It could have been avoided. The president offered to make more modest cuts (even though discretionary spending has already been cut several times), and even said he would make $2 in cuts for every $1 in new revenue. But the Republicans wouldn't hear of it. They preferred the sequester across-the board cuts to raising any new revenue.
As the graphic above shows, the new revenue would not have affected more than 95% of Americans. A Senate bill proposed by the Democrats would only have raised revenue from the richest Americans and from corporations -- both of which have not been paying their fair share for years now. But the Republicans all voted against this (and it has no chance of being accepted by the GOP-controlled House). It just shows that the Republicans represent only the rich and the corporations -- and really don't care about the rest of America.
To keep the rich and the corporations from paying a little more in taxes, the Republicans are willing to cut education funding, cut food stamp programs (which cover more than 20% of the children in this country), cut unemployment funds and stop job creation efforts, cut funds to clean our water and air, cut funds for border security, cut funds for health care, etc. (the list is endless of the items that will be cut for ordinary Americans).
But the rich and the corporations will still be able to avoid paying as big a percentage in taxes as most middle class Americans have to pay -- and that's all the Republicans really care about. And one more thing. There is a branch of the federal government that is immune from the cuts -- Congress. The same Congress that cuts funds for hurting Americans will still be getting their full salaries. They have no interest in sharing the suffering they expect from the rest of America.
Thank you! I would like to send this to my stupid Republican (oh,wait, that is redundant) Senator Kirk. Urggh! I call his office to complain but I don't think it does any good.
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