Taking a break on the brink of a major fiscal catastrophe may seem to some as reckless and disrespectful, but that is exactly what Congress chose to do this week. Congress is officially adjourned until Feb. 25 for its Washington’s Day recess.
When Congress returns, it will have only four days to stop the sequestration — a suite of automatic spending cuts that the White House warns will “threaten thousands of jobs and the economic security of the middle class” — from taking effect March 1.
The sequestration is the result of the 2011 Budget Control Act, which calls for severe budgetary cuts for military and social programs in the absence of a bipartisanly-approved deficit reduction plan. The sequestration will cut $42.7 billion in military discretionary funding, $11.2 billion from Medicare and $26.4 billion in non-military discretionary funding. These cuts would cause the layoff of more than 100,000 soldiers.
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Congressional Research Service (CRS), 750,000 jobs will be lost due to the sequester. Cuts to Medicare payments to health care providers may drive doctors and hospitals to stop taking elderly or disabled patients who are covered under the Medicare program. Programs such as Head Start, Job Corps and Americorp will see significant budget cuts and may be shuttered. Extended unemployment benefits will be stopped. Eighty thousand teaching jobs can be lost, according to the National Education Association.
Fifteen hundred air traffic controllers, 9,000 security screeners and 1,600 custom officers could lose their jobs, according to the Aerospace Industries Association. Eighty thousand kids will lose child care assistance, 12,150 will lose benefits from the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, 169,000 less individuals will be admitted into substance abuse treatment programs and 14,200 homeless Americans will lose federally-mandated assistance.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will see a $878 million cut to its operating budget, with most of that coming from disaster relief funding..
Border defense will lose $33 million, meaning that larger sections of the border will be left unmanned. The federal government will be forced to layoff a significant percentage of Executive Branch and Congressional staffers.
It is thought that this sequestration will drop the U.S. into a recession, with a national loss of $1.4 trillion to the gross domestic product over the next 10 years from the professional and technical services, the manufacturing and the finance and insurance sectors.
When the Congress returns next Monday, the Senate must consider the confirmation of former Sen. Charles “Chuck” Hagel (R-Neb.) as Secretary of Defense. On Friday, Republican senators took the unprecedented step of filibustering the vote to confirm. Attempts to overturn the filibuster failed, 58-40.
With Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) both indicating that they will not support a second filibuster to delay a confirmation vote, it is now likely that Hagel will be confirmed when the Senate take up the vote Feb. 26.
With outstanding business scheduled for the Feb. 25-27, the Senate has less than two days to agree to measure to stop the sequestration. Then, the House will have to approve it. As such, most experts feel that the March 1 sequestration will go into effect. In a town hall meeting last week, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said “I don’t know of a single member of the House, Senate or White House that would say there is a one in 10 chance that we will not have sequestration. Everyone I talk to in Washington tells me, all my info from all sources, is that sequestration is going to happen March 1.”
President Obama on Tuesday called the sequestration cuts a meat cleaver. “These cuts are not smart, these cuts are not fair,” Obama said. “People will lose their jobs.”
Congress can vote to delay enactment of the sequestration by two months, as they did to avoid the “fiscal cliff” Jan. 1.