Sequester politics in Florida: The National Guard takes (an unwanted) day off

The sequester cuts took out $85 billion from the federal budget when it kicked in on March 1. They are coming equally from both domestic and defense programs, hence the effect on the National Guard. The cuts were designed to be so onerous that they would never take effect, as Congress voted on it originally back in the summer of 2011. But even though both Republicans and Democrats said they didn't like it, they were unable to come up with an alternative.

Democrats say Congressional Republicans like Pinellas County's Bill Young and Tallahassee's Steve Southerland voted against Democratic sponsored bills that would have replaced the sequester with a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts.

About 3,500 civilian employees at MacDill Air Force Base will be directly affected, with the Tampa Tribune reporting that nearly $8 million in wages will be lost over the next three months.

Members of both political parties have blamed the opposition for allowing the sequester to happen. President Obama vowed during one of the presidential debates last fall against Mitt Romney that it wouldn't happen, while GOP Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte toured the country last summer — including to Tampa — to warn that such cuts would be devastating to places like MacDill.