Noted Economist Sounds Off on Sequester
February 26, 2013
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Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman blasted the looming automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration as “one of the worst policy ideas in our nation’s history” in an op-ed in the New York Times.
The across-the-board cuts are set to kick in on March 1 if Congress fails to act. The sequester was part of a deal between the White House and Congress to raise the debt ceiling and avoid worldwide financial chaos. Sequestration was supposed to be a “fiscal doomsday machine” that would force Congress to come up with a reasonable alternative.
Senate Democrats have proposed “replacing the most destructive spending cuts — those that fall on the most vulnerable members of our society — with tax increases on the wealthy, and delaying austerity in a way that would protect the economy.” House Republicans, in contrast, “want to take everything that’s bad about the sequester and make it worse.”
The cuts in federal spending and federal aid to states threaten nearly a million jobs, ranging from federal workers who provide critical services, the civilian defense-related workforce, aerospace, teachers, firefighters and police.
Sequestration will further slow a weak recovery that is not creating enough jobs. “We should be spending more, not less, until we’re close to full employment; the sequester is exactly what the doctor didn’t order,” says Krugman.
The White House recently released a fact sheet detailing how the sequester cuts will impact each state and the District of Columbia. Click here to see what will happen in your state and the industries that affect you if the cuts take place.
Take action, click here to tell Congress to “Avoid Sequestration, Avert Debt Crisis by Creating Jobs!”
