Across-the-Board budget cuts known as sequestration have begun.
President Obama signed the order to begin $85 billion in cuts Friday night, after he and Congressional Republicans failed to reach a deal to avert automatic reductions.
Government agencies will now begin to hack their budgets through September 30th, which is the end of the federal fiscal year.
The cuts are expected to be phased in over the next few months.
Furloughs of government workers will begin several weeks from now.
Congress and President Obama could still stop the cuts in the weeks to come, but neither side has expressed any confidence they will be able to do so.
7 Comments to “Sequestration begins”
March 2, 2013 at 8:43 AM
Why should the Republicans care. They get their tax cuts and protect the upper end of the pay scale.
March 2, 2013 at 8:46 AM
I am concerned that Republicans will take the blame for this. I'm neither Republican or Democrat, but it has got to be difficult to do anything nationally within the party because ther is so many "nooks and crannys" in it. The ultra-conservatives, the tea parties, the moderates, and the common sense conservatives. Trying to appease all of those at the same time has got to be an almost impossible job.
March 2, 2013 at 10:03 AM
I have a friend that's in Washington ,,He called me this morning & the lights are still on in the White House .
March 2, 2013 at 6:46 PM
Needs to be cut and a balanced budget produced. I don’t want my kids and grandkids inheriting this bill. Taxing the rich more isn’t the only answer. Stop the crazy spending and spending and spending. Furlough away.
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March 3, 2013 at 6:21 AM
Nope
March 5, 2013 at 3:03 PM
There really is a lot of doomsday talk given that the federal budget is only being slashed by %2-3. If these government agencies can't find sensible ways to deal with the cuts, then they are clearly being poorly managed. Now if only these cuts could be balanced with closing corporate tax loopholes on the revenue side, we might actually see some progress on our fiscal situation.