The Sequestration - Essay Example

The Sequestration The Sequestration Sequestration refers to the automatic cancellation of budgetary allocations in order to achieve the policy vision of a deficit reduction. The sequestration approach poses a risk of causing a serious economic recession in the future, which is raising alarm to many people, especially those working in the government institutions. So far, a number of studies have pointed out that there are several potential effects on employment as a result of cutting down the expenditures on different government institutions and programs (Lee et al, 2012).

This paper discusses some challenges that I have encountered as a government employee as a result of sequestration policies.One of the challenges that I have had to deal with is the introduction of unpaid off days as one way of reducing budgetary allocations at my work place. One requirement of the sequestration is to carry out deductions on employees pay on the total number of days the employee was off from work. As a result of this move by the government, it has become a necessity to look for part time jobs in order to compensate for the reduced income.

Maneuvering between my workplace and my part time job is a real challenge.The second challenge is that I have to make reductions on expenditures on certain luxuries I and my family used to like. This poses a psychological challenge based on the fact that it is difficult to accept that I can no longer afford some services that were part and parcel of my life. Therefore, my performance at the workplace becomes compromised because I can no longer perform to the maximum. Some of the areas that I have been forced to make reductions on include expenditures on cell phone services, movie night and restaurants, cancelling vacations, and general reductions on family expenditures.

Servicing mortgages, car loans, and other loans have become real challenges since the introduction of the sequestration strategy of dealing with budgetary deficits. This is as a result of the unexpected reduction in income at a time when mortgages and other loans were under servicing. This is frustrating in the sense that members of the congress who are imposing the sequestering policies may not be subjected to pay cuts similar to those of federal workers (Lee et al, 2012).The fact that reductions on budgetary allocations on government programs are likely to cause layoffs of government workers keeps every government worker with a lot of worries.

It is projected that thousands of government workers are likely to lose their jobs as a result of the sequestering. This has become a psychological problem that is affecting workers performance in their respective institutions because no one knows the time of being laid off. Therefore, the overall performance among government workers is declining as a result of the hard hitting impacts of the sequestering approach in dealing with budget deficits (Saturno & Heniff, 2009).Experts have come with a number of proposals that might help in reducing the impacts of sequestration.

These proposals include enacting $ 1.2 trillion in targeted deficit reductions, removal of the sequestration section of the Budget Control Act, and exemption of certain programs or expenditures from sequestration (Fiscal Year, 2013).ReferencesFiscal Year (2013). Analytical Perspectives: Budget of the U.S. Government. New York: Government Printing Office.Lee, R. D., Johnson, R. W. & Joyce, P. G. (2012). Public Budgeting Systems. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.Saturno, J. & Heniff, B. (2009).

The Federal Budget Process: A Description of the Federal and Congressional Budget Processes, Including Timelines. Chicago: The Capitol Net Inc.