US President warns against sequesters

US President Barack Obama has warned against a major shock for the US economy as a result of ‘sequesters’. “What the sequester does is it uses a meat cleaver approach to gut critical investments in things like education and national security and lifesaving medical research,” he said. “The sequester will weaken America’s economic recovery. It will weaken our military readiness. And it will weaken the basic services that the American people depend on every single day,” the US President added. Obama also noted the effect of the so-called sequester on the Department of Defense: “About 90,000 Virginians who work for the Department of Defense would be forced to take unpaid leave from their jobs.” “There’s no reason why we can’t come together and find a sensible way to reduce the deficit over the long term without affecting vital services, without hurting families, without impacting outstanding facilities like this one and our national defense,” he explained.