Amid the fears and questions which arose as the
sequestration went into effect on Friday, Gov. Bob McDonnell “tasked” a
reassembled Commission on Military Installations and Defense Activities to
advise McDonnell on how best to respond to the indiscriminate budgetary cuts
set to take place across the remainder of the fiscal year.
According to McDonnell, “Its purpose [i.e., the Commission]
is to examine in detail the likely impact on Virginia of the planned defense
cuts, and future [Base Realignment and Closure] actions, and to recommend to me
the best courses of action to advocate for favorable policies in Washington…”[1]
Stated more clearly, the commission is charged in part to
create plans for preventing the realignment or closure of federal military and
national security installations in Virginia.[2]
Virginia stands in both a uniquely cushioned economic
position as well as uniquely precarious economic position from which to face
the federal sequestration. On the one hand, Virginia has taken measures in the
not-too-distant past to soften the blow of budgetary cuts such as millions of
dollars placed into a Federal
Action Contingency Trust Fund. On the other hand,
military and government employees[3]
make up a relatively large percentage of Virginia’s workforce, meaning that if
the military and federal agencies start laying employees off, Virginia will
take a disproportionate economic hit (not to mention the psychological toll
that these layoffs will take on those affected).
At this point in the sequestration process, few if any
tangible effects from the sequestration will be felt. As the weeks continue
without an end to this budgetary axe, the effects of the sequestration may be
felt across the domestic and military spheres (as was the intention of the
sequestration).
But the most absurd part of this whole sequestration process
is that the American people, on the whole, have watched this political game of
chicken with relative disinterest and unalarm until now. While my point is not
to blame the American people or any one group for the sequestration, my hope is
that the sequestration will be the spur that finally shakes the American people
out of their political complacency.
If more Americans do not become involved in the political
process and finally demand an end to this budgetary insanity, it will continue
to repeat itself year after year. Our congressional ‘leaders’ have already
shown multiple times that they are either incapable or unwilling to do it
themselves.
[1] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/mcdonnell-tasks-panel-to-help-va-with-sequestration/article_1cb67c96-28d0-57c7-aa26-63c03bfe7bf0.html
[2] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/mcdonnell-tasks-panel-to-help-va-with-sequestration/article_1cb67c96-28d0-57c7-aa26-63c03bfe7bf0.html
[3] http://www.gallup.com/poll/141785/gov-employment-ranges-ohio.aspx
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