Rancho LPG Receives Smack Down Notice from EPA p. 3 Pfc. Bradley Manning Speaks in Court for First Time p. 10 The Legend of Camelia la Tejana, Comes Alive in Opera p. 11 Morrison Channels Icon Dinah Washington p. 14
By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
March 22 - April 4, 2013
Photo courtesy of Harbor Interfaith Center Graphic: Mathew Highland
The Local Publication You Actually Read
E
xecutive Director Tahia Hayslet expressed confidence that San Pedro’s Harbor Interfaith Services will this latest budgetary storm, known as the sequester, thanks to its efforts in diversifying their funding sources over the last several years. Nevertheless, Hayslet said she was expecting a 5 to 10 percent cut in Housing and Urban Development grants that are scheduled for release April 1. But Harbor Interfaith isn’t alone. The sequester—deep, indiscriminate across-the-board cuts to discretionary federal spending on domestic programs and defense—was intended as a sword of Damocles, a threat so dire it would ensure a negotiated budget compromise to avert it. “It was written in a way to make it terrible,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney reminded reporters on March 14. “That was the purpose.” Under federal law, sequestration requires agencies to cut spending by a fixed percentage on each of their programs and activities, so that everyone gets hurt. But now Republicans seem to think it makes a swell meat-ax instead—especially if they can convince the public that it’s all President Barack Obama’s fault. But it’s not. And, the public knows it. A recent Washington Post poll found that Americans hold Congressional Republicans responsible for the sequester cuts by a 47 to 33 margin, while 72 percent disapprove of Congressional Republicans overall. What’s more, Americans disapprove of the sequester cuts by 53 to 39 percent; 64 percent say they’ll hurt the economy; 60 percent say they’ll hurt the government’s ability to provide basic services; and 69 percent say they’ll hurt the military. Even Congressional Republicans hate the sequester cuts—when they hit too close to home, as Talking Points Memo reported (“Sequestration NIMBYism Grips GOP,” March 15), citing complaints from South Dakota Sen. John Thune, New York Rep. Richard Hanna and Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold as examples. What’s even more amazing about public hostility to the GOP’s position is that the public remains wildly misinformed about the most basic budget fact of all: rather than facing an avalanche of “out-of-control spending,” Seqeuster: What’s on the Chopping Block?/ to p. 61