Letter: Correction on Size of Budget Cuts
To the Editor:
There was a factual error in a March 2 letter relating to the budgetary effects of sequestration (“A Look at White House’s Numbers”). It was asserted that the required budget cuts would be prorated for this fiscal year and therefore less severe than generally understood.
I would like to quote from the March 1 letter from the Office of Management and Budget to House Speaker John Boehner about what is statutorily required by the “Sequestration Act”: “Because these cuts must be achieved over only seven months instead of 12, the effective percentage reductions will be approximately 13 percent (instead of 7.8% percent) . . . for non-exempt defense programs and 9 percent (instead of 5 percent) . . . for non-exempt nondefense programs.”
Arthur Gardiner
Hanover
