As John Boehner and President Obama continue to slowly move their way through fiscal cliff negotiations, the rest of the country waits and watches. Along with partisan activists on both sides of the aisle who are pressing their side not to cave in, there are a growing number of centrists who say both sides need to compromise on a solution so that sequestration doesn't kick in in January. That would necessitate the beginnings of major cuts in both domestic and defense programs.
A leading centrist group that is being attacked by progressives is called "Fix the Debt," which now counts among its members former Florida U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.
Martinez hosted reporters on a conference call Thursday morning, when he said that as many as 80,000 jobs would be lost in Florida if sequestration takes place. That number of lost defense jobs has been floating around since the summer, after a report prepared by Stephen Fuller from the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University was released.
This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2012.