Two years the GOP forced the White House to accept a $85 billion sequester from the US federal budget. Barack Obama has attempted many compromises with the Republican austerity hawks. The countdown ticked to zero at midnight. The forced cuts will swiftly effect the US economy, especially the military. The newly appointed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned, “Let me make it clear that this uncertainty puts at risk our ability to effectively fulfil all of our missions.”
And the Pentagon had many missions across the globe after ten years of the War on Terror.
While I haven’t heard a single New Yorker talking about the cuts, the right-wing pollster Gallup reported that the president’s approval rating has slipped to 45%. Their election prediction had Romney a winner with 49% of the vote, but Gallup’s errors and public ignorance doesn’t minimize the sequester’s danger to the nation.
The Speaker of the House and his compatriots refused to discuss any increases in taxes. They prefer a doomsday scenario, but this is not the end of the world. I looked out the windows of the Fort Greene Observatory. Lights marked the Brooklyn Skyline, Duke outlasted Miami in an ACC basketball showdown, and I have a cold beer in the fridge.
Skyward a few stars shine in the night sky.
They care nothing at all and neither do most Americans, for apathy is the only freedom left when all freedoms are gone.