[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 27 (Tuesday, February 26, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             SEQUESTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Johnson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, sequestration is a self-
inflicted wound that really does not have to happen.
  I hate to make my Tea Party friends uncomfortable by using a dirty 
word, but with a little compromise we can get this thing passed. If Tea 
Party Republicans choose not to compromise, sequestration will 
arbitrarily take $85 billion out of our economy, lowering our GDP and 
harming our economic recovery.
  We shouldn't sacrifice our economic well-being because Republicans 
are unwilling to vote for one penny in new contributions from their 
billionaire friends. Republicans continue to stand up for the 
billionaires. They continue to stand up for the oil companies and all 
of the other powerful interests out there that are making money hand 
over foot while middle class Americans are asked to shoulder the burden 
of the Tea Party obsession of cutting government.
  Now, there is a big difference, ladies and gentlemen, between cutting 
government and cutting services that people need and depend on. There 
is a big difference between having a less costly government versus not 
having a government to do the things that people need to be done. Let's 
take, for instance, the Defense budget. Last week, at a constituents' 
meeting, Senator John McCain said that these sequester cuts could 
significantly undermine military programs.
  ``We are facing a situation where our national security is at risk,'' 
Senator McCain said, adding that furloughs could affect as many as 
49,000 military and defense jobs in Arizona.
  I'll tell you, in Georgia, what's going to happen is that 37,000 
civilian Department of Defense employees will be furloughed, reducing 
gross pay by $190 million. Army base funding would be cut by $233 
million, and funding for Air Force operations would be cut by $5 
million. This is in the State of Georgia. This is for this current 
fiscal year. Can you imagine that much money coming out of the economy 
and its not having an impact on the overall economy? It certainly will.
  Let's take all of those who travel. You go to the airport. You rely 
on the air traffic controllers to make sure that the planes are 
situated and are flying safely so that nobody is going to bump into 
each other up there in the sky. You're dependent on your TSA personnel 
to check and make sure that nobody is armed when one gets on the plane. 
All of those services that you take for granted will be cut if we 
continue to embark upon this self-inflicted wound of sequestration.
  A balanced approach to deficit reduction will help support the 
American people through job creation, economic growth, and a strong 
middle class while responsibly reducing our Nation's debt. House 
Democrats have proposed balanced solutions that reflect what the 
American people voted for in November. Instead of considering these or 
any other proposals, the Tea Party Republicans continue their strategy 
to obstruct the President so that they can blame him and the Democrats 
when the economy goes bad. They continue to play politics with this 
Nation's economy so that they can be well positioned in the upcoming 
midterm elections in 2014. This is very reckless behavior.
  We have 3 more days before sequestration takes effect. Instead of 
dealing with the sequestration, instead of dealing with gun control, 
instead of dealing with immigration, instead of dealing with a budget 
resolution for next year, today, this House of Representatives is 
dealing with a resolution. So this do-nothing Congress continues, and 
the American people will suffer.

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