So here we are, two weeks into sequestration, and except for the U.S. stock market reaching record highs, Life As We Know It has not changed.
Has anyone noticed that sequestration, which occurred on March 1, 2013, has had about as much impact as the “Y2K bug” that was supposed to occur on Jan. 1, 2000?
Throughout 1999 there was a long line of computer experts giving dire predictions of planes dropping out of the sky, power grids going offline, telecommunications systems crashing, and banks having to close their doors, all because databases in mainframe computers couldn’t accommodate dates beyond 12/31/99.
As Y2K mania built to its crescendo that December, people withdrew large sums of money from their bank account, bought generators, and stocked up on food, in preparation for the catastrophe to come. But when the sun came up on Jan. 1, 2000, we discovered that none of the experts’ predictions came true.
Similarly, last month brought a crescendo of dire warnings by the president and his minions that Life As We Know It would cease to exist if sequestration went forward.
His traveling road show presented specters of children starving, hospitals closing, and bodies of dead widows and orphans littering the streets.
But when the sun came up on March 1, 2013, we discovered that sequestration was as much a nonevent as the Y2K bug was.
The difference is that the computer experts in 1999 were simply mistaken; the president and his minions were knowingly lying to gullible supporters and reporters.
We have come a long way from our first president whose honesty is legendary (“I cannot tell a lie …”) to our current president who, it seems, cannot tell the truth.
Randy Drake
Peachtree City, Ga.
