New Orleans, La. -- The approaching trigger date for billions in federal spending cuts known as "the sequester" has some locals watching the process anxiously.
"There is this political game of chicken taking place in D.C. between the various parties in Congress, and it has definite, immediate, especially long-term ramifications for projects we have going on in this city," said La. Senator J.P. Morrell (D-New Orleans).
The Defense Department has labeled the military-linked cuts as disastrous. Morrell said, if the military is cut, Louisiana's budget will feel some of the pain.
"Other than Texas, per capita we have more members serving in the military than any other state. When you talk about federal cuts and furloughs to federal employees, that has tremendous implications on our state budget," Morrell continued.
Federal City in Algiers is another concern. Morrell serves on the Algiers Development District Board, and he said military cutbacks could affect future military and private sector investment in Federal City.
"The only fully-developed portion of the Federal City project is the secure compound, which is wholly staffed by our Marines that are located here. The implications for them in the short term, they're looking at potentially 22-day furloughs per employee," said Morrell.
"We haven't seen exactly how the sequester is going to affect the military, you know. And look, there's some parts of the sequester that I don't like, especially as it relates to defense. But at the same time, we actually have to start cutting spending," said U.S. Congressman Steve Scalise (R-Metairie).
Scalise met Wednesday with a bipartisan citizens group which is meeting with members of Congress to push for a solution to the nation's debt problem.
The automatic cuts which, without a new budget agreement, are to take effect on March 1 date back to 2011, when a deal was cut between the White House and Congress to allow the nation's debt ceiling to be increased. The cuts would not just affect the military and other federal employees -- education grants that communities like New Orleans rely on would also be affected.
"Right now, 40 cents of every dollar that Washington spends is borrowed money, so while there are a lot of things that we do that we all might like, you can't keep borrowing every dollar that you spend," Scalise further stated.
"Everybody believes there's some sort of magical solution that will kind of fall out of the sky, but that's not the case," said Bob Tucker, who was in the meeting with Scalise as part of the Louisiana chapter of the group Fix the Debt.
