sequester

Post-ABC poll: Most Americans still disapprove of sequester

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:02:28 GMT

Source: www.washingtonpost.com --- Friday, May 24, 2013
The government-wide spending cuts known as the sequester remain unpopular for most Americans, with little difference in opinion across party lines, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll released Friday . Read full article >> ...

IRS to Take Sequester 'Furlough Day'

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:22:54 GMT

Source: www.breitbart.com --- Thursday, May 23, 2013
Blaming the sequester, the IRS is "furloughing" employees for a day on Friday. In an internal email sent out on Monday, the IRS's Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support, Beth Tucker, told all IRS employees that "the IRS as an organization and all of us as employees are going through some difficult days." "The first of our scheduled furlough days is this Friday, May 24," Ms. Tucker continued. "Despite successful efforts over the past year to find cost savings and our ongoing efforts to offset the effects of sequestration, we could not avoid the very difficult decision to implement a furlough." "To minimize the impact of lost pay, we have staggered the days we must take so none fall during the same pay period," Tucker explained. "We also continue to work across the agency to identify options to reduce the number of days we need to take and remain hopeful that we can achieve this later in the fiscal year." One IRS employee told Breitbart News that "this is just baloney." According to the employee, "half of the IRS employees know this is false. We have plenty of things we can cut. My department for example still offers overtime, except for furlough weeks. It was up to 16 hours in 2 weeks; now it is 8 hours in 2 weeks." Despite Friday's "furlough day", the IRS apparently had plenty of cash over the past three years to pay over $100,000 in bonuses to Sarah Hall Ingram, the former IRS Commissioner for the Tax-Exempt and Governmen ...

IRS to Take Sequester ‘Furlough Day’

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:22:54 GMT

Source: blog.survivalstation.org --- Thursday, May 23, 2013
Blaming the sequester, the IRS is "furloughing" employees for a day on Friday. In an internal email sent out on Monday, the IRS's Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support, Beth Tucker, told all IRS employees that "the IRS as an organization and all o... ...

WHAT SEQUESTER? OBAMA ADMINISTRATION APPROVES 50 MILLION DOLLARS IN AID TO KENYA TO MAKE KENYAN GOVERNMENT MORE “COMPETENT, TRANSPARENT, AND ACCOUNTABLE” - LibertyNEWS.com

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:32:00 GMT

Source: followingthemoneyto.blogspot.com --- Thursday, May 23, 2013
WHAT sequester? OBAMA ADMINISTRATION APPROVES 50 MILLION DOLLARS IN AID TO KENYA TO MAKE KENYAN GOVERNMENT MORE “COMPETENT, TRANSPARENT, AND ACCOUNTABLE” - LibertyNEWS.com : 'via Blog this' ...

ABA Joins Chorus Hoping To Spare USPTO From Sequester Cuts

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:55:16 GMT

Source: www.law360.com --- Thursday, May 23, 2013
The American Bar Association on Monday urged the White House to spare the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from deep budget cuts called for under sequestration, joining the legal industry's growing campaign to protect the agency's user fees and gains made under the America Invents Act. ...

The sequester will have dire consequences for the American military, critics sai...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:15:52 GMT

Source: www.facebook.com --- Thursday, May 23, 2013
The sequester will have dire consequences for the American military, critics said. But Cindy Williams of the MIT Security Studies Program took a closer look at the numbers. Cindy Williams: A Costly Defense www.bostonreview.net As sequestration took effect, some observers claimed that it would have dire consequences for national security. Were they right? ...

Military Families Unnecessarily Impacted By Sequester

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:20:27 GMT

Source: www.thebrennerbrief.com --- Thursday, May 23, 2013
A recent policy change has been submitted to mandate all new military families being stationed in Naples must live on base. ...

Republican backed Health Savings Accounts and Sequester driving doctors and hospitals out of Medicare.

