Next Week, Congress Will Ruin The Country In The Following Ways

Next Friday, barring last-minute action from Congress, the series of crippling automatic budget cuts known affectionately as “sequestration” will go into effect, immediately slicing 8.2 percent off non-defense spending for 2013. It’s the continuation of the so-called “fiscal cliff,” which was supposed to hit January 1st, but Congress moved this component to March because two potentially disastrous political showdowns are more fun than one.

If you haven’t heard about the sequestration, here’s a good primer, and you’re officially working too hard.

If sequestration is implemented next week, the likely negative impacts range from knocking expected GDP growth down 10 percent or so in 2013 GDP, to setting back medical science for a generation.

The legal field will be especially hard hit…

First of all, I’d like to have a round of applause for the Republican Party messaging operation that has gone into overdrive this week, reminding Americans that President Obama signed the sequestration into law (after it passed through Congress) and therefore requesting that we place all blame for this policy squarely on Obama. They’ve started to call it “Obamastration.” That’s some top-notch Newspeak for an idea that hard-core conservatives spent years touting. It would be like the NRA saying they were against background checks after advocating them in the 90s — I mean, really crazy stuff.

Anyway, the Department of Justice is not immune to the looming 8.2 percent cuts. So what’s likely to go down at DOJ? According to ABA President Laurel Bellows:

Sequestration would gut the Department of Justice

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