Budget sequestration deadline
The solution to the fiscal cliff at the end of 2012 avoided some very painful budget cuts, but the deadline for another round of big cuts is looming.
If nothing is done in Congress by Friday, budget sequester cuts will take place.
The word ‘sequester’ can have different meanings in different situations.
But budget sequestration is the act of placing hard caps on areas of federal spending and then automatically making budget cuts if Congress passes spending bills that exceed those caps.
The fiscal cliff solution included a big round of spending cuts on March 1st unless congress took more action to reduce the deficit.
The cuts would automatically eliminate $85 billion from the federal budget.
Medicare and Social Security would not be affected, but almost every other area of federal spending would be.
Jason Furman of the National Economic Council says the sequester cuts were never intended to actually happen.
He says they were intended to be so onerous that they would force Congressional Republicans and Democrats alike to come to the negotiating table and hammer something out.
White House deputy press secretary for the economy Amy Brundage says President Obama has proposed a solution to avoid the sequester cuts without making any cuts to programs needed to strengthen the middle class and create jobs.
Tuesday night on ABC 10 and CW 5 News Now, we’ll have comments from Congressman Dan Benishek on the budget sequestration issue.