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Health & Fitness

I Wish That We Had A Leader

Let me begin by reminding everyone that sequestration was Obama's idea and that Obama said that he'd veto any attempt to circumvent it or work around it.

I believe that a leader should lead by example. In 2003 President Bush stopped  playing golf in solidarity with the families of those fighting the gulf war. "I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," said, W.   Obviously that's not something that bothers President Obama. As a matter of fact while Americans were dying in Benghazi he went to bed so that he'd be rested for his trip the next day for a fund raiser in Las Vegas and to party with his BFF, Jay Z.  But I digress. When sequestration was getting ready to take affect Obama stood firm and resolute in it's implementation. Cuts in increases in the budget would have to take place. The government is going to have to forcibly tighten it's belt.  Well that's not  entirely true. In a brazen example of "Do as I say, not as I do" the First Family is preparing for an African vacation that's estimated cost will be between $60 million and $100 million. That's quite a hunk of change don't you think especially when people and programs are being cut to save money.  I have a question for President Obama, Just who in the hell do you think that you are? You work for us buddy and you're spending my tax money. Go to Disney's Animal Kingdom or come here to St. Louis, we've got a fantastic zoo. Need a break from all of that golf and those parties?  Here's just a partial list of sequestration cuts.

1. Air Force base jobs lost in Tullahoma, Tenn. -- The Aerospace Testing Alliance announced it is cutting 128 of 1,809 civilian jobs at Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma starting April 19. It has ...also put in place a 20 percent pay cut and weekly furloughs for workers at a research facility

2. Loss of jobs in Rock Island, Ill. -- The U.S. Army garrison, Rock Island Arsenal, announced that it is firing 175 employees, 44 of whom are temporary workers, 131 of whom will see their jobs unrenewed when their terms expire,

3. Medical response times lengthened in central Nebraska. -- Medical responders have had response times lengthened because of the closing of a control tower at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport.

4. Food pantry closed in Murray, Utah. -- The Salt Lake Community Action Program closed its food pantry, one of five locations that serve more than 1,000 people every month. Executive Director Cathy Hoskins told The Huffington Post that in addition to the closure, the organization has stopped paying into employees' retirement plans, won't fill an open job and told some staffers to take a week's unpaid leave. "I've had one person retire, we're not replacing them. We're not doing any hiring at all," Hoskins said. "We're trying very hard to boost our volunteers, but this is hard work working in a pantry. And if you get a volunteer, usually it's a short-term volunteer because it's just very very difficult work. ... No raises, no increases, none of that stuff. We're cutting everything we possibly can."

5. Research employees lost in Durham, N.C. -- The Duke Clinical Research Institute is planning to "downsize" 50 employees.

6. Contractor jobs lost in southwest Oklahoma. -- Northrop Grumman Information Systems Lawton, Okla., site issued 26 layoff notices. The defense contractor CGI is anticipating that sequestration would affect 270 workers at its Lawton site.

7. Health care jobs cut in Hampton Roads, Va. -- Officials at Hampton Roads Planning District Commission announce that 1,600 jobs in the region's health care sector will disappear. "It won't be job cuts," said James A. Clary, an economist with the group. "It will be not filling the positions."

8. Health care workers laid off in Saranac Lake, N.Y. -- Adirondack Health, a medical center at Lake Placid, announced that was laying off 18 workers after firing 17 in December.

9. Rehabilitation center for Native Americans closed in Sitka, Alaska. -- The South East Alaska Regional Health Consortium announced that on April 30, it is closing the Bill Brady Healing Center, a residential drug and alcohol treatment center for Alaska Natives. Michael Jenkins, communications director, said the approximately 20 people who work there will be transferred to other positions in the organization, furloughed or fired. "For the most part, because of our location here in southeast, alcohol and drug abuse has a very high incidence. So taking this away is going to make it difficult," he said.

10. Education jobs lost in Sioux City, Iowa. -- The Iowa Early Intervention education program is bracing for the loss of 11 teaching positions, while the Sioux City Community School Board is looking at potentially 30 staff positions being eliminated.

11. Convention industry suffers nationwide. -- The cancellation of government trade shows and the reduction of private travel has begun taking a hit on the convention venue industry.

12. Tourism jobs take a hit in Savannah, Ga. -- Fort Pulaski National Monument announced that it was hiring fewer seasonal employees this summer to deal with $68,000 in sequestration cuts. "It will have an impact," Acting Superintendent Terri Wales told The Huffington Post. "We will lose one permanent positions and our staff is only 16. We will be short a couple seasonal positions this summer. we won't be able to perform as many interpretive programs as we do in the summer months. Our grass will be growing a little higher."

13. Workers furloughed in Syracuse, N.Y. -- The Hancock Field Air National Guard Base will furlough 280 workers in the coming months and Syracuse city schools will lose over $1 million.

