The sequester: a small a step in the right direction

“Illinois will lose approximately $33.4 million in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 460 teacher and aide jobs at risk.” “Up to 1,100 disadvantaged and vulnerable children could lose access to child care.” “Illinois would lose approximately $764,000 in funds that provide meals for seniors.” “Vital services will be cut for children, seniors,...

“Illinois will lose approximately $33.4 million in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 460 teacher and aide jobs at risk.”

“Up to 1,100 disadvantaged and vulnerable children could lose access to child care.”

“Illinois would lose approximately $764,000 in funds that provide meals for seniors.”

“Vital services will be cut for children, seniors, people with mental illness and our men and women in uniform.”

This is just a sampling of ominous warnings contained in a White House report issued Monday, ahead of the sequester that goes into effect Friday night. The report provides a state-by-state accounting of the sequester’s purported impact and puts the blame solely on the “many Republicans in Congress.” All that was needed to be done to avoid the sequester, according to the report, was for the “wealthy to pay a little more” in taxes.

But what this report doesn’t do is speak the truth. The truth is that sequester is a good thing that doesn’t go far enough. It cuts only 1.2 percent from the growth of government spending this year – which amounts to only a penny-and-a-half on the dollar – while leaving entitlements, the biggest driver of our nation’s debt, untouched. Reality check: we are facing a $16 trillion dollar debt – government should be cutting more and spending less. While more thoughtful and strategic cuts would have been preferable to the automatic, across-the-board cuts, sequester is the next best thing.

Moreover, the report is dishonest because it fails to acknowledge that the purported impacts of the sequester could be entirely avoided by a reduction in wasteful government spending, on both the federal and state level. Illinois can easily withstand the purported $185 million in federal funds it will lose as a result of sequester.

In fact, the Illinois Policy Institute has identified ways the state can cut $400 million in wasteful spending, which will more than make up for the sequester’s impact. For example, the state can respond to the White House’s claims that the sequester will cut “$273,000 in funds that provide services to victims of domestic violence,” by eliminating cable TV for Illinois prison inmates, which cost the state $2.6 million during the last two years. In response to White House claims that “Illinois would lose approximately $764,000 in funds that provide meals for seniors,” the state should stop spending money on advertising, which cost $16 million last year and has included such things as paying $50,000 to the St. Louis Cardinals to advertise an Illinois Department of Transportation Service announcement. The state should answer White House claims that 3,280 fewer low-income students will receive aid to help them finance the costs of college, by eliminating the $4.75 million annual state giveaway to government union employees so that they can take college classes. Will the governor really suggest that the wealthy should be taxed more so Illinois prisoners can keep their cable or union members their tuition money?

Bigger ticket items for the state to cut include:

• Eliminating the state’s payment of state retiree health insurance, a practice virtually unheard of in the private sector for which the state has already incurred $54 billion in debt. This liability can be cut in half by requiring retirees to contribute toward their own insurance premiums.

• Scrapping plans for an Illinois-funded ObamaCare insurance exchange that will cost the state upward of $100 million a year.

Likewise, the federal government can stop its wasteful spending, starting with:

• Instituting a moratorium on hiring new federal employees, a move that could save $65 billion per year.

• Right-sizing federal-employee pay and bringing it in line with private sector jobs, a move that could save $32 billion per year.

• Reducing federal-employee travel by 25 percent, which could save $2.25 billion per year.

• Requiring competitive bidding for government contracts, which would save $19 billion per year.

The federal government can also make cuts in defense spending that won’t threaten our nation’s safety and security. Sen. Tom Coburn, R., Okla., recently issued a report that found ways to cut $67 billion over 10 years in nondefense Department of Defense spending, including money spent on Pentagon-branded beef jerky, a reality cooking show called “Grill it Safe,” and Pentagon-run microbreweries.

According to President Obama, the federal government cannot afford a penny-and-a-half decrease on the dollar on the growth of government spending this year. If that is true, then he must agree that we cannot afford ObamaCare’s $1.65 trillion 10-year tab either.

Illinois has more than $9 billion in unpaid bills this year – which will increase to $22 billion during the next five years – including money owed to doctors, hospitals, schools and charities. If Illinois can’t deal with $185 million in reduced federal funds, then it certainly can’t afford the more than $2.2 billion tab that even ObamaCare supporters estimate the Medicaid expansion will cost the state during the next 10 years, on top of its unpaid bills.

The fiscal crisis facing the nation is being overshadowed by shameless scare tactics and exploitation. Illinois should not be a party to this, but instead welcome the sequester as an opportunity to examine its spending priorities and look for additional ways to cut government spending. Illinois should not be a co-star in the White House’s fright night. We can do better. Our children, the elderly and all Americans deserve it.