Rejecting assertions of fear mongering, the White House on Sunday rolled out details of how $85 billion in automatic budget cuts scheduled to hit on Friday would hit all fifty states and Washington, D.C., painting a picture of job losses, economic hardship, health troubles and education setbacks.
"Unless Congress acts by March 1st, a series of automatic cuts — called the sequester — will take effect that threaten hundreds of thousands of middle class jobs, and cut vital services for children, seniors, people with mental illness and our men and women in uniform," read the White House report.
The cookie cutter state by state data sheets roll out numbers on a variety of fronts, all designed to highlight the argument of President Obama that these cuts would wrongly take a chunk out of Uncle Sam's budget.
The White House focused on: * Teachers and schools, and how much states lose in education funding
* Money for education programs dealing with children with disabilities
* Budget cuts for programs that help low income students go to college
* Reductions in funding for Head Start
* Cuts in clean air and water programs
* Military cuts
* Law enforcement budget reductions
* Job training and aid for unemployed workers
* Federal aid for child care programs
* Childhood vaccination programs
* Cuts in overall public health programs
* Less money for services provided to domestic violence victims
* Reductions in food aid for seniors
You can see all of the state by state pages here:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
As for the politics of the sequester, it wasn't hard to tell what message the White House wanted to hammer home over the weekend on the automatic budget cuts.
"It's going into effect because Republicans are choosing for it to go into effect," said White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, who repeatedly made no bones about his target during a Sunday conference call with reporters.
Republicans obviously see it a bit different, arguing the White House insistence on new tax revenues has set the stage for the lack of agreement on a way to modify these automatic cuts.
Will the White House pressure campaign work? Tell me below.
