Does Austerity Kill? A Look at 17,679 Things the Federal Government Has Done Since Sequestration.
Sequestration is back on the agenda and so is anti-austerity hysteria. Over at Politico, they're quasi-blaming the Navy Yard shooting on cuts. The president of MIT says sequestration is "choking the innovation economy." The Center for American Progress frets that "austerity kills." And The Atlantic says cuts are "undermining what makes America great."
To help understand what American austerity really looks like in 2013, we've helpfully listed the 17,000+ entries from the Federal Register ("The Daily Journal of the United States Government") since sequestration took effect on March 1, 2013.
Not everything on the list is wasteful, of course. But is this a snapshot of a government cut to the bone?
Feel free to comb the list and highlight your favorite vital programs in the comments section.
Here are a couple of my picks, just to get your juices flowing:
- A new rule to test the blood of train conductors involved in accidents for the presence of antihistimines.
- A second review of an antidumping order pertaining to folding gift boxes from China.
- Official notice of the closure of a 22-mile stretch of rail near Kokomo, Indiana, that hasn't been used for the last two years.
Warning: the page is really, really large.
