Budget cuts go deeper than just White House tour cancellations

>>> been attacking president obama after white house tours were canceled due to budget cuts. conveniently they are ignoring the fact that republicans let these cuts happen in the first place. two fox news pundits have even offered to pay for the tours themselves and today they brought in the big gun , donald trump .

>> newt gingrich had this tweet. i don't know if you saw this but he wrote, donald trump should offer to pay for the white house tours . he can afford it and it would show who cares more for american students.

>> well, i didn't hear this. it's reasonable to me. certainly. why not? it's not a lot of money.

>> so now the donald is the new point man on budget cuts. yikes. these folks are stuck in a bubble. they are wasting time talking about white house tours while people around the country are starting to feel painful effects of the cuts. just look at the headlines. in alabama, montgomery is losing funds. sequestration is having major impacts. head start is bracing for cuts. sequester could cut free services to more than 200 children in st. louis air. in pennsylvania, furloughed more than 500 civilian employees will lose work due to cuts. the cuts are really. they are hurting people all across the country.

>> the sequester is going to shut down control towers at smaller airports.

>> 173 are slated to close across the country.

>> employees are without jobs after being laid off. federal sequestration is to blame and more budget cuts may come.

>> sequester cuts will eliminate $400,000 for public health in louisiana and that means that disaster relief could take a hit.

>> have republicans in congress stopped watching their local news? have they stopped reading the paper? i think it's time they caught up with current events and tuned in to what the american people actually care about. joining me now is florida congress debbie wasserman schultz , chair of the democratic national committee . thanks for being here tonight, congresswoman.

>> you're welcome. great to be with you.

>> you know, it bothers me and you keep hearing people say that the sequester is not that bad but when you look at what some of the news i've just shown and people actually losing jobs and losing services, it may not be that bad to some of the pundits but it's bad if you're somebody that's losing the job of being furloughed and to add insult to injury , congresswoman, donald trump and two pundits talk about going to pay for a week of the white house tour. well, i looked at it and it cost about $74,000 to run white house tours for a week. so you know what trump could do with that money? he could pay for a week of food stamp benefits for 2,242 people with that same $74,000. so, i mean, it's ridiculous to be talking about tours when you could be talking about real things . but i really question you, are they just trivializing?

>> it's just a look at the impact of the sequester cuts. take, for example, what's happening in my state. $54 million in cuts to primary and secondary education which means 750 teachers are going to lose their jobs, 381 special ed teachers, 7500 kids won't get vaccinations. and republicans are grousing the loudest about constituents not being able to take white house tours ? today i got notice from air traffic controllers in my district, they got letters saying that they will be forced to take 11 furlough days.

>> wait a inmany. they got letters today?

>> today.

>> they are going to have to be furloughed, air traffic controllers ?

>> i believe all air traffic controllers got that notice today.

>> these are letters and furloughs and letters that have happening?

>> they had to sign for those letters, that they will take 11 furlough days. if folks don't think that -- if these republicans don't think that that is going to affect air traffic and the travel ability of americans, to say nothing of the fact that we've added probably two hours as a result of customs and border patrol , the lines shrinking, at miami international just last week it went from a wait of an hour to a wait of three hours for incoming international flights.

>> the reason i'm trying to do this, i'm not trying to be a doomsday person, but when you outline the teachers and the special ed teachers and all in your district --

>> that's right.

>> -- and they are talking about tours, people that are just going to walk around the white house , i mean, it is insulting to the american people 's intellect that act like this is what we're worried about.

>> insensitive, insulting and completely unnecessary. what we need to do is come to the table as president obama has pushed them to do. he's reached out and had dinners with republicans , had lunch with paul ryan at the white house at the end of last week --

>> he's even going to the hill.

>> he's coming to all four caucuses and conferences this week in the house and the senate, so the outreach is ongoing from president obama . democrats are willing to sit down and hammer out -- we know it's not going to be all our way. we need to take the sequester and replace it. it takes a meat ax approach to budget cuts and balance it with closing tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy, make that system more fair, and apply that to deficit reduction.

>> now, let me show you something else that bothers me, congresswoman. the current jobless rate is 7.1%.

>> right.

>> but "the wall street journal ," certainly no liberal paper, has calculated what the rate would be without cuts to the public sector . jobless rates without government cuts would be at 7.1%. and we'd have 950,000 more jobs in the u.s. economy . this is "the wall street journal ." if we didn't have these cuts to the public sector where a lot of impoverished communities, that's where they work, 950,000 more jobs and unemployment will be down to 7.1%. i mean, how could they argue for cuts in the agenda when nearly a million jobs is at stake here?

>> government jobs have been shrinking. if you notice month to month when the job numbers come out, the private sector jobs we're adding to. the reason you have fewer net jobs is because of the month to month losses in government jobs .

>> exactly.

>> that are shrinking.

>> exactly. where do you see this going?

>> well, i know that president obama and congressional democrats are going to continue to reach out to republicans . we need to reach pass the paralyzed republican leadership who are really more beholden to holding on to their own power than they are to working with president obama and getting this done. so hopefully we're going to be able to build our relationships and close the trust deficit a little more between republicans and democrats and try to reach a compromise because i think we can reach compromise. it is still possible. we are very polarized but to continue to allow these kinds of cuts to impact real people is irresponsible and over the short term and eventually the long term, this is going to cut and hurt people deeply.

>> well, congresswoman, madam chair lady, me you and you all right, right?

>> absolutely.

>> don't just argue about the tours. get some jobs for people and some real services.

>> i promise.

>> we'll take a tour later.

>> we've got our priorities straight.

>> congresswoman wasserman schultz , thank you for your time tonight.

>> thank you.

>>> no mary how much jeb bush flips and flops and flips and flops, he has a bigger problem. his brother.

>>> and scott brown has a new job and it's another reason why it's so great to have elizabeth warren fighting for main street . stay with us. [ birds chirping ] i'm your hot water heater. you hardly know i exist. that's too bad. 'cuz if