“While this bill is not nearly good enough, I nevertheless support its effort to help the FAA deal with the effects of severe and misguided budget cuts.  Indiscriminate, across-the-board budget cuts were never a good idea, and their effects on things like air travel were all too predictable.  So while this bill may help the FAA to better handle such draconian budget cuts, it unfortunately does nothing to prevent equally damaging cuts to other critical public sector programs.  It does nothing for the 70,000 children who will be forced off of Head Start, or for the millions of Americans who will have to wait longer for new prescription drugs to reach the market, or for the 600,000 women, infants, and children who will be left hungry after being dropped from the supplemental nutrition program.  Only by repealing the sequester outright can we avoid these severe budget cuts and prevent their crippling effects on vital public services.

“Unfortunately, instead of addressing these problems and working to create jobs, Republicans in Congress have spent their time pursuing a single-minded obsession with cutting government spending.  Meanwhile, the deficit has been shrinking at the fastest rate since the demobilization after WWII.  In this fiscal year alone we have seen deficit estimates fall 15% on the strength of our growing economy.  The deficit was originally projected to be $900 billion.  Earlier this year, the Congressional Budget Office revised it down to $850 billion.  And just last week it was revised down again to $775 billion.  That is a $125 billion savings.  It is enough already.  With these savings alone, we could cancel the sequester without increasing the deficit by a penny.

“We are already reducing the deficit by more than we planned, and the results of these cutbacks are being felt across the nation in ways that slow our economy, hurt the elderly, take food out of the mouths of women and children, and undermine our students as they try to prepare for their futures.  We can no longer afford Republican attempts to pursue such a contractionary fiscal policy during a period of high unemployment and stagnant middle class wages.  

“In order to build on our economic recovery, we need to stop all of the severe budget cuts – not just those affecting air travelers.  It is time to cancel sequestration and start pursuing policies that will actually help Americans get back to work.”