Southern Arizona Congressman Ron Barber called for an alternative to the sequester today on the House floor:
Mister Speaker, we now are less than 48 hours from sweeping and irresponsible across-the-board budget cuts that will go into effect on Friday.
These cuts will weaken our military, harm our border security, undermine our economic recovery and hurt Southern Arizona families.
We must work together. And we can, I am confident, craft a rational, bipartisan solution to reduce the debt so these cuts can be avoided.
Last week, I stood with officials from the University of Arizona, the city of Tucson, law enforcement, Border Patrol agents, civilian employees of the air base and the garrison at Fort Huachuca and local health care groups and community agencies to demand that we take action on sequestration.
The critical services that these groups and individuals and countless others provide to Arizonans will be cut because Congress has not come together with a common-sense solution.
In my district, these cuts mean longer wait times at the border ports of entry and less security between them. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Sequestration hurts the ability of returning veterans to find a job. This is also unacceptable.
And as I said before, I am willing to work here with all my colleagues to find a middle ground.
We owe our communities a budget — one that balances new revenues, eliminates duplication and eliminates ineffective programs and allows vital services to continue.
We should not recess tomorrow. We should stay here and do our job.
Thank you Mister Speaker.
The White House has released a list of impacts to Arizona. A few highlights:
Teachers and schools
Arizona will lose approximately $17.7 million in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 240 teacher and aide jobs at risk. In addition about 19,000 fewer students would be served and approximately 70 fewer schools would receive funding. In addition, Arizona will lose approximately $10 million in funds for about 120 teachers, aides, and staff who help children with disabilities.
Public health
Arizona will lose approximately $611,000 in funds to help upgrade its ability to respond to public health threats including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and biological, chemical, nuclear, and radiological events. In addition, Arizona will lose about $1.9 million in grants to help prevent and treat substance abuse, resulting in around 4,500 fewer admissions to substance abuse programs. And the Arizona State Department of Health Services will lose about $186,000 resulting in around 4,600 fewer HIV tests.
Military readiness
In Arizona, approximately 10,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed, reducing gross pay by around $52.5 million in total. Army: Base operation funding would be cut by about $43 million in Arizona. Air Force: Funding for Air Force operations in Arizona would be cut by about $6 million
This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2013.
Actually, they should just let these tiny cuts kick in. They granted Obama tax increases last time, and now it’s time for cuts. Congress won’t be doing its job until the budget comes into balance. That won’t happen until the Senate finally comes up with a budget in the first place.
This Proves that Mr Barber has Drank the BO Kool-Aid…. so much for being “For Arizona Taxpayers”. Just another Borrow, Tax, and Spend Spend Spend….. Liberal. Did we “Spend Enough” money in 2011? Things seemed to go OK then, WHY not just KEEP spending at 2011 levels, that would have saved $173 Billion? This “Sequester Disaster ” BS is just another smoke screen to the Fleece American Taxpayers, and Destroy America, which is what BO has wanted to do from the start.
@cempiremtn: Mr. Barber isn’t drinking any imaginary kool-aid, he’s acting for his congressional district. You think there is no impact, but you don’t understand that his district have thousands of impacted lives with border patrol, military civilians, government contractors. This community runs on the incomes of these people. With those people losing 20% of their paychecks for 22 weeks, what do you think will happen to restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, child care? This trickle-down economics that right-wing crazies champion, will be felt in the opposite direction and will impact everyone. Your answer: BO is destroying America. The President received 65M votes, how many did you get at your last Klan rally?
As I wrote to Barber:
Just received your email. You said, “Congress must get to work immediately to craft a bipartisan solution to reduce the debt so these cuts can be avoided.”
That’s NOT the only only choice! ESPECIALLY if you cut any of the Social Safety net to appease the republicans who hate the 99% anyway!
The debt is ALREADY coming down thanks to reduced war spending (post-most-of-Iraq and Most-of-Afghanistan)! Cancelling the useless, buggy F35 program would by itself save $400 BILLION. It would be cheaper to bribe the Chinese and Russians to abandon their “5th Generation” boat anchors than to piss away the future to build this turkey.
The debt/deficit is a completely manufactured “crisis”. But it IS true that the execrable war machine(s) are pissing away TRILLIONS to the complete detriment of society and the Planet we live on — the ONLY one we get.
I would urge you to read and sign on to the People Budget, including extensive cuts to the war machine(s), crafted by the Progressive Caucus. Just ask Raul, I’m sure he’d be glad to explain it to you!
Damn right you should stay there and do your jobs. Why is that even a question?