WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) released the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked a measure to avert budget sequestration’s devastating cuts and replace it with a balanced solution:

Budget sequestration is the height of insanity and a sad example of governing at its worst. Congress has to stop taking people’s jobs and our entire economy hostage to its own dysfunction. I strongly opposed the legislation that set this process in motion, and I strongly support this legislation to prevent the damage that these reckless cuts will do to our still fragile economy.

The American Family Economic Protection Act would have eliminated these across-the-board cuts, and replaced them with smarter, balanced spending cuts along with revenue raised from implementing the Buffet Rule. It would have also protected the tens of thousands of defense jobs in Connecticut and countless more in nearly every sector of our economy. 

It’s time for Congress to come together and work to make this right.

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