Congressman Maloney Talks Spending Cuts at West Point

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Credit Office of Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney

Republican House Speaker John Boehner Tuesday called on the president to stop using the military as a campaign prop to demand more tax hikes and start working with his own Democratic-controlled Senate to act on a credible plan to avert sequestration. Meanwhile, a Democratic Congressman from the Hudson Valley visited with officials from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and spoke about the impending damage of sequestration on West Point.  

Democratic Representative Sean Patrick Maloney renewed his call for Congress to take action to stop what he called the devastating spending cuts that threaten more than 1,000 local jobs and the Hudson Valley’s economy. Sequestration – or “sequester cuts” – refers to a series of across-the-board federal budget cuts that will be split evenly between defense and domestic spending beginning March 1 –that’s this Friday - unless Congress acts. He says West Point is targeted for $92 million in cuts, which is the largest Army budget cut throughout all of New York. Maloney adds that, throughout the state, the sequester could cause the furlough of approximately 12,000 civilian Department of Defense employees, including  1,300 at West Point and 406 at the New York Air National Guard's 105th Airlift Wing at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh.