RI Congressional Delegation Calls Sequestration Cuts Unacceptable

RI Congressional Delegation Calls Sequestration Cuts Unacceptable

While many national analysts believe that Congress’ failure to reach a deal to prevent automatic spending cuts from kicking in yesterday won’t begin to affect the average American for quite some time, Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation wasted little time venting their frustration at the political deadlock that prevented the sequester from being avoided and warning about the impact the cuts will have on the Ocean State if a compromise can’t be reached soon.

“These cuts, which treat our highest priorities the same as our lowest priorities, are unacceptable and will harm Rhode Island with steep reductions in areas like education and job training, as well as losses for our biomedical research sector and defense contractors,” said Congressman Jim Langevin. “We should not have gotten to this point, but there is still time to avert the worst consequences of sequestration if both parties recognize that the only way to get our fiscal house in order while making the investments that create jobs is to include new revenue in the budget.”

“If a thoughtful compromise is not reached, some of our most vulnerable citizens – including seniors and children in Head Start—could pay the heaviest price,” added Senator Jack Reed. “There is a more sensible way to do this.

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So far, Republicans have been unwilling to take that step. But we will keep working and hopefully we can pass balanced, targeted measures to reduce the deficit and promote job growth.”

While neither side of the aisle could agree who was at fault for the cuts—Republicans blame President Obama’s insistence on increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans while Democrats blame Republicans for refusing to compromise—all four of Rhode Island’s national representatives agree America’s smallest state could take a big hit if something’s not done fast.

Big Impact on Little Rhody?

According to a report issued by the White House last weekend, Rhode Island could lose approximately $2.4 million in general education funding, which may put as many as 30 teacher and aide jobs at risk.

In addition, the state may face a cut of over two million dollars in special education funding, approximately $1.3 million in environmental funding to “ensure clean water and air quality,” as well as $126,000 ear-marked to help an already struggling workforce find employment.

And that doesn’t include cuts to the state’s military members. The Army itself is projected to lose roughly $800,000.

Congressman David Cicilline warned this week that the cuts could do great harm to the country’s “fragile recovery.”

"There is no doubt that we need to reduce the size of our deficit, but we have to do it in a responsible way that protects American families,” he said. “Sequestration isn’t a solution – it’s a penalty that would put our recovery in jeopardy and hurt working men and women in Rhode Island and all across our country.”

Cicilline said he backed a proposal by Congressman Chris Van Hollen that would have preserved “the Medicare guarantee and replace sequestration with precise, carefully-considered changes by enacting responsible cuts in spending, repealing subsidies to Big Oil and implemented the Buffett rule so middle class families don’t pay a higher tax rate than millionaires and billionaires.”

Reed, meanwhile, said that he had supported laws that reduced the deficit “by $2.4 trillion over the next ten years, with the bulk of that reduction coming through spending cuts.”

The sequester’s “arbitrary” cuts, he warned, could make the country “less secure at home and abroad.”

The Great Divide

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, meanwhile, has been heavily involved in the sequester debates in the nation’s capital.

In addition to introducing a pair of bills last month that he had hoped would replace the across-the-board cuts by “closing tax loopholes that currently benefit the wealthiest Americans and big corporations,” Whitehouse’s Buffet Rule, which he wrote and introduced last year, has been a key source of debate preventing a compromise from being reached.

The reason, according to Rhode Island’s other members of Congress—who are, of course, Democratic—is simply because Republicans refuse to even broach the topic.

“Democrats have put forward a solution to replace sequestration with a balanced deficit reduction plan,” Langevin said. “It continues to cut spending, while generating revenue by enacting a minimum tax on millionaires, ending tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas and closing tax loopholes for oil and gas companies making record profits.”

“Senator Reed and his Democratic colleagues have a plan that responsibly replaces the sequester this year with 50% in spending cuts and 50% in revenues,” Reed press secretary Chip Unruh said earlier this week. “This is a balanced approach that would close misguided tax loopholes that subsidize sending American jobs overseas or allow the wealthiest Americans to pay a lower effective tax rate than middle-income families.”

Either way, Rhode Island’s Congressional leaders insist it’s not too late to prevent the worst of the cuts from hitting home.

“I continue to implore my Republican colleagues to end their hard line approach that values tax protections above everything else,” Langevin said. “We need a vote to put this crisis behind us and move our country forward.”