On Friday, I heard news that terrified me: Congress had failed to agree on a fiscal policy, and so a series of across-the-board spending cuts, called the sequester, had come into effect. Public-program cuts include the slashing of budgets for schools, such as the reduction of funds for teachers of students with disabilities; work-study funding; Head Start, an early education program dedicated to minimizing the impact of family income on education access; the Violence Against Women Act; health care; and a great deal more.

I’ve been keeping an eye on this as it has developed because it has a high likelihood of affecting me or someone I know. Online, I have seen people argue that at least some of the spending cuts are so small a percentage as to be unimportant; I disagree. My family is low-income, and when one is low-income, even tiny budget cuts will have disproportionate effects on one’s entire family. Sometimes, five dollars can determine whether or not a family is able to pay for rent and grocery bills.

When anyone in my family experiences a reduction in income, it affects everyone; we normally help each other out of tight spots and emergencies, but it can sometimes be very difficult to do so. My mother, for example, relies on public programs because, as a disabled woman, it is difficult for her to hold a job. What would happen if one of her benefits were cut? How badly would it affect the rest of us? When similar situations have occurred in the past, we often have had to go without something, whether it was food, Internet, phone, gas, or another necessity.

In other words, it’s already difficult to survive while poor. I anticipate that any cuts are going to have an unbalanced effect on my family and many families like us. How many are going to go hungry, or even die, because of this?

I also have friends whose jobs rely on government grants. Some of them fear furloughs or mandatory unpaid time off. Others, like me, are work-study students. The sequester will cut down the number of people eligible for work-study and other forms of federal aid. According to The Washington Post, “Around 550 fewer low income students in Connecticut would receive aid to help them finance the costs of college and around 470 fewer students will get work-study jobs that help them pay for college.” This will have a serious impact on the ability of many work-study students to pay for necessary college expenses, such as books and supplies.

It could also affect organizations that rely in part on work-study students, including University departments and places like the Community Health Center or Green Street Arts Center. This sequester seems particularly damaging in light of the recent change in need-blind admission on this campus. The University is already struggling with financial difficulties—cuts in work-study, government scholarships, and eligibility for other forms of financial aid can only increase class stratification on our campus and many other campuses across the country.

The sequester will affect far more people than just the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. Cuts include benefits for our nation’s veterans; funding for the Center of Disease Control and Prevention; science and technology programs, including the National Air and Space Administration (NASA); the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA); and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These cuts will affect everything from scientific research—a field that Congress supposedly wants to grow—to the safety of food we eat, to the ability of state and federal governments to respond to natural disasters and the spread of disease.

The infrastructure of the United States is already crumbling. How much more can we as a nation take when our leaders in Congress refuse to help anyone but themselves?