Well, something no one expected to happen, actually did.
Some members of Congress chose to allow passage of the sequester. Republicans refused to budge to close any loophole to help reduce the deficit. This means that again the wealthy got their wish. They kept wasteful tax breaks instead of making the tax code more fair for the rest of the 98 percent.
These cuts will mean that such federal programs as aid to education, financial aid to students, improvements to our transportation sector, military expenditures, day care, preschool programs, and jobless benefits , and on and on, will be drastically reduced and with that, hundreds of thousands of jobs will be eliminated. And simply, the money that would be immediately spent on necessities will not create demand.
The recovery we have been seeing will decline again. Much less money for businesses and programs that the country needs.
The decline will last as long as our Congress refuses to make common sense cuts on wasteful tax breaks.
The deficit is not our most important problem. Unemployment is.
Congress cannot relate to this. Most of them are millionaires who actually act out of fear of a small minority, the Tea Party, the most radically conservative. Our representatives fear loss of their jobs if they don’t do what that group wants. In the meantime, the rest of the country will go downhill.
Polls show that a large majority does not want austerity, Therefore we see that the Congress only listens to special interests, not to the majority of the voters who sent them to Washington.
Hasn’t anybody noticed that several European countries have tried austerity like what we are facing? That example should tell us that we should not try this and throw us into yet another crisis.
The rest of the world is seeing the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world refuse to look at the long term view. What an utterly foolish mindset!
Esther Confino
New Hyde Park
