Robert Reich, former U.S. labor secretary and professor at U.C. Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, tells Current TV’s John Fugelsang why Democrats and Republicans need to cooperate in order to avert the looming sequester.

“What Democrats ought to be proposing, and even Republicans ought to be proposing, is to say, ‘Let’s just repeal the sequester,’” Reich says. “The problem right now is not the budget deficit — the budget deficit is actually shrinking — the problem right now is jobs. The problem right now is the economy and economic growth. Wages. That’s what we ought to get back to – the fundamentals.”

“Trickle-down economics is just a bald-faced lie,” Reich adds. “It means that you’re protecting the rich, protecting the powerful. It’s what Republicans have been doing for years, and you know, you tell a lie over and over and over again … and eventually people start to believe it.”