Thanks, obama. Ironic that the people that will be hurt the worst by this lack of cost control by our govt will be the very SF liberals that helped obama get elected. Fleet Week, and the Blue Angels specifically, bring in lots of money into the city. Aren't paybacks a beeyatch?!

Probably a reasonable cut when priority in defense spending needs to be given to providing resources to our troops and to ensuring our defense. However, in general the cuts that Obama Administration is making under sequestration are all designed for punishing taxpayers, political gain (i.e. blaming it on the Republicans when sequestration was Obama's idea) and/or appearances. Very few things that truly need to be cut are being cut, including a myriad of bloated government programs, federal worker compensation, unneeded government programs, unneeded government agencies, out-of-control immigration, and the costs of Obamacare. The Administration is trumpeting their "the sky is falling" hype about sequestration cuts, and the reality is they need to cut TWENTY times as much just to balance the budget. If we are to start addressing our $17 TRILLION national deficit, they need to cut FIFTY times as much.

First of all, I don't think SF liberals really care about Fleet Week. Besides, the sequester was part of a "deal" with the Republicans. Both sides are at fault, but in my perspective, it has been the GOP that has most staunchly stood by cutting government funding. Shouldn't the GOP be ecstatic that Fleet Week could be canceled now that we're finally taking money away from programs like this?

... and, in response to Whata Crock, you realize that the sequester was an across the board cut, right? Food programs for elderly people (like meals on wheels) also lost money. NASA lost money. The FDA lost money. The military lost money. The NIH lost money. Every agency had to find a way to accomodate across the board cuts. Just because Fleet Week is visible is no reason to assume it is Obama trying to make us "suffer". GOP insistence on slashing the budget is the cause of this.

maybe the pilots are needed to deal with the situation in North Korea?

Good one Cholo :-)
The Navy has to keep these F-18s flying or else they will start to deteriote from just sitting on the tarmac. The most expensive item in maintaining a jet aircraft is fuel. So if they required to fly the planes and spend a huge amount of money on fuel, just how much are they really saving by not having airshows? This is the same reasoning for canceling White House tours. Makes sense to politicans but nobody else.

Yeah, Bill, good reasoning :-) And same with everything else. Why cut to save money? Can't we just save the money without cutting? Just how much are we saving in cuts to FDA, NASA, foodstamps, etc? Maybe the sequester, which Obama and the Dems warned us about, wasn't such a good idea after all.

Consider this:

No institution, agency or organization is likely to acknowledge that even one dollar of its budget is unnecessary or wasted.

Impose an across-the-board cut and each institution, agency and organization very quickly identifies and cuts its own waste.

Not bad thinking.

Mike

It only gets worse with the tea party... I don't want government flying over head... really hard to justify fly bys now. Too bad congress can't work out the sequester that is hurting us... but seems other countries are doing fine as they buy up all available housing. Their banks are loaning, but alas not ours. Sorry!

Consider this little fortune cookie platitude, Mike:

Many institutions are already underfunded.

To add further cuts is to decimate important govt agency functions that affect millions of people.

Just add across the board sequester cuts, and things will get better.

Shoddy thinking, through and through.

Mike,

"unnecessary or wasted" spending isn't what's causing America's huge deficits. It is too much Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending. We need to focus on that, not nonsense like cutting the Blue Angels shows or cutting cancer research.