The state impact of the sequester

>>> all of us are concerned about our politics, both in our own parties as well as the other parties. but at some point we've got to do some governing.

>> president obama speaking today to the nation's governors, with just four more days until the sequester hits, the white house is sounding an alarm, with a new report with details on how it will hit all 50 states . and the state by state calculations are pretty grim. no area or issue goes uncut from law enforcement to clean air and water programs. we would see a slowdown of sandy cleanup in new jersey. well would see military cutbacks in the state of texas , and fewer children would be vaccinated in georgia. in california, 9600 low income students could lose their financial aid . in the state of ohio , hundreds of teachers and teachers' aides are at risk of losing their jobs. and in the state of minnesota , thousands of unemployed folks will not get the training and assistance they need to find a jobs. despite the start numbers, john boehner is not budging.

>> listen, the president says we have to have another tax increase in order to avoid the sequester. well, mr. president, you got your tax increase. it's time to cut spending here in washington.

>> joining me tonight on the congressional panel, congressman john garamendi of california, congresswoman marcy capture of ohio and keith ellison of minnesota. great to have you with us tonight.

>> thank you.

>> let's respond to what the republicans are saying. john, you first. they're saying no revenue. where does that leave us?

>> the american people know what we should do. and that's a balanced approach. you gave the statistics a moment ago, ed. america wants a balanced, they want a compromise. some taxes, some cuts. we can do that. the proposal has been on the table now for more than three weeks. and we've got the revenue out there. we need to get that revenue back from the oil industry . my god, they got enough of our money at the pump. we don't need to give them a subsidy. that's but one example of many, many.

>> marcy, your thoughts on getting the republicans to give up revenue, or is there going to be a deal without revenue?

>> i don't think for the democrats there can be a deal without revenue because we need a balanced plan. in the original bill that passed, we provided revenue, but that was on individuals' incomes. as congressman garamendi has said, there are so many loopholes in the tax code , why should children in ohio who are disabled have to pay the price for their those who are offshoring jobs and not paying their fair share of the load? why should the unemployed in ohio or anywhere have their unemployment benefits cut by 9 to 11%? you're talking millions of americans who are living at the edge. and our senior citizens who are going to have their nutrition programs cut in ohio . 3/4 of a million dollars out with out. what are they going to do? give them fewer green beans ?

>> a lot of the programs slated for cuts are extremely popular with the public. their polling is very strong for the democrats. congressman ellison, what you hearing from your constituents in minnesota?

>> well, what i'm hearing is we still have a number of people unemployed. and the training and the assistance that they get to get back into the workforce is going to be dramatically cut, and thousands of people will suffer. not only that, food assisting, assistance, law enforcement . but i want to go back to another quote that john boehner had about two years ago. and that is that if they won't eat the whole loaf, we're going give it to them a slice at a time. and what the republicans have done since then is set up crisis after crisis after crisis. and this is just the latest one. we got another one we're dealing with in just over a month when the continuing resolution comes up. we just passed one with the fiscal cliff. so this friday here we are one more time, seeing the fulfillment of a philosophy of reducing government to the size you can drown it in a bathtub.

>> congressman garamendi, military cuts are going to hit your state of california really hard. can you put a number on how many jobs that would affect?

>> well, the jobs are going to be enormous. we've had five hearings in the house armed services committee with the top generals and secretary panetta and others coming in and saying we can't stand this. this is going to be a horrible problem for the safety of this country. and to hear mr. boehner and others simply say it's no problem, hey, the military says it's a big problem. travis air force base , they're looking at not being able to do the kind of training that is necessary, the readiness that is necessary. you're looking at as will of some $30 million of wages. they're clearly going to be layoffs among the civil servants , 3200 there. some of those people are going to be lose their jobs. the rest are going to clearly be on furlough. losing perhaps 20 hours of work or more. you are looking at the coast guard . take a look at the coast guard , just this cruise ship incident. the coast guard is going to lose 20% of its ability to do its job. what are we talking about here? this is terrible for the nation's security. it's terrible for the health of the people of this nation.

>> you have a republican party that will not budge. these cuts are going to go into effect. the only solution is to hold the line . congresswoman kaptur, do you think the democrats have the intestinal fortitude? i know you have signed on to this letter of 107 of your colleagues that say no cuts in medicare, medicaid and social security . this is going to be who blinks first.

>> well, i think that the republicans, at least this particular group, care more about manufacturing crises than manufacturing jobs. and we have to hold the line . we know that there is a lot of ill will toward the president. he won the election. and what they're trying to do, though, is to stop his program in its tracks because they're not satisfied with what happened last november. but you shouldn't do this to the american people .

>> you've got a republican governor there in ohio in john kasich . you think he'll help the president?

>> i hope he'll help because in the speaker's home state of ohio over 26,000 personnel who work for wright-patterson air force base and our garden reserve facilities across the state are going to be furloughed. 13,000 of those in the speaker's own backyard. up at nasa, glen lewis and cleveland brook park , we think we're going to lose the cryogenic hydrogen program and power program, which is one of the two major missions of that sight. so this is going to be felt throughout ohio . and we're a state that is crawling its way forward to recover. we don't need more job loss or underinvestment in states like ohio .

>> senator rand paul says local law enforcement won't be affected by the cuts. keith, you want to answer that?

>> that's absolutely not true. in the state of minnesota , several law enforcement programs, people who protect our streets, people who run to the crisis when the rest of us are run away from it are going to see cuts and possibly layoffs. the fact of the matter is this is the most irresponsible legislative action i've ever seen. and i believe that the american people are going to get first hadn't experience as to what senator paul 's philosophy really does mean. shrinking government down, cutting government down, government's the problem. we're going to find out sadly how wrong he really is.

>> these tax loopholes that we're talking about, we're talking about oil and gas . we're talking about big agra business.

>> yachts and jets.

>> what about that?

>> yachts and jets.

>> yachts and jets, no doubt. this is plenty of money to be found there. john, you're on the -- you're on the ag committee. can these subsidies be cut and agriculture still be strong in america?

>> absolutely it can. in fact, the two farm bills, one from the senate, one from the house did reduce these subsidies that are now being discussed as part of the democratic proposal. senator stabenow has been working on this. she has figured out how to make this happen in a way that does not harm agriculture. it shifts over to an insurance program. but ed, let's go back to the beginning here. these issues were thought to be so bad, the sequester was thought to be so terrible that it wouldn't happen. and now the republicans are embracing what everybody said was so bad that it couldn't possibly happen. i don't understand where they're coming from.

>> it's all about president obama . that's a big part of the equation.

>> i'm afraid so.

>> congressman john garamendi , congresswoman marcy kaptur and congressman keith ellison , great to have you on the program tonight.

>>> eric cantor 's world of lies about the world of warcraft . we'll are the facts between the gop's latest dishonest talking points . and the two governors disagree. the big panel on the president's big plan for infrastructure. stay with us. we're