But for many observers the fiasco of the sequestration – which has effectively meant both parties are implementing a policy that neither wants and each thinks is damaging – has left many complaining about a broader American political dysfunction.
And there's the matter of the sequestration, which was rarely discussed.
"Should it come to pass, the Attorney General intends to take a pay cut equivalent to the maximum amount any Justice Department employee has to take as a result of the sequestration, which is up to 14 days this fiscal year, so that those funds can go back into the Treasury," a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement to The Huffington Post.
The reality is that years of a flat National Institutes of Health budget, the Congressional sequestration, which is expected to deepen, and hypercompetitiveness for funding have reduced our resources to address tropical diseases.
Rather, they resulted in a grand disaster: the Budget Control Act, which begat the Super Committee, which begat the sequestration cuts, which begat the fiscal cliff, which begat yesterday's temporary solution to the fiscal cliff, which now spawns the next crisis.
And, those reductions were followed last year by the adoption of "sequestration," which imposed across-the-board cuts to discretionary spending, including key education, early childhood, nutrition, and housing programs for children this year.
But the reality of sequestration, which set significant spending caps, combined with the ban on earmarks — once used to grease the wheels of legislation — have combined to make even historically bipartisan measures like the farm bill fraught with discord.
Furloughs in Portsmouth, N.H. -- At the Pease Air National Guard Base, commanders said they expect military technicians to be the hardest by sequestration, which is furloughing some civilian employees.
Also, Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, plan to talk about the effects of sequestration, which is set to go into effect March 1.
Steve Stockman (@SteveWorks4You) Americans will be watching to see who leads by fighting to block the deal & who follows the establishment by just voting no without fighting December 12, 2013 Many budget bookmakers think Republicans are silly to complain about such a deal because they have basically won the fight over sequestration, which under current law remains in place through 2021.
"Failure to act would either raise the specter of sequestration, which would indiscriminately slash critical domestic programs and take a broad sword to the Pentagon budget, or the unseemly spectacle of Congress spending the next year attempting to write itself a get-out-of-jail-free card," the group wrote.
