Another story has emerged out of the Department of Defense that the economic consequences from sequestration will be less dire than what was predicted. DoD initially projected that there would be 22 furlough days for government employees. That's now joined the long list of predictions of doom that haven't come true:
Officials said no final decisions have been made, but they believe civilian workers will be forced to take six to eight unpaid days off rather than the 11 days that had been scheduled. The move comes as workers begin their fourth week of furloughs — a decision that riled department employees and prompted many to complain directly to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel as he visited military bases earlier this month.
Officials said the savings are the result of a number of things, including penny-pinching by the military services and Congress' decision to give the Pentagon more flexibility in moving money around between accounts.
First predictions out of DoD were that there would need to be up to 22 furlough days. That was revised down to 11 days, which has now been cut to 6-8. In total, the original projection was an exaggeration of over 300%.
This shouldn't be surprising to anyone who's been paying attention. the Obama Administration ordered executive agencies not to contradict the official Administration line to try to make sequestration appear as painful as possible.
The Washington Post catalogued the predictions for sequestration that were and weren't coming true. In total, they found that just 11 of 48 predictions had come true. Time to update those revisions!