Senator Mark Warner (D. VA) brought up a good point today:
http://www.businessinsider.com/...
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said Congress must "get something done" to avert the looming, across-the-board cuts of the sequester set to start kicking in later this week.
"I’ve been surprised some of these Republican leaders have said they don’t want to negotiate — no eleventh hour deals," Warner told CBS' Charlie Rose on "This Morning."
"I don’t think the public realizes how stupid these cuts are. In many places we will end up cutting things that will cost the taxpayer more money than the cuts." - Business Insider, 2/25/13
Warner also discussed the growing concerns about the effects across-the-board sequester cuts would have on state governments:
http://www.politico.com/...
Many governors have been frustrated with the inability of Congress to compromise, said Warner, himself a former governor.
“You’ve seen governors in both parties in the last couple of days say, ‘Hey, come on, guys, get your act together,’” he said, promoting the plan proposed by Senate Democrats, which would close tax loopholes for revenues. “We’ve got to get it done.” - Politico, 2/25/13
Warner also gave examples of how the sequester cuts would be harmful:
http://thehill.com/...
“Let me give you three quick examples. In the navy there are 975 separate line items - each of those will be cut. Each of these programs are not of equal value to the taxpayer,” said Warner. “In some places, we’ll actually even have to cut long-term contracts, volume-based contracts, which means we’ll have to pay more for ships and planes. We’re also going to be cutting back on NIH grants not being able to finish, meat inspectors, so the price of meat will go up.” - The Hill, 2/25/13
Warner explained that every budget, from the Federal Aviation Administration to the Food and Drug Administration, and cuts to the Defense Department will hit hard in Virginia:
http://www.marketplace.org/...
"Just like families, when the military goes out and buys 10 tanks instead of one tank we get a discount," he explains. "Because each account will get cut equally, some of these contracts will have to be broken and the discount that we recieve will end up costing us more than the savings."
He adds: "When you do this across the board without regard to merit, the American public will have a right to be outraged at all of us."
So why create the sequester when it was doomed from the start? Well, says Warner, it goes way back to the summer of 2011 when Congress was fighting over whether to raise the debt ceiling. "It was set up around the whole debacle around the debt ceiling ...with the expectation that the so-called supercommittee would do its job."
But, he says, that congressional "super" committee forged to come up with a deficit reduction plan didn't do its job, which leaves us where we are now. - Market Place, 2/20/13
Warner also stated that it was unlikely the GOP would change it's position and that they actually want these sequester cuts to take effect. He's right about that. Warner has been arguing that sequester was a stupid way to cut spending. Here's him arguing with Tea Party troll Senator Rand Paul (R. KY):
http://www.wtop.com/...
"I think the sequester has to go through," Paul, R-Ky., told WTOP Thursday morning. "People need to realize the sequester is not really a cut in spending. It's a cut in the rate of growth of spending."
He adds that a new proposal by Senate Democrats to avoid sequestration with a mix of spending cuts and new tax revenue is a bad idea.
"Another dumb idea," said Paul, who on Tuesday delivered the tea party response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. "They just raised taxes three months ago. Did they not get enough of a fix then? We've got to cut spending."
In response, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., says allowing sequestration to take effect March 1 would be "a stupid way to cut."
"Sequestration was set up to be the stupidest way possible to cut," he told WTOP Thursday. "It cuts every component of government, regardless of whether the progam works or doesn't work."
As a result, the government will be breaking multiple contracts, he says.
"We're going to furlough government contractors one day a week. That's going to have a ripple effect across the whole capital region's economy," Warner said. - WTOP, 2/14/13
With clowns like Rand Paul in office, no wonder we're having problems getting shit done in Washington. Luckily the adults like Warner are out there informing the public about the effects across-the-board sequester cuts would have on the country. We'll have to wait and see what happens next.