Pearce, Lujan Grisham address sequester

AlBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - With its heavy dependence on federal spending, New Mexico is in line for an especially hard hit from sequestration .

Reps. Steve Pearce and Michelle Lujan Grisham were on home turf Friday to face constituents about automatic and potentially devastating federal budget cuts.

Republican Rep. Steve Pearce took to the airwaves on 770 KKOB to field questions about what these cuts mean, and what he’s doing in Washington, D.C.

“I think people are asking why the cuts are going forward more than which cuts,” Pearce said. “Everybody understands that it’s time to stop wasteful Washington ways. They want Washington to live with the same requirements that we have.”

Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham made the rounds in Estancia dropping into a health care facility, senior center and a Head Start center.

“When you look at the rural communities, and they’re already fighting harder than anybody else to have fair economic development investments,” Lujan Grisham said. “They get hit really hard in any issue with the sequester.”

Late Friday, 15 months after Congress and the president agreed on a budget act with the sequester as a last resort everyone said they hoped to avoid, President Obama signed the executive order implementing the $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts.

Earlier Pearce told KRQE Speaker of the House John Boehner sent members home for the weekend.

“Our speaker has said we don’t want to shut the government down,” Pearce said. “It is not us as Republicans; we only control the House.”

Both Lujan Grisham and Pearce say a resolution needs to be made, and both likened America’s budget to families tightening purse strings to make ends meet. Pearce says spending cuts need to be made, but not to national security. Lujan Grisham says revenue also needs to be increased.

“When families are struggling and they can’t make ends meet, they get a second job,” Lujan Grisham said. ‘They tighten their belts. Here the federal government said, ‘Nope, we’re just going to cut.’”