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Obama Reluctantly Signs $85 Billion ‘Dumb’ Budget Cuts After Talks Fail

Obama Reluctantly Signs $85 Billion ‘Dumb’ Budget Cuts After Talks Fail

Stephen: He didn’t want to do it! But, as President, Obama’s hands were tied, he had to sign what he called “dumb but arbitary” cuts to the US budget that came into effect yesterday.
The $85 Billion cuts are the result of the ongoing game still being played over budget cuts.
Obama Signs Steep Budget Cuts into Effect
From Al Jazeera – March 2, 2013
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/03/201331172624323302.html
US president Barack Obama has signed an order that starts putting into effect steep across-the-board budget cuts, after he and congressional leaders failed to find an alternative budget plan.
The cuts, known as the “sequester,” will hack $85bn off the US federal budget between Saturday and October 1.
They were drafted into law in 2011 as part of a deal to lift the federal debt ceiling, and were set to automatically take effect unless lawmakers failed to agree on an alternative plan to reduce the deficit. It was hoped that the cuts were so onerous that they would force a deal.
But after months of negotiations, the White House and Congressional Republicans failed to come up with a better plan to tackle the country’s $11.7tn debt. Senators on Thursday failed to advance two bills, one Democratic, another Republican, to avert the sequester.
Obama said the cuts were “dumb and arbitrary,” and he blamed them on the Republicans, adding that it could take a couple of weeks or a couple of months to reach a deal.
Republicans, who lost a showdown on raising tax rates on the rich late last year, have refused to accept any further tax raises as part of a solution.
Also looming on the horizon is the expiration of the federal budget: the government’s spending authority runs out on March 27.
Obama on Friday urged legislators to extend the “continuing resolution” that would fund most government operations beyond the current expiration date; failure to do so would shut down the government.

“I think that’s preventable,” Obama said of the threat of a shutdown, after meeting congressional leaders briefly at the White House.

Illegal immigrants released

The sequester will have wide-ranging effects: longer lines at airports, as security screeners are furloughed; national park closures; and reduced federal spending on contracts, t-family: "Open Sans";">But John Cornyn, the number-two Senate Republican, said on Thursday that Obama and Democrats had made “apocalyptic predictions” of the sequester’s impact on domestic spending. “They are predicting a disaster that will not occur,” he said.

The cuts amount to five percent of spending from domestic agencies, and eigily: "Open Sans";">Some of these effects will take weeks or months to be felt. Others are more immediate: The Associated Press reported that the US released from its jails more than 2,000 illegal immigrants facing deportation in recent weeks, and plans to release 3,000 more during March.

The newly disclosed figures, cited in internal budget documents reviewed by the AP, are significantly higher than the “few hundred” illegal immigrants the Obama administration acknowledged this week had been released under the budget-savings process.

The White House has said it was not consulted about the releases, and homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged they occurred in a manner she regrets.

But John Cornyn, the number-two Senate Republican, said on Thursday that Obama and Democrats had made “apocalyptic predictions” of the sequester’s impact on domestic spending. “They are predicting a disaster that will not occur,” he said.

The cuts amount to five percent of spending from domestic agencies, and eight percent of the Pentagon budget, but leave intact several major programmes, including the Social Security pension programme, the Medicaid health care programme for the poor and food stamps.