Area Congressman Reacts To President's State Of The Union Address
By: Rachel Polansky
Updated: February 13, 2013
President Obama laid out nearly two dozen proposals, promises, and calls
for Congress to act Tuesday night in his fourth State of the Union
Address. As expected, his speech received high marks from Democrats but
was met with Republican opposition. Eyewitness News spoke with area
Congressman Richard Hanna earlier today to learn his perspective about a
hot topic in the president's address, sequestration cuts.
"It's something that is probably one of the dumbest and bluntest instruments I've seen in a long time. It severely impacts our community and the state of New York. If it does happen, it would be extremely unfortunate and I'd like to see it undone. We truly need to get our debt under control but to do it this way would absolutely throw our economy in reverse," says Rep. Richard Hanna, Congressman (R) 22nd district.
Sequestration stems from the 2011 impasse between the president and the congressional republicans over raising the nation's debt limit. And these automatic spending cuts will go into effect March 1st if there is no action by congress to stop them.
"It's something that is probably one of the dumbest and bluntest instruments I've seen in a long time. It severely impacts our community and the state of New York. If it does happen, it would be extremely unfortunate and I'd like to see it undone. We truly need to get our debt under control but to do it this way would absolutely throw our economy in reverse," says Rep. Richard Hanna, Congressman (R) 22nd district.
Sequestration stems from the 2011 impasse between the president and the congressional republicans over raising the nation's debt limit. And these automatic spending cuts will go into effect March 1st if there is no action by congress to stop them.
