John Kerry’s Not Worried About Sequestration

According to the president, the reductions in the increase in future spending (also known as the sequestration “cuts”) signed into law on March 1, 2013 will essentially bring the government to it’s knees, and quite possibly usher in the zombie apocolypse:

Now, what’s important to understand is that not everyone will feel the pain of these cuts right away. The pain, though, will be real. Beginning this week, many middle-class families will have their lives disrupted in significant ways. Businesses that work with the military, like the Virginia shipbuilder that I visited on Tuesday, may have to lay folks off. Communities near military bases will take a serious blow. Hundreds of thousands of Americans who serve their country — Border Patrol agents, FBI agents, civilians who work at the Pentagon — all will suffer significant pay cuts and furloughs.

All of this will cause a ripple effect throughout our economy. Layoffs and pay cuts means that people have less money in their pockets, and that means that they have less money to spend at local businesses. That means lower profits. That means fewer hires. The longer these cuts remain in place, the greater the damage to our economy — a slow grind that will intensify with each passing day.

So economists are estimating that as a consequence of this sequester, that we could see growth cut by over one-half of 1 percent. It will cost about 750,000 jobs at a time when we should be growing jobs more quickly. So every time that we get a piece of economic news, over the next month, next two months, next six months, as long as the sequester is in place, we’ll know that that economic news could have been better if Congress had not failed to act.

However, it’s nice to know that at least one person in the administration is not worried about the “devastating” effect of sequestration. That’s right, our intrepid new Secretary of State, John Kerry is so unconcerned about the effects here at home that he feels comfortable pledging millions more in aid to Egypt:

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday the United States will give Egypt $250 million more in aid, following President Mohammed Morsi’s pledges for political and economic reforms.

“The American people want to see the political and economic success of our long-time partners and friends in Egypt,” Kerry said in Cairo. “We look forward to continuing to work closely with all Egyptians. But “it is clear that more hard work and compromise will be required to restore unity, political stability and economic health to Egypt.”

Apparently, while sequestration means that we have to furlough border agents, thereby weakening our security, that’s not enough to keep us from giving millions to a country that can’t even be counted on as an ally. Furthermore, this is a country whose president has threatened Israel (our closest ally in the region), and has already received millions of dollars in the form of military tanks and F-16 fighter planes. Here’s an idea – maybe if we stopped sending billions of dollars to every banana republic and tin pot dictator with his hand out, most of whom don’t-and will never-like us (see: Pok-ee-stahhhhn), we could cut spending sensibly be keeping some of that money home. Might also prevent the need for more tax increases.

Unfortunately, this type of contradiction and double-speak is standard operating procedure for this administration. Oh, and those crickets chirping? That’s the media calling them on it.