the recent piece in "the washington post" by neil irwin. we are talking to devlin barrett . we are bringing in james from massachusetts on the line for independence. guest: i was -- by the --was employed division when i was in college in washington. i know timing is everything, particularly in that field. one day can mean the difference between somebody who is on a wanted list getting away or being put back into prison. was -- in massachusetts at a time we had to cut budgets. one of the things suggested was sequestration. on the different departments and municipal government, the town that i was in, and i found that you can't do it across the board. heavy ande are employees, some are heavy and occupant -- operational costs, and some would be effectively shut down. i think sequestration is an irresponsible thing to suggest, and i guess as equally irresponsible to let it succeeding go ahead. something has to be done to have a more rational basis for cutting costs, which we did in our town. what would be your recommendation on a national level? complete discretion. if you are g