Upton: Expect $1.2T in spending cuts

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) - Automatic spending cuts that Congress put off early this year will become a reality, according to one member of the US House of Representatives close to the negotiations.

If Congressman Fred Upton -- chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, member of the super committee and one of the representatives in the know when it comes to the current negotiations -- is right, then there are some dramatic cuts coming to the federal government.

Upton sat down with 24 Hour News 8 Political Reporter Rick Albin in his Kalamazoo office Thursday to discuss where Congress and the White House go from here on the issue of spending cuts.

Upton said he would like to have seen a comprehensive deal earlier when taxes were dealt with. But, he said, though that deal wasn't perfect, but it was an effective way to deal with the revenue side of the budget equations.

He also he thinks automatic, across-the-board spending cuts will soon kick in, just as prescribed by the deal to raise the debt limit a year and a half ago. The cuts amount to $1.2 trillion over 10 years, according to the Center on Budget Policy.

If Upton is right and those cuts go into effect, nearly everything in the federal government will be cut by 10%. $550 billion will be cut from defense and another $550 billion will be cut from domestic spending. With the exception of social security, veterans' benefits, food stamps and Medicaid, most programs will see cuts.

It's hard to predict how those cuts will impact the average citizen because each agency will decide how and where to cut. But it is impossible to think that cuts that broad won't have at least some impact on everyone.

==Hear more from Congressman Upton and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder this Sunday on To The Point, which begins at 10 a.m. on WOOD TV8.==