Sequestration could hit local stores

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - The first day of March’s looming sequestration could mean, in a worst case scenario, a meat shortage at your local supermarket, according to an ISU professor of economics.

“There will be no more meat going into Wal-Mart, or Kroger, or Baesler’s, because there’ll be no meat inspectors,” Robert Guell, Ph.D., shared with News 10 on Wednesday afternoon.

Guell believes the sequestration will transpire at deadline time, 12:00 a.m. Friday.

Under the ag department, the feds have threatened to lay of most, if not all, of its FDA inspectors if the fiscal freeze does play out.

“If there’s no meat inspection, there is no meat,” Guell said.

Guell went on to speculate how the sequestration threatens to cripple our nation’s airports, with prospective layoffs among TSA workers:  federal screeners at all airports’ security checkpoints.

“Good luck making it through the security checkpoint, because they’re not just going to wave you through,” Guell shared. “They’re just going to have one line for all ‘zillion’ passengers.”

Zillions or not, this country is trillions of dollars in the red, and Congress can do one of three things:  reach an 11th hour compromise, averting a sequestration; extend the deadline even further; or embrace the sequester head-on, meaning a fiscal freeze at the federal level.

Guell believes the sequestration will happen, even if only until early next week