Who the f— knows what it will cost?”
by digby
It’s interesting how they can always find the money for this stuff, isn’t it?
A limited United States intervention in Syria would not require a supplemental appropriations bill from Congress, an Obama administration official told The Huffington Post on Wednesday.
The official’s assessment that a narrowly tailored operation could be paid for with “existing Department of Defense resources” was seconded by two high-ranking aides on Capitol Hill.
However, another Hill staffer argued that without a greater understanding of the operation, it would be impossible to settle on an exact price tag or means of payment.
“Who the f— knows what it will cost? It depends entirely on what happens,” said the staffer.
Head Start programs cut staff members and students. Meals on Wheels, a federal program that delivers meals to the homebound elderly, scaled back in some communities. Federal public defenders, already strapped for funding, cut an additional 11 percent out of their budgets and are preparing for more cuts this fall.
It’s been six months since the federal government imposed $85 billion worth of mandatory budget cuts, and among those who have felt the impact most acutely have been the poorest Americans.
“Did the sequester disproportionately hurt the poor?” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks. “You bet it did.”
Among the cuts Ohio social-service agencies have faced:
• The Ohio Department of Health saw reductions to programs including WIC food and newborn-hearing programs. The department has absorbed the impact for those cuts and many others to date.
• Federal unemployment benefits in Ohio have been reduced by 16 percent, an average of about $50 per week.
• According to the Department of Health and Human Services, an estimated 2,782 Ohio preschoolers have been cut from Head Start, a portion of the 57,265 expected to be cut nationwide.
Shared sacrifice, dontcha know?
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