'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Hundreds of Pentagon-related employers large and small are preparing to lay off thousands of employees as Congress takes a recess this week, so far unable to agree on how to undo automatic military spending cuts set to begin March 1.
State officials on Tuesday sounded a cautionary tone as Virginia prepares for a lean budget season and the potential of cuts from Capitol Hill next week — cuts that could stanch economic recovery in a region heavily reliant on federal spending.
"The unemployment rate will climb above 9 percent, pushing the economy toward recession and reducing projected growth in 2013 by two-thirds," said Stephen S. Fuller, a public policy professor at George Mason University, who authored the report.
In 2000, 24 percent of the state's economy was made up of direct federal spending, which has grown to 32 percent in the past decade, said Stephen S. Fuller, director of George Mason University's Center for Regional Analysis.
