Politico writes, “Sequestration was supposed to be a meat ax slashing large chunks of the federal budget, but Congress is poised to turn it into Swiss cheese. The shortlist for the next round of possible sequester saves includes cancer patients, medical researchers, hungry seniors, poor people and preschoolers. ‘I’m looking at doing rifle shots on a lot of things, on Head Start programs, on elderly feeding programs,’ Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, told POLITICO. There are already more than a dozen pieces of stand-alone legislation introduced to address agencies, programs and accounts hit by sequestration. Whether any one proposal has a shot at becoming law requires a confluence of events. It needs bipartisan support and at least some semblance of a spending offset to cover the costs. Headlines showing Americans across the country feeling pain helps, too.”
17
May 2013
