Just hours after across-the-board spending cuts officially took effect, US President Barack Obama pressed the US Congress yesterday to work with him on a compromise to halt a fiscal crisis he said was starting to “inflict pain” on communities across the US.
Obama and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders failed on Friday to avoid the deep spending reductions known as the “sequester,” which automatically kicked in overnight in the latest sign of dysfunction in a divided Washington.
If left in place without legislative remedy, government agencies will have to hack a total of US$85 billion from their budgets between yesterday and Oct. 1, cuts that over time could cause economic harm, slash jobs and curb military readiness.
Photo: Reuters
“These cuts are not smart,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. “They will hurt our economy and cost us jobs. And Congress can turn them off at any time — as soon as both sides are willing to compromise.”
Obama signed an order on Friday night that started putting the cuts into effect.
At the heart of Washington’s persistent fiscal showdowns is disagreement over how to slash the budget deficit and the US$16 trillion national debt, bloated over the years by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and government stimulus for the ailing economy.
The Democratic president wants to close the fiscal gap with spending cuts and tax hikes — what he calls a “balanced approach.”
However, Republicans do not want to concede again on taxes after doing so in negotiations over the “fiscal cliff” at the New Year.
“The discussion about revenue, in my view, is over. It’s about taking on the spending problem,” Republican US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on leaving the talks between Obama and congressional leaders on Friday.
As Obama and his aides have done for weeks, the president in his radio address offered a litany of hardships he said would flow from the sequester, saying: “Severe budget cuts ... have already started to inflict pain on communities across the country.”
“Beginning this week, businesses that work with the military will have to lay folks off. Communities near military bases will take a serious blow. Hundreds of thousands of Americans who serve their country — Border Patrol agents, FBI agents, civilians who work for the Defense Department — will see their wages cut and their hours reduced,” he said.
“The longer these cuts remain in place, the greater the damage,” he said. “Economists estimate they could eventually cost us more than 750,000 jobs and slow our economy by over one-half of one percent.”
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a