President Obama is meeting with lawmakers Friday in a last-ditch effort to stop sequestration. Budget cuts representing just 2.4 percent out of total government spending are set to take effect at the stroke of midnight.

Heritage Foundation President-Elect Jim DeMint appeared on CNN’s “The Situation Room” tonight alongside liberal pundit Arianna Huffington to debate the impact of sequestration.

DeMint emphasized that government will continue to grow even with the sequester:

If government spending improved our economy and created jobs, we would have the best economy and the least unemployment we’ve ever had. We’ve almost doubled spending the last 10 years. The plan is to take it up nearly another 70 percent in the next 10 years. The problem is that we’re spending too much. We have record revenues this year, even with the sequester. We’ll spend more this year than we ever have in history. So it’s really laughable that the President is acting like this is an apocalyptic situation.

Obama started to back off his scare tactics today, downplaying any short-term impact as a result of sequestration. During the CNN interview, DeMint noted that Obama’s policies have already slowed job creation and caused the economy to contract.

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