WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is painting a dire portrait of widespread flight delays, off-limit seashores, and unprotected parks among the many ways the public will feel the effects of automatic federal spending cuts due to begin March 1.
The grim picture is emerging as the White House and lawmakers count down the days until the government is forced to trim $85 billion in domestic and defense spending with hardly any leeway to save some programs from the budget knife.
The so-called sequester now approaching was never supposed to happen. It was designed as an unpalatable fallback, to take effect only in case a specially established bipartisan congressional super-committee failed to come up with $1 trillion or more in savings from government programs.
President Barack Obama is insisting on a balanced budget deal that would raise revenue by reducing tax loopholes that benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations while making targeted spending cuts.
Republicans emphasize deep spending cuts and oppose any further tax increases after legislation passed in early January raised taxes on the wealthiest Americans to generate an estimated $600 billion for the Treasury over a decade.
In detailing the costs of the cuts, Obama is seeking to raise the public's awareness while also applying pressure on congressional Republicans who oppose his blend of targeted savings and tax increases to tackle federal deficits.
``I've been very clear that these kinds of arbitrary, automatic cuts would have an adverse impact on families, on teachers, on parents who are reliant on Head Start programs, on our military readiness, on mental health services, on medical research,'' Obama said Friday.
``This is not a smart way for us to reduce the deficit.'' Just in case those consequences didn't capture the public's attention, the White House also had Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spell out the impact on travelers: a frequent-flier nightmare of 90-minute airport waits, limited flights and closed regional airports. Republican lawmakers dismissed LaHood's warnings as ``exaggerations.''
But LaHood said the cuts would require slicing more than $600 million from the Federal Aviation Administration, resulting in furloughs of one day per pay period for a majority of the agency's 47,000 employees.
``Once airlines see the potential impact of these furloughs, we expect that they will change their schedules and cancel flights,'' LaHood said.
Moreover, he said, the Transportation Department is looking ``to likely close'' air traffic control towers at 100 airports that have fewer than 150,000 flight operations per year _ pointing to such places as Boca Raton, Florida, and Hilton Head, South Carolina.
In a statement, Airlines for America, an industry group, said the organization, the FAA and airline carriers would be meeting soon to plan for potential cutbacks.
``Air transportation is a key driver of our economy, and should not be used as a political football,'' the statement said.
Paul Rinaldi, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the reductions will not just inconvenience passengers, it will also affect local economies and result in more lost jobs.
``The fact that they will not just be furloughing critical FAA personnel but closing air traffic control towers means the system will be even more compromised than anticipated,'' he added.
Still, top Republicans on congressional transportation and aviation panels accused the administration of raising an unnecessary alarm.
``Before jumping to the conclusion that furloughs must be implemented, the administration and the agency need to sharpen their pencils and consider all the options,'' the lawmakers said in a joint statement issued by Rep.Bill Shuster, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; Sen. John Thune, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; and Frank LoBiondo, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation.
indiatimes.com
The grim picture is emerging as the White House and lawmakers count down the days until the government is forced to trim $85 billion in domestic and defense spending with hardly any leeway to save some programs from the budget knife.
The so-called sequester now approaching was never supposed to happen. It was designed as an unpalatable fallback, to take effect only in case a specially established bipartisan congressional super-committee failed to come up with $1 trillion or more in savings from government programs.
President Barack Obama is insisting on a balanced budget deal that would raise revenue by reducing tax loopholes that benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations while making targeted spending cuts.
Republicans emphasize deep spending cuts and oppose any further tax increases after legislation passed in early January raised taxes on the wealthiest Americans to generate an estimated $600 billion for the Treasury over a decade.
In detailing the costs of the cuts, Obama is seeking to raise the public's awareness while also applying pressure on congressional Republicans who oppose his blend of targeted savings and tax increases to tackle federal deficits.
``I've been very clear that these kinds of arbitrary, automatic cuts would have an adverse impact on families, on teachers, on parents who are reliant on Head Start programs, on our military readiness, on mental health services, on medical research,'' Obama said Friday.
``This is not a smart way for us to reduce the deficit.'' Just in case those consequences didn't capture the public's attention, the White House also had Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spell out the impact on travelers: a frequent-flier nightmare of 90-minute airport waits, limited flights and closed regional airports. Republican lawmakers dismissed LaHood's warnings as ``exaggerations.''
But LaHood said the cuts would require slicing more than $600 million from the Federal Aviation Administration, resulting in furloughs of one day per pay period for a majority of the agency's 47,000 employees.
``Once airlines see the potential impact of these furloughs, we expect that they will change their schedules and cancel flights,'' LaHood said.
Moreover, he said, the Transportation Department is looking ``to likely close'' air traffic control towers at 100 airports that have fewer than 150,000 flight operations per year _ pointing to such places as Boca Raton, Florida, and Hilton Head, South Carolina.
In a statement, Airlines for America, an industry group, said the organization, the FAA and airline carriers would be meeting soon to plan for potential cutbacks.
``Air transportation is a key driver of our economy, and should not be used as a political football,'' the statement said.
Paul Rinaldi, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the reductions will not just inconvenience passengers, it will also affect local economies and result in more lost jobs.
``The fact that they will not just be furloughing critical FAA personnel but closing air traffic control towers means the system will be even more compromised than anticipated,'' he added.
Still, top Republicans on congressional transportation and aviation panels accused the administration of raising an unnecessary alarm.
``Before jumping to the conclusion that furloughs must be implemented, the administration and the agency need to sharpen their pencils and consider all the options,'' the lawmakers said in a joint statement issued by Rep.Bill Shuster, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; Sen. John Thune, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; and Frank LoBiondo, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation.
indiatimes.com
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