On Thursday, February 21, the Editorial Board of the Austin American Statesman posted a commentary on sequestration and its potentially disastrous effects. According to the author, sequestration is a terrible idea and will negatively affect the jobs of thousands, especially in Texas.
The intended audience of this particular editorial is clearly the American public, but more specifically Texans. Since Texas has numerous connections with the military (bases and installations such as Fort Hood, etc.), the author states that the sequester will result in severe job loss as well as significant economic drawbacks for Texan employees.
Judging by the briefness of the article and the primary focus being mostly on the effects of the sequester in Texas, the author doesn't appear all too credible. Their argument, however, seems fairly sound. They offer facts to back-up their claims, and provide numerical evidence to help bring the effects of the sequester into perspective. The author has a strong opinion, but is practical in their reasoning and doesn't offer up anything outrageous as far as the potential results of the sequester in the future.
Although the author's concerns about the sequester and Texas are evident, they don't touch much on how the problem with federal spending can be corrected, or what they think the U.S. government should do to lessen the negative financial impact of the sequester. The author does propose that cuts be made elsewhere (departments and areas other than Defense), and suggests that it be done carefully, but they don't spend much time on these alternatives, and instead reverts their attention back to the resulting job loss of blunt cuts due to the sequester.
Overall the author got their point across, and while the execution left something to be desired, they used reasonable facts and logic to support their argument.
