#454 (2/27) Sequestration Cuts [Mere] 2.4 Percent out of Total Spending

 CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR PASTOR SAEED'S RELEASE, - News as of 2/22 from the American Center for Law and Justice on American Pastor Saeed (who just started an 8 year sentence for helping the underground churches in Iran) - "As Iran continues to abuse imprisoned American Pastor Saeed Abedini, its goal is now clear -- force Pastor Saeed to deny Christ.We've obtained a new letter from Pastor Saeed detailing his continued mistreatment in the deadly Evin Prison, including Iran's efforts to force him to convert from Christianity back to Islam. Pastor Saeed writes: "[A]fter all of these pressures, after all of the nails they have pressed against my hands and 'feet, they are only waiting for one thing…for me to deny Christ.' Yet he is standing strong, declaring '"they will never get this from me.' Now is the time to redouble our efforts to save this courageous pastor, this U.S. citizen, from the darkness of an Iranian prison. Help us get to 300,000 signatures before our attorneys meet with U.N. Human Rights officials on March 5. Help us deliver a loud and clear message to the U.N.".(Read of the letter he has written from prison at http://aclj.org/iran/pastor-saeed-writes-psychological-warfare-physical-violence-death-threats-iranian-prison)  SIGN THE PETITION and read these new updates on the work of the ACLJ. They would like  tens of thousands more signatures s petition to the U.N on March 5.  If you have not already, please join over 300,000 (was recently130,000) who have signed the petition  for Pastor Saeed's release and tell your friends about it.  http://aclj.org/iran/save-american-pastor-from-iranian-prison-sentence 

PLEASE Continue to PRAY: "Libya Arrests Suspected Christian Missionaries ," February 16, 2013; "Four foreigners were arrested in Libya on suspicion of distributing books about Christianity and proselytizing, a Libyan police spokesman said on Saturday. Spreading Christianity is a crime in the predominantly Muslim North African county. The four were arrested in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday and are under investigation for printing and distributing books that proselytize Christianity. Police said they found 45,000 books in their possession and that another 25,000 have already been distributed. The suspects are from South Africa, Egypt, South Korea, and one holds both Swedish and U.S. Nationality. The U.S. Embassy in Libya has declined comment. "(Sources: CBS News, USA Today, Associated Press) [So much for the so-called "Arab Spring." - Stan]

  As the Lord leads, PLEASE PRAY:  ·   For the timely release of the arrested missionaries. ·   For all who share God’s loving salvation in Muslim countries.  

DECLARE YOUR SUPPORT FOR TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE. Please SIGN THE PETITION BELOW to declare your support for the traditional definition of marriage and in support of an amicus brief to go to the Supreme Court as it considers the redefinition of marriage on March 26th. Their decision on whether to uphold the Definition of Marriage Act passed by Congress in 1996 could be as piviotal to marriage in America as Roe v. Wade was to the definition of the sancity of human life in America. MOST IMPORTANTLY, please keep the upcoming Supreme Court review of this case and their final decision in your PRAYERS.

https://www.truthinaction.org/index.php/the-affirmation-of-marriage/?utm_source=Truth+In+Action+News+List&utm_campaign=9d8fb2dcc6-DOMA+%231+AB+TEST+Length&utm_medium=email

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"Chart of the Week: Sequestration Cuts 2.4 Percent out of Total Spending", T. Elliot Gaiser, February 24, 2013; http://blog.heritage.org/2013/02/24/chart-of-the-week-sequestration-cuts-2-4-percent-out-of-total-spending/

Federal spending will explode from $3.6 trillion to $6 trillion over the next 10 years, but the much-maligned sequester will cut only 2.4 percent of this spending. Sequestration represents a relatively small cut in projected spending. So why are so many in Washington wringing their hands over a two-and-a-half percent reduction?

Because sequestration leaves the largest component of federal spending—entitlements—nearly untouched. Instead, it falls most heavily on national defense, with 50 percent of sequestration cuts impacting national security. Thirty-five percent would impact non-defense discretionary spending. Less than 15 percent would fall on mandatory spending, which consumes 62 percent of the federal budget.
Not one of these cuts will address the dominant underlying cause of growth in government spending: entitlements.

Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security together drain 44 percent of the budget each year—and their share of spending is growing. By midcentury, these programs and Obamacare together will gobble up all of America’s historical tax revenue, leaving everything else—defense, federal law enforcement, transportation, and veteran care, etc.—to be financed on federal borrowing. But sequestration fails to curb this growth in spending.

Tax increases are no solution. President Obama already grabbed $618 billion in tax increases. These tax hikes harmed opportunity for Americans by increasing taxes on investors and job creators, and yet the budget remains out of balance. Washington has a spending problem—not a revenue problem—and only spending cuts can put the budget on a path to balance.

Spending cuts from sequestration and more are necessary. Without them, Americans will suffer even more in the future as economic uncertainty undermines opportunity and as deficits become growth-reducing debt. The good news is that there are smart ways to cut spending to offset sequestration, and at least six bipartisan ways to reform entitlements. For example, as Heritage experts J. D. Foster and Alison Acosta Fraser write, Congress could:

• Correct the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security;
• Raise the Social Security eligibility age to match increases in longevity; and
• Raise the Medicare eligibility age to match Social Security.

There are many ways to save money now, too. Congress could cut:

• The Lifeline program. This program spent $2.2 billion to provide telephones and service to low-income individuals. As Heritage expert Patrick Louis Knudsen writes, “Remarkably, 41 percent of ‘customers’ receiving taxpayer-subsidized service from the top five carriers failed to verify their eligibility, according to the Federal Communications Commission.”
• Community Development Block Grants. Many of the $3 billion in grants from this program go to economically well-off communities that don’t need them.
• The Job Corps. According to Knudsen, this is $1.7 billion spent on “a demonstrably ineffective program that has failed to match many of its trainees with the jobs they were trained for.”

These are a few suggestions for how to reduce government spending now and correct the drivers in spending growth into the future. Ordinary citizens will see even more economic growth–reducing debt unless Congress reins in federal spending. Instead of panicking over the 2.4 percent cut that is sequestration, lawmakers should tackle entitlement reform and cut other spending to balance the budget in 10 years.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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"Sequester Armaggedon? GOP Says 'Hardly';" by Jennifer Wishon, CBN News White House Correspondent, February 26, 2013, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2013/February/Sequester-Economic-Armaggedon-GOP-Says-Hardly/

"....'The president needs to stop campaigning, stop trying to scare the American people, stop trying to scare states,' Louisiana's Gov. Bobby Jindal said. Jindal pointed to the president's 'insatiable appetite for new revenues.' '"Let's be clear. The federal budget will actually be larger even after these reductions than it was last year,' Jindal said. He said most Americans believe it's possible to cut 3 percent of the federal budget without losing critical services....Meanwhile, political observers say all the hand-wringing is similar to the partial government shutdown in the mid-1990s.Back then officials said old people would go hungry, illegal immigrants would have the run of the land, and veterans would go without drugs. None of those things happened."