hacksaw approach to spending reductions that was supposed to hit both sides equally. democrats would hate cut to nondefense programs and republicans wouldn t stand cuts to the military. the theory was the cuts would be so bad there was no way congress would ever allow them to happen, but after months of deliberations, the supercommittee couldn t come to any agreement and simply gave up. so much for theory. now, sequestration was to go into effect on january 1st, 2013. as it happens, that was the same time the so-called bush tax cuts were set to expire. together, it was a supercrisis. fed chairman ben bernanke gave it a name. under current law on january 1st, 2013 there s going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases. the fiscal cliff was a classic example of what happens, as you just keep putting these things off and another election comes up.
gas revenue. put people to work as soon as possible on most urgent repairs. make high quality preschool available to every single child in america. redesign america s high schools so they better equip graduates, training and equipping forces. and invest in capabilities, reduce waste in war time spending. invest in worldclass hacare including mental care for our warriors. and he throws out platitudes and the underlying economics behind that are illusional. i think that a lot of politics here, we re not funding things that are obsolete and the obvious things, there s a whole variety of things that need to be done in government today, because if we don t deal with this we will not as a country be able to invest in the things that are important. these problems are solvable. they take some courage. john: do you he see courage out there? i see some courage.
reductions have to occur, 40 plus cents of every single dollar that we spend in this country. john: february 26th, newport news, virginia, president obama speaks to ship yard workers. what the sequester does, it uses a meat cleaver approach to gut critical investments in things like education and national security. john: but he again resists talk of an immediate catastrop catastrophe. the impact of this policy will not be felt overnight, but it will be real. john: it s tuesday, congressman, there are just a few days left to avoid the sequester. do you see anything coming down the pike in the next few days that will avoid the sequester being triggered? i think the sequester will be triggered, yes, indeed. john: georgia republican congressman paul brown. there are a lot of republicans, yourself included, who say this is really bad for the u.s. military and for na reason they were opposed to the sequestration. senator lindsey graham says the party of ronald reagan would neve
reductions that was supposed to hit both sides equally. democrats would hate cut to nondefense programs and republicans wouldn t stand cuts to the military. the theory was the cuts would be so bad there was no way congress would ever allow them to happen, but after months of deliberations, the supercommittee couldn t come to any agreement and simply gave up. so much for theory. now, sequestration was to go into effect on january 1st, 2013. as it happens, that was the same time the so-called bush tax cuts were set to expire. together, it was a supercrisis. fed chairman ben bernanke gave it a name. under current law on january 1st, 2013 there s going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases. the fiscal cliff was a classic example of what happens, as you just keep putting these things off and another election comes up.
private sector, which is you can t yell charge from your second home. john: meanwhile, congressional democrats and administration officials are fanning out across the country and they re not exactly saying the sky will fall if the sequester goes through, but close. among the things they say could happen, children exposed to lead paint, mentally ill patients untreated, uninspected meat, crops, closing of parks, more wildfires, cuts to early education, nutrition for seniors, community healthsters, small business employees, flight inspections and job training. and hurricane sandy victim. military, civilian employees, longer wait for gun background checks, fax refunds, passports, visas, epa inspections, and hospital closures and work place deaths all up, and cyber security, maintenance and terrorist surveillances down.