14. Cuts to workers at a missile-testing site in the Marshall Islands. -- The U.S. ambassador to the Marshall Islands has been told that 15 percent of the workforce at the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll could lose jobs.

15. Families that rely on Head Start targeted in Bethlehem, Pa. -- Allentown-based Community Services for Children has warned that 100 children in Lehigh Valley could lose their place in the Head Start program there.

16. Meals on Wheels cut in central Maine. -- Spectrum Generations, central Maine's agency on aging, will essentially have to cut 9 percent of its budget, meaning that programs like Meals on Wheels may not deliver to all the seniors who rely on it.

17. Fewer staffers for Head Start in Rio Grande Valley, Texas. -- A local Head Start chapter froze the hiring of 19 staff positions in order to meet sequester cut demands.

18. Medical jobs at risk in Providence, R.I. -- Lifespan, the nonprofit parent of major medical facilities including Rhode Island Hospital association, acknowledged significant budget problems caused, in part, by sequestration. The funding issues could reportedly result in the loss of 3,000 jobs at that association by 2021.

19. Shorter school week at Fort Bragg, N.C. -- The military is considering shifting to a four-day school week, which would affect 84,000 students on military installations worldwide and 5,000 at Fort Bragg. Teachers may also face furloughs in the coming months.

20. Fewer children enrolled in Head Start in Cincinnati, Ohio. -- The Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency is figuring out how it will cut its Head Start program, which may affect teacher positions, bus routes and students enrolled in the program. Right now, as many as 182 students may be dropped from the program, although Michelle Hopkins of CAA told The Huffington Post that the organization is still waiting for final budget numbers. "They are in limbo," she said of the families that rely on Head Start. "They're worried; they don't want to lose their Head Start slot." She added that her biggest concern is what will happen to the children who are cut because of sequestration. "Will they end up in sub-quality care? Will they end up with an older family member who doesn't have the skills to teach them the skills they need at this point?"

21. Work-Study jobs cut in Chapel Hill, N.C. -- University of North Carolina will cut 31 work-study jobs in the next academic year because of an $84,000 sequestration-related cut. "We have made lots of offers [to students] but we could use so much more in work study," Shirley Ort, the school's associate provost and director of scholarships and student aid told The Huffington Post.

22. Health care industry suffers in Dallas. -- The Board of Managers at Parkland Memorial Hospital received word that it would lose $2 million this year. The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, meanwhile, said that 50,000 health care jobs could be lost in all of Texas if sequestration lasts through 2021.

23. Housing employees face possible layoffs in Joliet, Ill. -- The Housing Authority of Joliet, already struggling, is going to lose nearly $900,000 due to sequestration. It recently sent layoff warnings to employees.

24. School aid slashed in Knoxville, Tenn. -- The University of Tennessee's financial aid office announced it would slash 33 student awards across two programs for the 2013-14 school year

25. Layoffs expected in Fort Lee, Va. -- Fort Lee alerted the state that it projects a combined 168 layoffs in the next 60 days.

26. Scientific research at risk in Long Island, N.Y. -- Officials at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider have begun airing concerns that their facility in Upton (which supports 860 jobs) is at risk of being gutted.

27. Less camping in Connell, Wash. -- Scooteney Park has remained closed to campers because of sequestration. Day use remains intact.

28. Weeks of Head Start dropped in Iron County, Mo. -- The Ironton Head Start Center said it will drop three weeks of coverage due to sequestration.

29. Air show cancelled in Rapid City, S.D. -- Officials at Ellsworth Air Force Base have cancelled the Dakota Thunder air show this year. It has been held every few years for decades at the base.

30. Funding for child care lost in Arizona. -- The Department of Economic Security expects to lose nearly $3 million in child-care funding. That means the state must come up with extra funds in order to keep about 1,000 children of working parents in child care.

31. Medical and scientific research at risk in California. -- A group of biomedical researchers report that California stands to lose $180 million in medical and scientific research.

32. Fewer volcanoes monitored in Fairbanks, Alaska. -- The Alaska Volcano Observatory, which monitors volcanoes because ash cloud eruptions can impair intercontinental aviation, announced that it is cutting back some of its real-time monitoring because of sequestration.

33. Loss of jobs in Knoxville, Tenn. -- Tellico Services Inc., announced that it was laying off approximately 85 of its 200 workers, citing a lack of orders from the military.

34. Air Force Blue Angels, grounded.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/sequestration-effects_n_2996101.html
 
When are we going to say that enough is enough? When is the media quit covering for this embarrassment of a president? When is someone on the left going to show so intellectual honesty and a genuine concern for this country and not just partisan loyalty to a failed ideology and president. I for one am sick of it.

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