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President Obama acknowledged Friday that deep federal budget 
cuts are here with no end in sight, an outcome that he warned 
would harm the economy but said he lacked the power to stop.

A final attempt to find common ground with congressional leaders 
at a White House meeting proved fruitless. The president 
continued to press for higher taxes as part of a deal, and 
Republicans continued to refuse � clearing the way for $85 
billion in cuts this fiscal year and $1.2 trillion over the next 
decade.

The reductions, which Obama formally ordered late Friday, are 
likely to remain in place for the foreseeable future. There had 
been speculation that they might be adjusted later this month, 
when lawmakers must agree on a new deal to fund the government 
or risk a shutdown. But Obama made clear Friday that he would 
seek to avoid a shutdown even if that means allowing the across-
the-board cuts, known as the sequester, to continue.

The failure to reach a deal to turn off the sequester after 
years of clashes over spending and taxes will usher in an era of 
deeper austerity in the United States. To date, the country has 
resisted the sharp pullback in federal spending that has 
occurred in much of Europe.

The onset of the sequester also will introduce a new level of 
uncertainty for Americans who rely on the government for 
employment or services, with an outsize impact in the Washington 
region.

For Obama, the failure to reach a deal is a setback. He has 
spent years arguing that efforts to tame the nation�s debt 
should involve a balance of spending cuts and tax revenues. As 
things stand now, the onset of the sequester means that balance 
tilts heavily toward cuts.

Polls shows Obama has broad support among Americans for his 
approach to taxes and spending. Over coming weeks, senior 
administration officials said, he will highlight people and 
localities hurt by the sequester, with the intention of creating 
pressure to force Republicans to concede. But the president said 
that could take months.

�It�s happening because of a choice that Republicans in Congress 
have made,� Obama said in the White House briefing room after 
the meeting with congressional leaders broke up. �They�ve 
allowed these cuts to happen because they refuse to budge on 
closing a single wasteful loophole to help reduce the deficit.�

The GOP is able to say it defied the president, avoiding his 
demand for new tax revenue. The standoff comes after deep 
intraparty divisions nearly tore House Republicans apart late 
last year in battles about whether to support tax increases.

Republicans can say they have forced greater restraint in 
government spending � although it is far from the arrangement 
most GOP leaders wanted. Republican leaders have warned that the 
sequester could damage national defense and expressed 
frustration that it does not apply to social programs such as 
Medicaid and Social Security.

Nonetheless, they say the cuts are preferable to tax increases.

�Let�s make it clear that the president got his tax hikes on 
January 1st,� House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said 
outside the White House, referring to new taxes on the wealthy 
approved in January. �This discussion about revenue, in my view, 
is over. It�s about taking on the spending problem here in 
Washington.�

The coming months will be a test of both sides� strategy. Obama 
and his aides have associated the sequester with a the litany of 
horrors, from hundreds of thousands of job losses to steep pay 
cuts for Border Patrol agents and the Pentagon�s 900,000 
civilian employees.

�Not everyone will feel the pain of these cuts right away,� 
Obama said. �The pain, though, will be real.�

But some Republicans have suggested that Obama has more 
flexibility than he is letting on, and that many Americans might 
not notice the impact of the sequester.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-meets-congressional-
leaders-on-sequester/2013/03/01/fa25a440-827b-11e2-b99e-
6baf4ebe42df_story.html?wprss&google_editors_picks=true

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