Apparently, sometime before midnight, President Obama will sign into law the forced, automatic budget cuts, known as sequestration.
It?s a safe bet that, no matter what your political persuasion, you are disgusted that Congress, which no longer settles political differences by compromising, went home for the weekend and let this happen as planned today.
Members of Congress, by the way, will still get their full paychecks as every government agency begins the painful process of cutting money out of its 2013 budget.
The very idea of across-the-board cuts, without any thought to the impacts of those cuts ? especially to public health and safety and our fragile economic recovery — is just plain stupid. It?s a stupid way to address America?s fiscal issues.
Sequestration is nothing but a dumb word to describe what will be self-inflicted damage to Americans and the economy.
We have been warned by politicians and the media that we will see the effects of the cuts in all areas of our life as the forced cuts start affecting all departments of government from the Department of Transportation air traffic controllers to food safety inspectors in the Food and Drug Administration to the folks in the Department of Interior who keep our national parks operating.
We will not see the effects of the forced cuts immediately, but more gradually.
And to those who play down the cuts and claim politicians are overstating the effects, I say, ?Think again.?
Think about Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, still recovering from the punch of three hurricanes in three years, two of which severely damaged Highway 12 and shut down the island. And then there is the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry route, shut down for a month by shoaling in the channel in Hatteras Inlet, and even now operating in an alternative channel that takes longer to make the passage.
Now, going into a new tourist season in which we are all hoping and praying for a recovery from the personal and business losses of the past several years, we are looking at National Park Service cutbacks at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Nine permanent positions will not be filled. We can probably live with that. Furloughs of permanent employees are not now being required. That is good.
However, we take a hit on temporary seasonal employees, the folks who actually do the heavy lifting in the summer season.
The good news is that the Park Service will be allowed to fill the temporary seasonal positions that are necessary to manage the park under the new off-road vehicle regulation, including employees to sell ORV permits and biotechs to monitor nesting birds and turtles.
And lest you think that?s not good news, that the park should shut down those programs too, think again. If Park Service cannot issue permits and monitor birds, we won?t go back to the way things were. We will just see the beach shut down entirely.
The bad news is that the park cannot hire seasonals who staff the visitor centers, conduct the popular interpretative programs, keep the campgrounds operating, and guard the swimmers at the beaches.
There will probably be some summer programs, but not many. Visitor Center hours and maybe lighthouse climbing hours will be scaled back.
However, the campgrounds will not open and there will be no lifeguards at Coquina Beach, Buxton Beach, or the Ocracoke Day Use Area.
And, even if Congress returns next week ? for the usual four days of work ? and decides to reverse the forced spending cuts, it will take Park weeks to catch up with its hiring of seasonals.
You can expect to hear soon that campgrounds won?t open as planned on April 5 and lighthouse climbing may not begin on April 19.
This situation is definitely another economic setback for those of us who live and work on Hatteras and Ocracoke.
However, we can make it better.
The beaches will be open ? with the usual nesting-season restrictions. The visitor centers will be open too, just on reduced hours. You can still climb the lighthouse.
And, of course, there are still the many other things to do on the islands from watersports to fishing charters to great shopping and dining to visiting attractions such as the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras village.
Highway 12 is repaired and the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferries are running.
We can all help get the word out there that Hatteras and Ocracoke are open for business.
Let?s do it.
