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Ways to inform your readers about this week's national debt deal and how cuts will affect them:
-- While the deal raises the debt ceiling limit a bit for now, there are other tiers of cuts that must happen for more spending to be allowed. Politico has a good explainer on the subject.
-- Defense and health care are two industries said to face the largest cuts as part of the plan. Now, lawmakers get to the task of deciding which agencies see less money. Their deadline is the end of September, so expect more rancor then. Then, there's a second round of cuts that must be made by late December, and if they don't total $1.2 trillion, across-the-board cuts kick in.
-- As of now, defense and domestic spending are capped. What does this mean to local agencies awaiting federal money? Will this affect those getting unemployment benefits? Might road construction or other local work be delayed by this? How do public schools think they'll be affected?
-- What's safe from these cuts? Social Security, Medicaid, veterans' benefits and pensions, food stamps and Supplemental Security Income. Medicare is not exempt, but the bill restricts cuts to the program to no more than 2 percent of the program's cost. How do your local senior services and health care providers think this will shake out?
Ways to inform your readers about this week's national debt deal and how cuts will affect them:
-- While the deal raises the debt ceiling limit a bit for now, there are other tiers of cuts that must happen for more spending to be allowed. Politico has a good explainer on the subject.
-- Defense and health care are two industries said to face the largest cuts as part of the plan. Now, lawmakers get to the task of deciding which agencies see less money. Their deadline is the end of September, so expect more rancor then. Then, there's a second round of cuts that must be made by late December, and if they don't total $1.2 trillion, across-the-board cuts kick in.
-- As of now, defense and domestic spending are capped. What does this mean to local agencies awaiting federal money? Will this affect those getting unemployment benefits? Might road construction or other local work be delayed by this? How do public schools think they'll be affected?
-- What's safe from these cuts? Social Security, Medicaid, veterans' benefits and pensions, food stamps and Supplemental Security Income. Medicare is not exempt, but the bill restricts cuts to the program to no more than 2 percent of the program's cost. How do your local senior services and health care providers think this will shake out?
