Bono says 'Cuts will hurt '

U2′s Bono Warns Fiscal Cliff Cuts Will Hurt

Musician and activist Bono speaks during a discussion on ending poverty on November 14, 2012 in the atrium of the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC.

Even Bono is worried about the fiscal cliff.

The lead singer of Irish band U2 says spending cuts that hit in January would devastate programs to help the world’s poor, leading to more than 60,000 deaths.

“There’s real jeopardy,” Bono said Wednesday at a discussion at the World Bank with bank President Jim Yong Kim. “I’m still terrified of people wrestling the wheel of this mad lorry that they’re driving off the cliff.”

Sequestration — a package of automatic spending cuts set in motion last year — would slash funding for U.S. programs grouped in the federal budget as “international affairs” by 8.2%, or $4.7 billion, in the current fiscal year. Bono said that includes about $2 billion from anti-poverty programs, such as treatment for HIV/AIDS, on which he focuses at his anti-poverty advocacy group, ONE.

“We know there’s going to be cuts,” he said. “We understand that. But not cuts that cost lives.”