you got a cut in pay and have to start selling your furniture to make ends meet.

Enough already! There are bigger things to worry about, Obamacare is coming full bore next year. Lower health care premiums? Not happening! You want something to worry about? The biggest hit on the U.S. economy is coming.

Al Haak

Palatine