How Has Your Life Been Adversely Affected by the Sequestration?

[imanihonjin]

The calamity never came because the cuts that were anticipated never really materialized. Look at Happyone. 22 days to 11 to 6. My brother was in the same situation except they started off with 13 days and now will have 0 furlough days. Same thing for a buddy of mine who is a US Marshall who now have zero furlough days also. I agree that the cuts need to go deeper as there is a ton of bloat in the government, however the cuts that need to happen to get everything back in order will painful and not just for government workers. And I just don't think Washington will ever allow that much pain.

I don't think that the initial overstatement of furlough days was unintentional (I am not suggesting that you had an opinion one way or another on this point).

[byu71]

As a tag along because I don't want to start a new thread, how has the tax increases affected your life. I hate to throw a bone to my progressive friends, but I don't think the tax increases have effected people all that much either.

Personally there is probably $4-5 million less that I would have had available to invest for my clients and who knows they might have not invested it, but given it to charity.

In reality if they invested it, these folks get charged a very small fee, the firm gets 60% of it, the government and my charitable obligations take another 50%. It really isn't impacting me that much after I take all of that into consideration.

Have the tax increases affected you much?

[Goatnapper'96]

As a tag along because I don't want to start a new thread, how has the tax increases affected your life. I hate to throw a bone to my progressive friends, but I don't think the tax increases have effected people all that much either.

Personally there is probably $4-5 million less that I would have had available to invest for my clients and who knows they might have not invested it, but given it to charity.

In reality if they invested it, these folks get charged a very small fee, the firm gets 60% of it, the government and my charitable obligations take another 50%. It really isn't impacting me that much after I take all of that into consideration.

Have the tax increases affected you much?

This is not a humblebrag, but the tax rates have impacted me not one bit!

[clackamascoug]

I've not been personally effected, but we took the pliers to the horse, and he feels it quite painfully.

[YOhio]

Much like Surfah, the impact of sequestration has been significant in my line of work. A lot of work been lost and other work has been put on indefinite hold. I support budget cuts, but they need to be done in a more precise manner going forward. The uncertainty of sequestration led to confusion and disorder. But it seems like people prefer the unbiased method of last-resort across the board cuts rather than the precision method of killing off shitty programs and firing unnecessary bureaucrats.

[Indy Coug]

But it seems like people prefer the unbiased method of last-resort across the board cuts rather than the precision method of killing off shitty programs and firing unnecessary bureaucrats.

That's because the across the board approach doesn't require any real thought or consensus -- things that the government specializes in.

[Surfah]

Much like Surfah, the impact of sequestration has been significant in my line of work. A lot of work been lost and other work has been put on indefinite hold. I support budget cuts, but they need to be done in a more precise manner going forward. The uncertainty of sequestration led to confusion and disorder. But it seems like people prefer the unbiased method of last-resort across the board cuts rather than the precision method of killing off shitty programs and firing unnecessary bureaucrats.

This is the biggest problem with how it rolled out. The uncertainty of what and when stalled and killed a lot of work.

[Indy Coug]

This is the biggest problem with how it rolled out. The uncertainty of what and when stalled and killed a lot of work.

Which is exactly why Obamacare is stifling growth in the private sector.

[Jacob]

As a tag along because I don't want to start a new thread, how has the tax increases affected your life. I hate to throw a bone to my progressive friends, but I don't think the tax increases have effected people all that much either.

Personally there is probably $4-5 million less that I would have had available to invest for my clients and who knows they might have not invested it, but given it to charity.

In reality if they invested it, these folks get charged a very small fee, the firm gets 60% of it, the government and my charitable obligations take another 50%. It really isn't impacting me that much after I take all of that into consideration.

Have the tax increases affected you much?

The increase has affected me greatly. I purchased a small business last year, and had to take out a lot of debt to do it. So, my tax return shows significant taxable income, but most of my cash is going to debt payments or to improve the business. So, while I'm not taking home a huge check, I have to pay significantly higher taxes. Of course, only a portion of that increase is due to the higher tax rates. A larger portion is due to the tax codes' penalty on savings and investment. I've cut back on employees and wages where I can to make up for the lost cash that has to go to pay taxes.

[TheAzzuri]

Much like Surfah, the impact of sequestration has been significant in my line of work. A lot of work been lost and other work has been put on indefinite hold. I support budget cuts, but they need to be done in a more precise manner going forward. The uncertainty of sequestration led to confusion and disorder. But it seems like people prefer the unbiased method of last-resort across the board cuts rather than the precision method of killing off shitty programs and firing unnecessary bureaucrats.

Yes. This. I agree, almost word for word. This may sound overly dramatic, but budget cuts at the NIH have had (and are projected to have) a significant effect on the future of biomedical research in this country. I know the NSF is in a similar boat.

[pellegrino]

To the best of my knowledge, it's been affected not at all.

[Jacob]

Much like Surfah, the impact of sequestration has been significant in my line of work. A lot of work been lost and other work has been put on indefinite hold. I support budget cuts, but they need to be done in a more precise manner going forward. The uncertainty of sequestration led to confusion and disorder. But it seems like people prefer the unbiased method of last-resort across the board cuts rather than the precision method of killing off shitty programs and firing unnecessary bureaucrats.

It's not that people prefer them, it's that our politicians are cowards. This was the only way we could get even minimal cuts. And it was only a few republicans that forced the issue, I think. Even most of them were scared of nothing.