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Super Committee Has Massachusetts Bracing For Cuts

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Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Co-Chairs Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., right, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, preside over a hearing of the committee on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Co-Chairs Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., right, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, preside over a hearing of the committee on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

In less than one week, the so-called super committee must deliver the goods or else the budget cutting axe will come down automatically. If it does, Massachusetts — and the Boston area in particular — will be hit especially hard.

The super committee, of course, is the bipartisan group of 12 members of Congress trying to agree on $1.2 trillion in budget cuts over the next decade. If they can't meet that goal by next Wednesday, across-the-board cuts will automatically take effect, including $600 billion in cuts to the Pentagon budget.

That would be a huge blow to hi-tech companies and local research institutions in Massachusetts that rely heavily on federal funding. Among them, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which last year received about $1.3 billion from the feds — most of it from the Pentagon and the National Institutes of Health.

No it's not surprising that lots of folks in Massachusetts are keeping close tabs on what's happening in Washington.

Guest:

  • Claude Canizares, vice president for research, MIT

This program aired on November 17, 2011.

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