MetroWest Daily News - Warren: Stop the Heartless, Senseless Sequester

Op-Ed

By Sen. Elizabeth Warren

Across-the-board federal spending cuts are dragging down our economy in MetroWest and across Massachusetts. The sequester threatens countless vital investments in our future -- from critical medical research to Head Start for our kids. We've worked hard to recover from the Great Recession, but the sequester is making it harder than it should be for families to get back on their feet.

Here in Framingham, we are seeing firsthand how damaging and senseless the sequester is to Massachusetts. The Framingham Heart Study -- a generations-long study of the causes of heart disease -- will lose 40 percent of its funding.

This study, which has been ongoing for over 60 years, has saved lives by providing unparalleled insights into heart disease and advances in cardiovascular medicine. The genetic and physical data collected over three generations continues to give researchers around the world insight into a range of diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes, as well as heart disease.

The study is woven into the fabric of life in Framingham, and it is crucial that we provide the resources to preserve and to continue expanding what has taken decades and generations to build. Unfortunately, under the sequester, these are the kinds of destructive cuts we are seeing all across the Commonwealth and the country.
Other cuts are just as mindless. More and more parents are working, but after school and other programs' funding is getting cut for more than a million of our kids. Ask a million parents what it is like to try to hold down a job when the after-school program closes its doors.

Unemployment is still high and millions of people are working part-time when they want full-time work, but the sequester cuts funding in medical and scientific research and scientific studies, and without those investments, the private sector cuts jobs. Ask laid off workers what it is like to do everything right and to build something valuable, only to learn that blunt cuts in funding mean you've lost your job.
Our cities and towns are straining under the weight of their budgets, but the sequester cuts funding for thousands of first responders, for police and fire fighters who keep our communities safe, for teachers and staff who run our schools, for office workers and repairmen who keep our towns going. Ask anyone if they feel safer when they know fire fighters can't buy new equipment.

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