Oh No! The Sequester! Shhh! We're Spending.

Oh no! The sequester would cut $1.325 billion to the Department of Education! It would hurt Head Start, which doesn't work. Teachers, aids, and other staff could lose their jobs. Why? Why is the federal government spending money on teachers? The states pay their salary. Didn't we learn from the collapse of the Soviet Union that centralized planning doesn't work?

Obviously not because Obama and other politicians want to stop the sequester and keep this centralized spending.

But do you know what is really interesting? The post before this story on the Department of Education's site talks about spending money in a NEW GRANT!

Yes. Amidst the tragic sequester there is still yet a NEW GRANT! Are you kidding me!?

What is it for?

$15 million in public funds over three years to reinforce and accelerate intervention efforts in the nation’s lowest-performing schools.

But we have already spent a lot of money on low performing schools. In fact, again from the post, here is what we have done:

Since 2009, the Department has invested $4.5 billion at more than 1,300 of the country’s lowest-performing schools.

So why are there still low performing schools?

But $15 million across 3 years is small compared to $1.325 billion in one year. However, the point is that while the left hand cuts the right hand spends. How many more instances are there of this happening?

But let's run with the number of $1.325 billion. How does that stack up with numbers from 2012? We will look at the financial details document.

Page 3 (numbered as 41) the total assets are $796.927 billion. $673.488 is Net Credit Program Receivables. That is money owed to the DoE. See page 12 (numbered as 50).

Page 4 (numbered as 42) the total costs for special programs is $63.773 billion. Not regular operations, but special programs.

Page 6 (numbered as 44) has "Budgetary" and "Non-Budgetary Credit Reform Financing Accounts." Respectively the total budgetary resources are $104.710 billion $270.274 billion for a combined total $374.984 billion.

That $1.3 billion is looking pretty insignificant.

Page 17 (numbered as 55) what was the end balance with the Treasury? $121.993 billion.

Page 34 (numbered as 72) is the debt. Total for 2012 was $715.303 billion.

We have $715.303 billion in debt with the DoE and the politicians don't want to cut less than 1% of the spending?

I do not fully understand all the numbers that are in the document because accounting and the terms are confusing if you are not an accountant or well versed in the subject. However, it is easy too see that the numbers dealt with in the DoE's budget are huge. So huge that the sequester's effect is minuscule. So what's all the fuss!?

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