Newsflash:
House debates $20.5 billion cuts to food stamps Tuesday afternoon marked the beginning of the general floor debate for the 2013 House farm bill, which includes $20.5 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as the food stamps program.  Read the Full Story
Former Obama Campaign Staffers Protest Keystone XL Pipeline Read more: Former Obama Campaign Staffers Protest Keystone XL Pipeline Elijah Zarlin, who worked as a senior email writer at Obama campaign headquarters in 2008, was back in Chicago yesterday—in the First Precinct jail, following a peaceful sit-in in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline. Read the Full Story
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Message to Congress: Immigrants Pay More Than Their 'Fair Share' of Medicare Immigrants don’t just pick our fruit, deliver our take-out food and design our computers — they pay for our medical care. Read the Full Story
Alan Grayson On Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama Secrecy Hides 'Assault On Democratic Government' WASHINGTON -- Progressive Democrats in Congress are ramping up pressure on the Obama administration to release the text of Trans-Pacific Partnership, a secretive free trade agreement with 10 other nations, amid intensifying controversy over the administration's transparency record and its treatment of classified information. Read the Full Story
Activists Protest Possible Cuts To Food Stamps Activists held a series of demonstrations across the country today to call on influential Democratic members of Congress to prevent cuts to the food stamp program.  One of the demonstrations was in Springfield, Massachusetts. Read the Full Story
Barbara Lee: AUMF Was Wrong in 2001, and It's Wrong Now A renewed debate of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force is long overdue. I was the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization when it came to the House floor in 2001 after the horrific events of September 11th, and I have been pushing for its repeal ever since. Read the Full Story
The War on Terror Has Not Made Us Safer Two days after the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, I was sitting in front of my institute's office around the corner from the White House. We had just been evacuated again. Read the Full Story
Congress Checks and Balances on Afghanistan—Will It Do So With Syria? The US House of Representatives took an important step last week toward the restoration of the separation of powers that was established so that Congress would check and balance presidential war-making. Read the Full Story
Dems Press Neal on SNAP Cuts Next week, the U.S. House will take up the federal farm bill, which includes potentially devastating cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (the program once known as food stamps). Read the Full Story
House Overwhelmingly Votes to Speed Afghan Withdrawal By a 305-121 margin, the House of Representatives voted to accelerate US troop withdrawals from Afghanistan by the end of 2013, to strike previous language supporting a post-2014 US military presence, and insisting that any such presence be authorized by Congress by June 2014.  Read the Full Story
Congresswoman Barbara Lee Hails Passage of Amendments Supporting Ending War in Afghanistan, Modernizing Discriminatory HIV Laws Washington, D.C.— Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement on the passage of two amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act on the floor of the House: Read the Full Story
image House debates $20.5 billion cuts to food stamps
image Former Obama Campaign Staffers Protest Keystone XL Pipeline Read more: Former Obama Campaign Staffers Protest Keystone XL Pipeline
image Medical Debt: A Curable Affliction Health Reform Won’t Fix
image Message to Congress: Immigrants Pay More Than Their 'Fair Share' of Medicare
image Alan Grayson On Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama Secrecy Hides 'Assault On Democratic Government'
image Activists Protest Possible Cuts To Food Stamps
image Barbara Lee: AUMF Was Wrong in 2001, and It's Wrong Now
image The War on Terror Has Not Made Us Safer
image Congress Checks and Balances on Afghanistan—Will It Do So With Syria?
image Dems Press Neal on SNAP Cuts
image House Overwhelmingly Votes to Speed Afghan Withdrawal
image Congresswoman Barbara Lee Hails Passage of Amendments Supporting Ending War in Afghanistan, Modernizing Discriminatory HIV Laws
Thursday, 28 February 2013 23:02

Conyers Introduces Legislation to Cancel Disastrous Sequestration

Written by  Rep. John Conyers, Jr. | Press Release
Conyers Introduces Legislation to Cancel Disastrous Sequestration

(DETROIT) – Today, Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) introduced the “Cancel the Sequester Act of 2013.”  This one sentence legislation would repeal the across the board cuts that are scheduled to go into effect on March 1, 2013.  Rep. Conyers issued this statement following introduction of the bill:

“The set of across-the-board cuts set to take effect tomorrow is unique among American public policies for a simple reason: It was purposefully designed to be a bad idea,” said Conyers. 

“If Congress can’t or won’t come together to craft bipartisan agreement, I believe we have a duty to avert these catastrophic cuts by any means necessary. The Cancel the Sequester Act of 2013 would give the leaders of both parties the time needed to reach some consensus on budget issues without forcing the average American to pay the price for Washington’s dysfunction.

“Allowing the sequester to take place is the absolute worst way to go about achieving long-term debt reduction. Cutting two million jobs nationwide and slowing the growth of our gross domestic product by half a percent will barely make a dent in our debt and will result in widespread misery.  It could even throw us back into recession.

“Since 2010, we’ve reduced the national debt by $2.4 trillion dollars.  That’s a pretty significant amount.  At this moment in our history, it makes more sense to focus on healing our economy and putting people back to work.  Right now, an economic recovery is the best debt reduction plan on the table.”

During the debt ceiling standoff of 2011, the ‘sequester’ was designed as a default option so revolting to both Democrats and Republicans that it would force the bipartisan “Super Committee” to a workable budget plan.  While that committee failed at this objective, the American people have been left to pay the price. 

 

·         The sequester, if fully implemented, will cost more than 2 million jobs—more than half of which are with small businesses

·         The sequester will create tremendous uncertainty in financial markets and among consumers, ultimately contributing to an estimated .6% drag on economic growth this year

·         The sequester will undermine educational quality and research output while leaving Americans with longer airport security lines, more untreated mental illnesses, and fewer federal criminal prosecutions.

 

According to a Wall Street Journal/ NBC News Poll, Americans oppose the sequester by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

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Read 1081 times Last modified on Thursday, 28 February 2013 23:09
Published in Rep. John Conyers
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