Ironically Congress seems to not have had any losses...

Yes, kyrebel the furloughs are already starting. I know first hand that the Education center staff are being furloughed one day a week as we speak.

I know that state jobs are being deleted. As of 6-1-2013, people will be out of work. We are talking about people with 20+ years with the state. And no retirement isn't an option as you can't collect until you are at least 60.

For what it is worth, I am sorry for those affected. Anyone with 20+ years on a job should be valued and to some extent "safe". Our "leaders" have failed all of us on many levels. As previously stated; irony being that the policy makers are still employed; go figure...

Sequester = "contraction." If the Obama administration had focused on JOBS during their first administration AND had led (which includes COMPROMISE and a balanced budget) from the front, we could have eased into this contraction with an expanded jobs base and far, far less pain for everybody. We are now reaping what was sowed when they concentrated on "stimulus," "too big to fail," and ObamaCare.

As we ease our way out of the "Bush Wars" and try to get our fiscal house in order, everybody (at least you and me) will take a hit somehow. The President is concerned about his legacy now, so he appears to be in the mood to work with the opposition to get things done.

For a lot of our people (as indicated by kyrebel), it's too little - to late.

...too little - too late...

too little would be something, the white house said this morning that they want 1 trillion more in taxes and said they will not balance the budget. once again nothing from the empty suit in the white house.

Must be on vacation....

It was a mistake to put someone with no business experience in the white house.

Capitalism is what made this new nation prosperous in the first few decades of it's existence.

Creeping socialism has brought us to this state.

Our present administration simply is living in a dream or a fog.

I'm proud of the Republicans to stand tough and force sequester = "contraction" to actually come to pass.

The intansigent Republican Congress is held hostage by the radical Tea Partiers within their ranks. They are an uncompromising bunch. The mid-term elections may very well turn out to be a bell weather election reflecting their demise. Time will tell.

In the meantime, and in an indirect (direct?) way, by virtue of the Sequestration, they are getting what they want: cuts in government spending.

Speaking of getting what they want:

The President got exactly what he wanted in his first term.

FACT: He wanted ObamaCare. He got ObamaCare.

FACT: He wanted the "stimulus." He got his "stimulus" (which stimulated little except the national debt: UP).

FACT: He wanted "too big to fail." He (and the banks and the large corporations) were "too big to fail" and WE THE TAXPAYERS are footing their bill.

FACT: He wanted bin Laden dead and al Qaeda "on the run." Bin Laden is dead and the administration claims that al Qaeda is "decimated" (or at least that was their story during the presidential campaign).

I say all of this because it demonstrates where the President's priorities were during his first term. He owned Congress for the first two years, and if he would have WANTED to balance the budget; lower the debt; fix the economy and focus on jobs HE COULD HAVE.

He didn't, and now we have the sequester (a Dem idea I support because once the milk is spilt you do the best you can to clean it up). BUT IT DIDN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY. If the President and the Democratic party had spent all of their political capital and directed their energy on JOBS AND THE ECONOMY, WE THE PEOPLE would be feeling much less pain quantatively now.

I applaud the President's recent efforts to forge compromise with the GOP, but if his focus and priorities were on the economy and jobs to begin with (during his FIRST term), he would have had a willing partner in the Republicans (at least as far as fixing the problem goes). He could have used all his new-found charm and "diplomacy" on the GOP THEN, to the benefit of us all.

Chief MVB, I applaud you for telling it like it is; however let me finish off your outstanding post. As we have seen for over four years now the President will say I will reach across party lines, I will cut the deficit in half in my first term, there is no blue state or red state, but the United States of America and the list of broken promises go on and on more than any other President in recent memory. His recent effort is more community organizing Saul Alinsky's tactics to give the visual and vocal impression that he is attempting to compromise; however he is setting up his campaign to get control of the House in 2014 so that he can govern (RULE) his last two years 2015 and 2016 even more absolute than 2009 and 2010. If he really wanted to triangulate ideas with the opposite party like Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton did, it would have happened between his re-election and now. Closing down the PEOLPLES HOUSE (Whitehouse) for tours and blaming it on Sequestration and now the Secret Service is ridiculous. There are other places that could have been cut, how about cutting some rounds of golf or not using Air Force One to go out and demonize your opponents instead of sacrificing the children.

The sequester is the single most positive thing to have happened since Obama was first elected.

It just might be the single positive thing.

Increasing the tax burden on anyone is a mistake when our economy is teetering at the brink of collapse.

Liberalism in our government has almost made it impossible to survive in free enterprise.

All spendable revenue collected into government coffers comes from the earnings of those engaged in free enterprise.

Those who spend a lifetime in public sector employment fail to contribute a dime to the sustainment of the economy.

Here's an interesting change relating to the sequestration on Ft Stewart; my doctor is regular army and was supposed to be separating this month for civilian life but because of budget constraints he has been extended at least thru the end of the fiscal year. After speaking with several hospital medical personel it seems they will be working on average one day weekly "no pay" thru the end of the fiscal year to maintain their jobs.

Civil Service 'Terms' walk beginning Monday.

It is on the way, you were being advised, you will see, especially by May 1,2013, you will see what the president was talking about. Do not count your chickens early, wait until the eggs hatch. It is a sad and hard hit to many already, but it is the system. We just have to go with the flow, until election times. Worse change is on the way, will not be nice. We will see what president BHO was warning about, and congress, all in congress will feel the negative and president BHO also, so politics. So rough, and more on the way.

The hurt is here and much more is on the way, we were being advised, we all will see, especially by May 1, 2013. We truly will see what the president was talking about. Do not count your chickens early, wait until the eggs hatch. It is a sad and hard hit to many already, but it is the system. We just have to go with the flow, until election times. The worse part of this law is on the way, it will not be nice. We will see what president BHO was warning about. All members in Congress and the President will feel the negative numbers of politics. So rough, and more on the way.