Prepare yourself for job layoffs, reduced access to early education, slower emergency response, slashed health care, and more people living on the street.
This Friday is the final deadline for congressional Republicans to stop disastrous automatic spending cuts (known as the "sequester") that will hurt everyday Americans -- including you.
These budget cuts will take a sledgehammer to the budget, and indiscriminately cut critical programs vital to economic growth and middle class families.
If Congress fails to act, we'd see budget cuts pretty much across the board to critical services that teachers, first responders, seniors, children, and our men and women in uniform rely on every day.
It sounds bad because it is. And with all these cuts on the line, why are congressional Republicans refusing to budge?
Because to do so, they'd have to close tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires, oil companies, vacation homes, and private jet owners. I'm not kidding.
It's on each of us to speak up. Share what these budget cuts could mean to you -- or someone you know -- today. Congress needs to hear it.
President Obama has offered a balanced plan to reduce our deficit, asking the wealthy to pay their fair share so that we can protect programs that are incredibly important for working and middle-class Americans.
But congressional Republicans so far are refusing to compromise.
Here are some of the consequences if Congress fails to act by Friday:
-- 10,000 teachers would be laid off, $400 million would be cut from Head Start, the program that makes sure at-risk preschoolers are ready for kindergarten, and 70,000 kids would be kicked out of the early-education program completely.
-- The budget for firemen and other first responders to react when natural disasters strike would be cut by $35 million.
-- Nutrition programs that help make sure seniors don't go hungry would be cut by $43 million.
-- A program that helps provide housing for the formerly homeless, including many veterans, would be shuttered, putting them at risk of going back on the street.
-- A number of programs that help the most vulnerable families and children would be slashed -- including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children dropping 600,000 women alone.
Right now, each of us has a responsibility to step up and make sure Congress hears our voices.
Whether you'd be directly affected by these sequester cuts, or whether they'd affect a senior, veteran, or teacher you know, please share what they mean to you:
http://my.barackobama.com/
Let's keep the pressure on congressional Republicans to do the right thing.
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