Obama enlists governors' help on sequestration fix

• %22The longer those cuts are in place%2C the bigger their impact will be%2C%22 Obama says
• The sequestration -- %2485 billion in automatic budget cuts -- takes effect Friday
• Obama is trying to pressure congressional Republicans to accept debt deal with spending cuts and taxes

WASHINGTON — President Obama sought to recruit the nation's governors Monday in his sequestration battle with Congress, telling them that $85 billion in automatic budget cuts would cripple economic progress in their states.

Set to start Friday, the sequestration cuts will lead to fewer teachers, reduced medical care, idle defense workers and other job-killing reductions in all 50 states, Obama told members of the National Governors Association at the White House.

"The longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become," Obama said.

The president urged the state executives to back him as he tries to avoid sequestration with a new deal to help reduce the national debt of more than $16 trillion.

Not all of the Republican governors were convinced, however, saying Obama could offset the $85 billion in sequestration by asking Congress for "flexibility" in how to make specific cuts, sparing essential services.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Obama is "trying to scare the American people" and should instead "show leadership."

Obama is seeking a new debt reduction agreement that would include both budget cuts and higher taxes on the wealthy, in the form or closing loopholes and deductions.

Sequestration cuts "do not have to happen," Obama told the governors, because "Congress can turn them off anytime with just a little bit of compromise."

Republicans oppose any tax increase, saying Obama got higher tax rates on the wealthy as part of last month's "fiscal cliff" deal — a view shared by some of the GOP governors who met with the president at the White House.

Republicans such as Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said tax hikes could slow the economy just as much as some arbitrary tax cuts. They pointed out that the fiscal agreement ended a 2-percentage-point cut in the payroll tax, increasing that levy for wage-earning Americans.

"This administration has an insatiable appetite for new revenues," Jindal said.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, echoed his opposition to higher taxes to avoid sequestration. "Mr. President, you got your tax increase," Boehner told reporters, adding that the administration should curb its "addiction to spending."

Vice President Biden also addressed the National Governors Association's gathering, appealing to what he described as the governors' bipartisan spirit and willingness to get things done. Biden, a senator for more than three decades before becoming vice president, attributed the latest budget standoff in Washington to an "intense partisanship, that the likes of which, in my career, I've only seen the last couple of years."

Obama's remarks to the governors were part of an ongoing effort to warn Congress about the impact of the sequestration.

Later, at a White House news briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said budget cuts would undermine security, weaken border security, slow responses to emergencies, delay container inspections at ports and lengthen lines at airport security screenings and customs checks.

"Put simply, the automatic budget reduction mandated by sequestration would be disruptive and destructive to our nation's security and economy," Napolitano said.

Beyond the sequestration, Obama told the governors he wants to be their "partner" on two major legislative items: infrastructure and education.

Repairing and expanding the nation's system of roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, pipelines, schools and airports should be a bipartisan endeavor, Obama said.

As for education, Obama said he wants states to help him achieve his goal of preschool for all of America's children.

The president spoke to the governors a day after his administration released a series of reports on the state-by-state impact of the sequestration.

Although the cuts "will not all be felt on Day One," Obama said, uncertainty about them is already starting to slow the economy.

"Companies are preparing layoff notices," Obama said. "Families are preparing to cut back on expenses."