There is a paradox in government. When a radical change is proposed -- in this case, deep budget cuts -- the government warns how bad it will be for the citizenry. Once it’s decided then government being government starts to try to manage through the problem. Agency leaders look for ways to minimize impact on employees and citizens. Then, those who say the change was the best course all along, say, “see, it’s not the bad.”

That will be the austerity debate for the next few weeks. The sequester is either really bad or not so bad (depending on your ideological view). And either way government, imperfect creature that it is, will try to manage through the challenge. But what’s missing from that back and forth is the idea of lost opportunity.

Government by crisis has robbed the country of real reform. Instead of investing in what we need a decade or two from now, building the workforce of the 21st century, we’re cutting programs that are relevant or ineffective. Instead of dramatically lowering the cost of health care, the only real solution to our longterm budget, we’re cutting preventative care and other programs that make heath care more expensive.

This is austerity.

The sequestration budget, for example, is now the cap that will be used to limit budgets for the next nine years. (Next round, however, the budgets will be set by congressional appropriations based on those caps. So the challenge will be competition between agencies and priorities.) In his news conference Friday, President Barack Obama put it this way: “We have a Budget Control Act, right? We agreed to a certain amount of money that was going to be spent each year, and certain funding levels for our military, our education system, and so forth. If we stick to that deal, then I will be supportive of us sticking to that deal. It’s a deal that I made.”

That deal means that the federal budget deficit, as a percentage of the economy, will fall four four years in a row. At the end of next year, that deficit will be around $845 billion; the first deficit in five years below $1 trillion. (And, and at 5.3 percent of GDP, it would be only about half as large, relative to the size of the economy, as the deficit was in 2009.)

The made deal is a decade ahead of austerity. The austerity narrative is now locked in. But it doesn’t solve, or even address, the problem.

Indian Country is an asterisk in the federal budget. Yet the impact of this austerity will impact our communities deeply and fairly soon. By my count, there will be at least $386 million in direct service budget cuts between now and the end of September. As the National Congress of American Indians said last week, “forced spending cuts will undermine the trust, treaty, and statutory obligations to tribal governments that are funded in the federal budget. Not only would it sacrifice the federal trust responsibility to tribes, but it would thwart tribes’ ability to promote economic growth or plan for the benefit of future generations.”

I’ll detail some of the program cuts during the week, and their impact on American Indian and Alaska Native communities. But I want to close this post with more paradoxes to consider. The first paradox was a practical one. I suppose these are, too. So, why are we buying into an austerity program with such a failed track record? No where in the world is it working well. You’d think that measurement and results would be a part of the “deal.” And, on a grander scale, why are we so stuck on a political discourse that solves the wrong problem?

Let’s look at the overall numbers from the OMB report to Congress.

American Indian / Alaska Native specific programs (Reduction in millions)
Indian Student Education (Dept of Ed) 7
Indian Health Service 198
Indian Health Service facilities 22
Native American Housing Block Grant 33
Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education 126
Total cuts: 386

Programs with significant impact in Indian Country (Reduction in millions)
Judicial branch cuts, from Supreme Court to Sentencing Commission 410
Minority Business Development Agency 2
Commodity and child nutrition 8
Wildland fire management 125
(NOAA) Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery 3
Impact Aid 65
Education Improvement Programs 228
Special Education 633
Accelerating Achievement and Ensuring Equity 789
Office of Innovation and Improvement 77
Career, Technical and Adult Education 87
Higher Education 116
Student Financial Assistance 86
Student Financial Admin 71
Institute of Education Sciences 30
Defense Environmental Cleanup 394
Energy science 245
Bonneville Power Administration Fund 6
Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Programs 20
Health Resources and Services 365
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 298
National Institutes of Health 1553
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 168
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Admin) 40
Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund 5330
Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund 5752
Medicare Prescription Drug Account 588
Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control 57
Low Income Home Energy Assistance 175
Supporting Healthy Families and Adolescent Development 28
Children and Families Services (Inc Head Start) 503
Aging and Disability Services Program 75
Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund 38
United States Secret Service 84
Customs and Border Protection 512
ICE 294
Transportation Security Administration 325
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center 12
United States Coast Guard 284
FEMA 1136
Project-based Rental Assistance 470
Tenant Based Rental Assistance 938
Community Development Fund 965
Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund 13
United States Geological Survey 54
United States Fish and Wildlife Service 64
Wildlife restoration 83
National Park Service 153
Department of Justice 459
Federal Bureau of Investigation 552
Drug Enforcement Admin 120
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives 58
Federal Prison System 339
Office of Justice Programs 138
Department of Labor 296
Unemployment, benefits & admin 2679
Bureau of Labor Statistics 27
Occupational Safety and Health Administration 28
Mine Safety and Health Administration 19
Federal Aviation Administration 637
Federal Highway Administration 463
Internal Revenue Service 827
Environmental Protection Agency 262
EPA State and Tribal Assistance Grants 210
Executive Office of the President 22
National Science Foundation 361
Small Business Administration 92
Social Security Administration 286
Corporation for Public Broadcasting 22
Smithsonian Institution 51
Total cuts: 31700

Mark Trahant is a writer, speaker and Twitter poet. He lives in Fort Hall, Idaho, and is a member of The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. Join the discussion about austerity. A new Facebook page has been set up at: www.facebook.com/IndianCountryAusterity

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