Deep Concern

For John, BLUF:  If we escalate the rhetoric too fast we will have nothing left to describe what comes next.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

The headline in Saturday's edition of The [Lowell] Sun was "Deep national-park cuts seen in budget standoff". And, of course, the reason we care is, here in Lowell, we have a National Park within the City itself.  People come here for the Museum.  Someone I know from the Florida Keys wrote me this AM, saying:

I've visited Lowell and toured the National Park, which is a meaningful tour and really helps in understanding a number of aspects of the industrial revolution.

There is value in our National Park, as in all our National Parks.

The reality of the cut is 5%.

National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis has asked park superintendents to detail how they'd absorb the 5 percent budgets cuts that could become necessary.

What would The [Lowell] Sun have used for an adjective for a 10% cut, or a 15% cut?  This isn't to downplay the impact of a 5% cut here in Lowell.  People working fewer hours and less money spend on operations and maintenace budgets.  Perhaps hours cut back, or interprutations reduced.  This impacts the viewing public, here to learn about American History.  It also has a ripple effect.  If you workers find their hours reduced they will have less take-home pay and thus they will go out to eat less, or elect not to hire someone to fix this or that in their home.  They may put off buying a new car, which means the man in the showroom will have a thinner wallet.  Maybe one family will cancel their subscription to The Boston Globe and that will be the cancellation that will cause the New York Times Corporation to just shut down the whole operation.  You know, like the butterfly in Jakarta causing a thunder storm in Texas.

There will be consequences.  Further down in the article ...

Most of the Park Service's $2.9 billion budget is for permanent spending such as staff salaries, fuel, utilities and rent payments. Superintendents can use about 10 percent of their budgets on discretionary spending for things ranging from interpretive programs to historic-artifact maintenance to trail repair, and they would lose half of that to the 5 percent cuts.

Is the vocabulary in the newsroom sufficient to run the escalation ladder as cuts continue to come, or have they shot their wad?

Regards  —  Cliff