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The day everyone thought would never come; Hoped would never come; Designed to never come, finally has. Sequestration is upon us. And by the way, I'm not really happy about it.
The $85 billion in across the board spending cuts take place today, unless that hail-mary moment comes through before midnight. Since the chance of that is as likely as this editor ever catching a hail-mary football pass.
Earlier today, President Obama held a short press conference to make a statement on the sequester. The tone was that of the inevitable.
"I just met with leaders of both parties to discuss a way forward in light of the severe budget cuts that start to take effect today," said Obama. "I told them these cuts will hurt our economy. They will cost us jobs. And to set it right, both sides need to be willing to compromise."
It was also a bit combative, as his direction for this topic has increasingly been over the past seeral weeks.
"And let's be clear. None of this is necessary. It's happening because of a choice that Republicans in Congress have made. They've allowed these cuts to happen because they refuse to budge on closing a single wasteful loophole to help reduce the deficit. As recently as yesterday, they decided to protect special interest tax breaks for the well-off and well-connected, and they think that that's apparently more important than protecting our military or middle-class families from the pain of these cuts."
The day is upon us. Cuts will take place. Some of the affects will not be felt right away, but they will be felt. Without some intervention, Community Action can see around 5.1 percent cut in all program funding - including CSBG.
CAAP will be in Washington D.C. next week for the NCAF Legislative Conference and meeting with members of Congress. Follow us on Twitter at @CAAPNews for regular updates on the opinions of the sequester and FY 2014 funding. | 
