Congress to Johnston Residents: 'Drop Dead'?

President Obama spoke in Virginia on Tuesday, railing against Congress for yet another "manufactured crisis" -- this time sequestration 2013 -- and asked for help pressuring lawmakers to solve the budget impasse.

"If you agree with me, I need you to make sure your voices are heard," Obama told employees and television cameras at Newport News Shipbuilding. "Let your leaders know what you expect of them. Let them know what you believe."

The president said Republicans in Congress have put more stock in playing games than in saving the jobs of those in Virginia and elsewhere around the country.

"This work, along with hundreds of thousands of jobs, are currently in jeopardy because of politics in Washington," Obama said. 

Translated, it brings to mind the infamous New York Daily News headline that followed Gerald Ford's refusal to bail out New York City from bankruptcy. The headline: "Ford to New York: Drop Dead."

If a deal isn’t struck by Friday between President Obama and Congress, a series of mandated federal budget cuts will begin that would quickly be felt across the Midwest.

Here’s a sample of what’s at risk:

Hundreds of teaching jobs. Thousands of children dropped from early childhood education. Elimination of work-study jobs that support thousands of low-income college students getting a degree. The loss of childcare for thousands of disadvantaged kids. Furloughs for thousands of civilian Defense Department employees.

The scope of the sequester, a plan to trim the budget by $1.2 trillion over the next decade, was mandated as part of a 2011 law. If a deal isn’t reached by Friday, $85 billion in cuts will sweep across federal agencies between March and September. The sequester includes cuts of 8 percent to the Pentagon budget and 5 percent to domestic agency operating budgets.

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, a Democrat who now serves as agriculture secretary, said he may have to furlough safety inspectors at food processing plant, according to a report in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. 

Sen. Chuck Grassley questioned Vilsack's warning about meat inspectors, suggesting other areas of the federal workforce could be cut instead.

"Furloughing meat inspectors may shut down meat and poultry facilities and harm workers, farmers, and consumers," Grassley said. "I find it hard to believe that reductions can't be made elsewhere in the department that don't impact health and safety. If the department believes it needs to go to these drastic measures, the public ought to know if other areas within the department are seeing the same kinds of cost-saving measures as something as important as meat inspectors.”

Whoever is right or wrong, whoever is playing games or not, there's no doubt that even the prospect of sequestration is bad for Iowa. So, if you'd like to contact your government representatives, click on their names below:

Senator Chuck Grassley (R)

Des Moines
721 Federal Building
210 Walnut Street
Des Moines, IA 50309
(515) 288-1145
Fax: (515) 288-5097

Washington, D.C.
135 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3744
Fax: (202) 224-6020

Senator Tom Harkin (D)

Des Moines

210 Walnut Street
Room 733, Federal Building
Des Moines, IA 50309
(515) 284-4574 Phone
(515) 284-4937 Fax

Washington, D.C.

731 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3254 Phone
(202) 224-9369 Fax

Rep. Tom Latham (R)

Des Moines

2700 Grand Ave., Suite 109
Des Moines, Iowa 50312

Phone: (515) 282-1909

Washington, D.C.

2217 Rayburn House Office Building 
Washington, DC 20515

Toll Free: (866) 428-5642