Few are noticing the pinch of the sequester, though we’ve been told it is coming.  Civil Service employees at MCLB Albany have been told to lose somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 percent of their income as a result of sequestration.  This isn’t unique to Albany either, but rolls across the entire Department of Defense.

In a pamphlet distributed among the employees at the 460 Space Wing, Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora, Col., pamphlet authors offer employees who are about to lose one-fifth of their income such advice as:

• Developing a budget
• Cut discretionary spending, cutting back on things like entertainment, dining out, etc.
• Using coupons
• Alert their creditors of what is happening
• Make changes to how much they contribute to their retirement plan

Now, isn’t it more than a little ironic that the DoD officials, who are part of the federal government,  are directing employees to budget and cut discretionary spending.  That’s something that Congress clearly can’t do.  In addition, they expect employees who are going to lose 20 percent of their income to make it up by clipping coupons and and screwing up their retirement accounts.  Of course, they can always count on Social Security to bail them out…

…except that there’s not a lot of reason to hope it’ll be around for all that much longer.

Sequestration was initially proposed to act like a Sword of Damocles, hanging over the head of Congress and the President to force them to work things out for the good of the nation.  Personally, I don’t see a 2 to 3 percent cut in spending growth as being nearly as draconian as they’ve made it out to be, but the powers that be in Washington saw them that way.  It still didn’t get them to accomplish a blasted thing.  Obviously.

Now, instead of finding better places to cut, the DoD has decided that the best place to make those cuts are in the lives of the men and women, civilians, who support their mission.  They’re not to blame for sequestration.  That blame rests on Congress and President Obama who can’t come up with a budget that they can agree on to save their lives apparently.  However, the DoD is the one who prioritized the men and women who work for them as the best place to make cuts.

Adding insult to injury, they tell these men and women to do things that the federal government is pathologically incapable of doing apparently.  You can read the pamphlet for yourself by clicking here.

Tom Knighton is the Editor and Publisher of the Albany Journal.