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By Scott McDonnell
ORLANDO —
It’s a deal that could save 40,000 to 80,000 jobs for Floridians. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama, called on Congress to act and cut a deal the avoid $85 billion in spending cuts on the first of March.
Gen. Tom Baptiste, a retired Air Force general and president of the National Center for Simulation, said the cuts would be devastating to the Sunshine State. He cited a study done by George Washington University in 2012, in which Florida was named on the top 10 states to be hit hardest by sequestration. “In defense jobs they predict as many as 40,000 jobs could be lost in Florida, and in non-defense jobs another 30,000+, so you are talking about potentially over 70,000 jobs that could be impacted,” said Baptiste.
If nothing is done by the end of the month, nearly $1 trillion in cuts are slated for over the next 10 years automatically kicks in. “These cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy. They will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment lines,” the president said Tuesday. But neither side seems to be budging and even some top tier Republicans are admitting the situation is becoming dire. “Republicans deserve blame,” said former Arizona Sen. John McCain. “I’ll take some blame for it but the president of the United States is supposed to lead. Why doesn’t he call people over, and we sit down and prevent the sequestration from happening.”
Gen. Baptiste said the impact will directly affect the nation’s military strength. “The problem will be that we are starting to, in a big way, impact upon readiness of the force,” Baptiste said. But there may be a silver lining for Central Florida. We are home to the simulation epicenter of the world, developing and harvesting technology to save the military money. “In Orlando, if we can get a little closer to home,” Baptiste said. “What we do here is provide cost-effective, high-class solutions to train the force. So simulation and training technologies and devices that provide world class training to our war fighters. They are a cost-effective alternative to very high-priced live training.”
