Nearly two weeks ago, members of the Senate made a significant compromise in an attempt to keep the government lights on—they passed a continuing resolution that would temporarily fund spending at levels close to the House of Representatives’ budget proposal. Sadly, the Republican-controlled House balked at this compromise, and our country now finds itself in the midst of a partial government shutdown.
As the shutdown looms on, with little end in sight, another unnecessary and manufactured crisis called “sequestration” continues to lurk in the background. Sequestration makes automatic across-the-board cuts to education, health care, and other sectors that are critical to getting our economy back on track.
Our economy, while slowly recovering from the Great Recession, continues to struggle—middle-class wages are stagnant and millions of people are still without a job. Continuing sequestration for a full year ignores the realities of our country and only hampers our economy.
Instead of doubling down on policies that keep our economy from reaching its fullest potential, Congress should focus on passing policies that improve Americans’ lives and strengthen our economy. Immigration reform would do just that. In addition to fixing our broken immigration system, comprehensive immigration reform would spur significant economic growth. The infographic below compares the impacts of sequestration and immigration reform on economic growth.