Congress is taking a trip to Vegas with America’s livelihood. The sequester, which Congress has put off until now during the fiscal cliff debates, needs to be handled swiftly and definitively. So far they’re pathetically missing that mark.

The sequester is a group of systematic budget cuts to a broad range of government programs spread out over the next nine years. This means that just as current JC students are getting out of college and entering the work force, the full effect will be seen.

The largest cuts are in defense and many cuts are carried out at the agency level.

The sequester will have a drastic effect on all government agencies and state and local governments, but there could be a disproportionate effect on Maryland that will undoubtedly last for years.

Maryland is poised to take a loss of $11.5 billion in gross domestic product.

This huge hit stems from the cuts in federal spending on defense contractors, many of which fuel the Maryland economy on bases like Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Harford County’s largest employer, and the federal aid that goes to local and state governments and local businesses.

It’s not just defense and government jobs that could be in danger if the sequester takes effect. A total of 114,795 jobs would be lost in Maryland alone and students returning to the state in the next few years will have slim job prospects.

However, every state will be affected and a total of 2.15 million jobs will disappear.

That’s 114,795 families in this state that are going to suffer because someone in Congress likes to hold the biggest bargaining chip around. It’s impossible to tell how many of these families would be from Harford County.

The country can’t sustain that kind of economic decline once again. It’s a fact that federal government spending is imperative to financial growth in this country.

Legislators need to realize that it is American families that are going to be feeling the real effects of the sequester. 2.15 million jobs and a $215 billion loss in nationwide GDP can’t be used as political firepower.

The sequester needs to be dismantled and Congress needs to approach the federal budget deficit and overspending from a different angle.

Congress needs to wake up and realize that strapping an economic doomsday device to the economy wasn’t the best idea and the situation should be defused.

Bryan Doherty is an Opinion Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.