Hidden inside the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which created budget committees in both the House and Senate plus the "non-partisan" CBO, is a little-known tool called baseline budgeting which effectively gives automatic increases to a departmental budget every year without justification or debate. It ensures that governmental spending grows by certain amounts every year. When some politician gets in front of a mike and talks about how they've cut government spending, what they've inevitably done is cut the rate of increase that was given to the department by that Act in 1974.
This creates an firestorm of howling and angst from those whose oxen have been so grievously gored. None of the sequestration involves actual cuts, in my understanding. They're simply automatic cuts in the rate of growth of a department's budget, and every department is under direct orders to make them hurt as much as possible. (You see the same thing in local elections. When a school board wants a bond issue passed, they always talk about cutting teachers so all the soccer moms are totally panicked that Johnny and Susie are going to be homeschooled or vagrant)
This Act in 1974 was overseen by some short feller from somewhere .... name of Albert if I remember correctly.
Absolutely - and it's why I can't understand how anyone can't see this as a complete farce. "We cut the amount of increase we were going to get over what we operated on last year, so now we won't be able to operate, just like we did before the reduced amount of increase." WTF?
It's amazing how stupid people are that many fall for this foolishness.