Massachusetts / Sequestration / 60,000 jobs could be lost

Massachusetts will lose more than 60,000 jobs, much of it in the defense industry, and $127 million in federal research funding, harming a critical sector of the state economy, if Congress allows across-the-board spending cuts to go into effect in March, according to a report released Friday by Representative Edward Markey of Malden.

The automatic cuts, known in Beltway parlance as “sequestration,” were scheduled to take place in January under a 2011 budget deal to raise the nation’s debt limit, but the crisis was temporarily averted when Congress struck a last-minute New Year’s Eve bargain.

The two-month delay in cuts now worth $85 billion for the rest of fiscal year 2013 — comprised equally of defense and domestic spending — were supposed to buy the White House and Congress time to negotiate a broader deal that includes reform to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

But with the deadline looming and Congress out for recess next week and not due to return until February 25, that leaves just four days with the House and Senate in session before the cuts are supposed to begin. The deadline was set in hopes that it would force Republicans and Democrats to come up with a grand bargain – or even a modest one – to cut the deficit.

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via Massachusetts will lose 60,000 jobs if Congress enacts sequestration, report says – Politics – The Boston Globe.