2014 VA Senate debate: on Budget & Economy

Mark Warner: Sequester was stupidest way to cut; shutdown cost even more

WARNER: Well, I think we need to step back a moment and say we just went through an awful period for our country. [The federal shutdown] actually increased the deficit. You can't start and stop the largest enterprise in the world, the federal government, without adding costs. We've actually built in higher interest rates because any time we get close to a potential default, we're going to have higher T-bill pricing. That passes through to mortgage costs, car loans, student loans. We ought to at least first make sure that we actually operate the government for a year going forward with a solid budget and find ways to alleviate some of the damage also being done by sequestration, which is this automatic spending cuts which was the stupidest way possible to go about cutting government. There were really no winners. I mean, our country took an economic hit, and a confidence hit.