Wolf Bites

After a weekend of GOPer pols trying to minimize the impact of their meat cleaver cuts to the money needed to pay for federal employees and federally funded programs, the dimensions are emerging anyway.  Some impacts are being felt now but most will ripple through in the coming weeks.  As the New York Times noted,    those disproportionately and most meaningfully hurt are the poor and the most vulnerable.  This is coming at a time when further evidence emerges that the economic recovery has so far almost exclusively benefited corporations and the wealthy, rather than the middle class or the poor.

And the effects go beyond our shores.  According to the organization One  these cuts result in:

171,900 people would not have AIDS medication, resulting in 39,200 deaths and 77,200 more children becoming orphans
1.2 million fewer insecticide-treated mosquito nets, leading to over 3,200 deaths from malaria
836,800 fewer pentavalent vaccines would be available for children, resulting in 8,900 more deaths from completely preventable diseases

That's the specific background for the cartoon above.

Moreover, according to a new CBS poll, Americans aren't fooled by the GOPer strategy: a majority believe they will feel the pain of the sequester cuts, and they support President Obama's formula of a balanced approach to a deficit deal.  Though in fact such a deal is unlikely to ever be balanced: closing tax loopholes on the uber wealthy will cause them much less pain than any cuts to programs that poor families and children and the elderly depend on.

But maybe the slightly less rich who don't own their own jets or have access to those of their corporate overlord will notice that in the coming weeks the wait time at airports may well double as screeners are laid off.  And that's before we get to air traffic control.