compromise
03-03-2013, 01:22 PM
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/03/sequester_not_the_smartest_way.html
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — U.S. Rep. Justin Amash does not believe the across-the-board cuts authorized Friday night were the best way to chop federal spending, but that it was better than doing nothing.
President Barack Obama signed an order Friday night triggering $85 billion in cuts, known as the sequester, throughout the federal budget. The cuts are expected to affect federal programs and programs receiving federal funding throughout the country and West Michigan.
Amash, R-Cascade Township, sent the following statement to MLive.com after Obama authorized the cuts.
The federal government cannot continue to rack up trillions of dollars of debt, which stifles economic growth, costs jobs, and hurts our children and grandchildren's futures. I don't believe that across-the-board cuts are the smartest way to reduce federal spending, because they target valuable and wasteful programs alike. But the most irresponsible thing Congress could do is not to cut spending at all, which would force us to make substantially deeper budget cuts — including military cuts — in the next few years.
Critical of government spending throughout his time in Washington, Amash has said that the sequester does not provide enough cuts to put the federal government on the right fiscal track. Last week, Amash and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney traded jabs over the cuts.
Typically vocal on Twitter and Facebook, Amash has not posted about the sequester since Obama authorized the cuts. In an interview with WZZM-13 on Friday, Amash said the cuts won't have much of an impact on Michigan.
Some fear sequestration will cost Michigan thousands of jobs and funding for education, military operations and government services. The cuts likely mean furloughs and possible layoffs for control tower, security screening and other federal workers at Gerald R. Ford International Airport.
The sequester may also delay $14.4 million in federal funding pledged to Michigan's first bus rapid transit line, the nearly $40 million Silver Line scheduled to begin service in mid-2014 as the state's first such system.
Amash will be in Grand Rapids later this month to speak at an ACLU event on drone killings and indefinite detention.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — U.S. Rep. Justin Amash does not believe the across-the-board cuts authorized Friday night were the best way to chop federal spending, but that it was better than doing nothing.
President Barack Obama signed an order Friday night triggering $85 billion in cuts, known as the sequester, throughout the federal budget. The cuts are expected to affect federal programs and programs receiving federal funding throughout the country and West Michigan.
Amash, R-Cascade Township, sent the following statement to MLive.com after Obama authorized the cuts.
The federal government cannot continue to rack up trillions of dollars of debt, which stifles economic growth, costs jobs, and hurts our children and grandchildren's futures. I don't believe that across-the-board cuts are the smartest way to reduce federal spending, because they target valuable and wasteful programs alike. But the most irresponsible thing Congress could do is not to cut spending at all, which would force us to make substantially deeper budget cuts — including military cuts — in the next few years.
Critical of government spending throughout his time in Washington, Amash has said that the sequester does not provide enough cuts to put the federal government on the right fiscal track. Last week, Amash and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney traded jabs over the cuts.
Typically vocal on Twitter and Facebook, Amash has not posted about the sequester since Obama authorized the cuts. In an interview with WZZM-13 on Friday, Amash said the cuts won't have much of an impact on Michigan.
Some fear sequestration will cost Michigan thousands of jobs and funding for education, military operations and government services. The cuts likely mean furloughs and possible layoffs for control tower, security screening and other federal workers at Gerald R. Ford International Airport.
The sequester may also delay $14.4 million in federal funding pledged to Michigan's first bus rapid transit line, the nearly $40 million Silver Line scheduled to begin service in mid-2014 as the state's first such system.
Amash will be in Grand Rapids later this month to speak at an ACLU event on drone killings and indefinite detention.