Thu, 23 May 2013 04:14:00 GMT

Source: democurmudgeon.blogspot.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
My conservative friend in Milwaukee likes to blame Obama for making cuts to Medicare that will drive hospitals and doctors out of the program. But Obama and the Republicans are both trying to rein in costs by cutting payments to hospitals and doctors. But surprise, it looks like Republicans are now in the driver’s seat when it comes to stripping Medicare of provider hospitals and doctors. With their backing of high deductible Health Savings Accounts and the sequester, folly they said would not result in anything dramatic, providers are losing hundreds of millions of dollars. Here's the audio: Like I've been saying for years because I've had them, HSA’s discourage the insured from seeking care, which is great for insurers but lousy for the sick and medical community. WPR : Ministry Health Care plans to cut between 225 and 250 full-time-equivalent workers at its 15 hospitals and 47 clinics. In a news release, two factors were cited: high deductible health insurance plans that are keeping people from seeking medical care, and federal sequestration budget cuts, which include a 2 percent reduction in Medicare payments to hospitals and physicians. Ministry officials say those cuts are costing them $10 million. Steve Brenton, president of the Wisconsin Hospital Association , says Ministry is not the only medical organization being hurt by sequestration. “We have estimated that the one-year impact of sequestration — these Medicare bu ...

Bus Transportation for Marshall Starke Head Start Drastically Reduced due to Sequester

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:16:24 GMT

Source: am1050.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
05/23/13 Parents with children involved in the Head Start Program at Marshall Starke were notified earlier this month by letter that transportation will be severely impacted due to the budget sequester. Mike Lintner, President of the Marshall Starke Development Center said they were notified by the federal director of the need to cut more than five percent of their budget. He said, “We took a hard look at where the best places to make those cuts were.” Not wanting to affect the programs offered nor the number of students being served it was determined that transportation would be the best. Beginning next September, three, four, and five year olds who live within a 10 mile radius of the centers; Plymouth, Culver, Knox & North Judson will need to provide their own transportation to the Head Start Programs. Those living in Argos, Bremen, Walkerton, and Grovertown will qualify for transportation services, which are not mandated by the federal program. Lintner said currently 182 kids are served in the morning and afternoon class offerings. Cutting transportation will cut approximately $200,000 from the Head Start Program through transportation expenses including the termination of eight staff members. Lintner said, “We won’t ever [...] ...

Local National Weather Service Office Could Face 'Sequester' Cuts

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:41:00 GMT

Source: radio.woai.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
as the tornado season heats up and hurricane season is right around the corner ...

Salon Writer: Okla. Tornado May Have Resulted From Sequester

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:30:04 GMT

Source: www.nationalreview.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
In a piece titled, "Anyone regret slashing National Weather Service budget now?" Salon writer David Sirota links the tornado in Oklahoma to the sequester, arguing that we should be as prepared as possible for severe weather events, " but thereâs an increasing chance that we will not be thanks to the manufactured crisis known as sequestration." It is a now familiar pattern. A tragedy occurs, a few hours pass, and then Salon 's resident absurdist David Sirota writes something absurd. After Newtown, Sirota wrote about a racial angle that didn't exist . After the Boston bombings, Sirota publicly hoped that the perpetrator was "white." Today, this: With GOP-backed cuts to forecasting agency, experts warn future storms will go undetected and more lives lost. . . . As the Federal Times recently reported, sequestration includes an 8.2 percent cut to the National Weather Service. According to the organization representing weather service employees, that means there is âno way for the agency to maintain around-the-clock operations at its 122 forecasting officesâ and also means âpeople are going to be overworked, theyâre going to be tired, theyâre going to miss warnings .â Summarizing the problem, the American Institute of Physics put it bluntly: âThe government runs the risk of significantly increasing forecast error and, the governmentâs ability to warn Americans across the country about high impact weather events, ...

Republican Response To Sequester: It's Bad. Let's Make It Worse.

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:11:59 GMT

Source: www.facebook.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Republican Response To sequester: It's Bad. Let's Make It Worse. Republican Response To sequester: It's Bad. Let's Make It Worse. blog.ourfuture.org Republicans have been eager to blame the sequester on President Obama, and complain when certain cuts affect their districts. But beyond proposing robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul solutions for things like protecting air traffic controllers, what do Republican want to do about the sequester cuts? Cut more. The AP reports: Republicans controlling the House pressed ahead Tuesday with slashing cuts to domestic programs far deeper than the cuts departments like Education, Interior and State are facing under an already painful round of automatic austerity. Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security and the Pentagon would be spared under the plan approved by the House Appropriations Committee on a party-line vote, but legislation responsible for federal firefighting efforts and Indian health care would absorb a cut of 18 percent below [sequester] legislation adopted in March… …The foreign aid ... ...

