Local lawmakers weigh in on the sequester

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Although the cuts to federal spending really won't take effect until Monday, a lot of lawmakers have already left the capitol.  NewsChannel 15 reached out to our local lawmakers and uncovered why they're leaving.

Congressman Marlin Stutzman is one of the few legislators that was still in Washington Friday.  He said this goes to show the unwillingness to work together to find better areas to make $ 85 billion worth of cuts.

At midnight $85 billion within the federal budget will be slashed.  Some targets of the cuts include the military and a small portion of Medicaid.

"I think that it's going to take a little bit of time until we really see the effects and what the administration and bureaucracies decisions are," (R) Congressman Marlin Stutzman explained.

If the job's not done yet, why have so many legislators left the capitol? "You know the job isn't done but at the same time it is a consequence of just the lack of willingness to to try to find other places to cut."

Stutzman feels the best plan of attack would have been to look at federal spending and trim the wasteful spending.

"There's plenty of waste in government that could be cut that doesn't need to be spent and hopefully the President will make that decision rather than making some of the hurtful cuts that are unnecessary."

Senator Dan Coats sent NewsChannel 15 this statement, "The president's sequestration plan is a bad policy, a bad way to govern and will result in consequences if left unaddressed. I opposed the legislation that created these sequestration cuts because the policy falsely assumes that all federal programs are equal and therefore should be cut equally."

Representative Marlin Stutzman doesn't see the cuts having a huge impact on the economy.    

"The cuts are only two cents out of every dollar.  That again does not include social security and most of Medicare.  The military is going to be taking the biggest hit on all of this," Stutzman said.

The sequester is part of the Budget Control Act that was passed two years ago.  The super committee was supposed to find appropriate cuts but it failed.