CFR Updtate 3/1 Congress Leaves as Sequester Takes Effect

Daily News Brief March 1, 2013

Top of the Agenda: Congress Leaves As Sequester Takes Effect

The sequester took effect today as $85 billion worth of across-the-board spending cuts to defense and domestic programs began rolling in. Congress on Thursday abandoned efforts (NYT) to avert the reductions after the Senate shot down competing bills to mitigate the impact of the cuts. President Obama is scheduled to meet Friday (WaPo) with congressional leaders at the White House, but House Republicans are focusing attention on the next deadline of March 27, drafting a measure that would avoid a government shutdown (Politico) while leaving the sequester in place through the end of September.

Analysis

"Washington has reached a strange place indeed when the opposition party offers the president more control over spending — and he refuses it. Apparently, in addition to its policy objections, the White House figured that a softened sequester couldn't force Republicans to accept a long-term deal including higher revenue. It's a gamble that the worse things might get now, the better they will get later," writes a Washington Post editorial.

"Liberal Democrats don't just like the deep reductions in the Pentagon budget; they also steadfastly oppose any modification of future Medicare and Social Security benefits, which is one crucial element of a long-term budget deal. Tea Party Republicans don't just see any spending cuts as a positive; they also oppose any further revenue increases, which are the other crucial element of a deal," writes a Boston Globe editorial.

"[Chuck] Hagel must also reassure allies that the United States, and its military, are not in complete disarray. That will be hard to do as long as the sequester is in force. Nor does it help that the United States already has but one aircraft carrier deployed overseas. Not only does that signal America's inability to maintain 24-hour sea-based aircraft operations from the onset of a crisis, it also feeds the worst fears of allies and friends that the United States is slowly, but inexorably, turning inward," writes Dov Zakheim for Foreign Policy.

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