Navy Commissioning Week Goes On Without Blue Angels Due To Sequester

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:09:44 GMT

Source: baltimore.cbslocal.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The Blue Angel blues. Alex DeMetrick explains on days like these, the skies above the Naval Academy would normally be filled with the roar of jet engines, but because of the sequester, the Blue Angels are not flying, creating a quieter commissioning week in Annapolis. Local businesses said they can feel the impact, as crowds that would normally come to see the Blue Angels perform are, like the angels, a no-show this year. WJZ and CBSBaltimore.com will bring you more on this developing story at 5 and 6. Filed under: Local , News , Syndicated Local Tagged: Annapolis , Blue Angels , Graduation , Naval Academy , sequester ...

AIHce 2013: OSHA’s Michaels Discusses Sequester, Standards and More

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:06:00 GMT

Source: ehstoday.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
At AIHce 2013, what was billed as a conversation about occupational safety and health between Dr. David Michaels and his Canadian counterpart, Minister of Labor, Human Resources and Skills Development Lisa Raitt, turned into a candid conversation between Michaels and one of his predecessors when Raitt was called away. In a wide-ranging, informal discussion at a May 21 general session at AIHce 2103, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels shared his views on budget constraints, the regulatory process and public policy issues in workplace safety and health with former OSHA Administrator John Henshaw, CIH. Henshaw is vice president of the Academy of Industrial Hygiene. read more ...

Sequester Summer Takes a Bite Out of Morale?

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:58:41 GMT

Source: www.newswise.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The summer sequester effect on federal employee morale could potentially leave a gaping hole in the federal workforce for years to come due to the brain-drain from federal ranks which may ironically end up costing the government more in the long run says American University's Robert Tobias. ...

American flyers 1, kids 0: Sequester impacts low-income families

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:38:38 GMT

Source: michiganradio.org --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Advocates for children wish they had a lobby as strong as the airline industry. When sequester cuts caused air travel snarls in April, Congress acted quickly, passing a bill to end air traffic controllers' furlough. Might members of Congress needing flights home helped speed up the bill's passage ? ...

The GOP Hold the Key to Their Future…They Can Either Fix the Sequester Mess or Be a Part of Their Own Demise

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:18:45 GMT

Source: www.newsvine.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
It doesn’t matter where the blame for the sequester falls; the American people don’t care. They will care who fixes the mess. If the mess gets fixed, the GOP comes out okay. If it doesn’t get fixed, the House rules and they own it. At th … ...

IRS will be closed May 24, four other days due to budget and sequester

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:37:01 GMT

Source: www.portorchardindependent.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The Internal Revenue Service announced May 20 additional details about the closures planned for May 24, June 14, July 5, July 22 and Aug. 30. ...

Washington sequester fails to account for San Francisco animal menagerie, Giants win late

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:38:30 GMT

Source: www.mccoveychronicles.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
If you're me, then "settling in" means making sure I've got a tall, cold drink and an open box of Red Vines before the movie starts. If you're a baseball player, then "settling in" means acclimating yourself to the competitive rhythm and flow of a sporting event staged before thousands and sometimes millions of people. To "settle in" after your team has just come off of one of its worst weeks in recent history and in a season where your arm slot is dropping and after you've already surrendered two runs when the opposing pitcher is Stephen Strasburg makes what Matt Cain did on the mound tonight all the more impressive. This start went a long way to quell fears about the rotation. If Matt Cain Matt Cains and Tim Lincecum stays not terrible, and Barry Zito remains dominant at AT&T Park but figures out how to be passable on the road, and if Madison Bumgarner continues to do his thing, then maybe, maybe -- especially with the offense being the team's de facto strength (still hilarious to type that) -- that fifth starter situation will, as with every other team in baseball, not really be a huge deal. Mainly, though, it's just a lot of fun watching Matt Cain do his thing. In an uncertain world during turbulent times, it's nice to know there's always Matt Cain. And he wasn't the only one to settle in tonight. Sure, Strasburg was shaky in the first couple of innings before settling in, but after a shaky April, Marco Scutaro sure has settle ...

Sequester Cuts Affect Idaho Fish And Game

Wed, 22 May 2013 01:24:47 GMT

Source: www.kmvt.com --- Tuesday, May 21, 2013
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