Obama in weekly address: Congress must act now to stop sequester

Our top priority as a country right now should be doing everything we can to grow our economy and create good, middle class jobs.

Unsurprisingly, President Obama used his weekly address this morning to once again lambaste congressional Republicans for pushing the country to the edge of the sequester, which will trigger automatic budget cuts beginning March 1 if no deal is reached. The effects of the cuts, he said, will be serious:

They will slow our economy. They will eliminate good jobs. They will leave many families who are already stretched to the limit scrambling to figure out what to do.

The doomsday scenario could be averted, the president said, if congressional Republicans were willing to close some tax loopholes and come up with a budget deal. "Unfortunately," he told listeners, "it appears that Republicans in Congress have decided that instead of compromising ' instead of asking anything of the wealthiest Americans ' they would rather let these cuts fall squarely on the middle class."

Among the consequences, he listed:

• Teachers laid off and parents scrambling for child care
• Air traffic controllers and airport security cutbacks, resulting in airline delays
• Medical science funding halted
• 800,000 defense employees put on unpaid furlough

The president then let loose:

Are Republicans in Congress really willing to let these cuts fall on our kids' schools and mental health care just to protect tax loopholes for corporate jet owners? Are they really willing to slash military health care and the border patrol just because they refuse to eliminate tax breaks for big oil companies? Are they seriously prepared to inflict more pain on the middle class because they refuse to ask anything more of those at the very top?

The answer he said, is closing loopholes, doing selective "smart" cutting and entitlement reform in a way that doesn't stall the economic recovery and that boosts job creation.

After all, as we learned in the 1990s, nothing shrinks the deficit faster than a growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs. That has to be our driving focus. That has to be our North Star. Making America a magnet for good jobs.

To read the transcript in full, check below the fold or visit the White House website.