The budget wars seem never ending in Washington D.C., with the sequester just one day away and no agreement between the White House and Republican leadership in sight. After sequestration goes into effect, lawmakers on Capitol Hill will have months of budget negotiations ahead of them.
In the weeks ahead, both parties will have to find a way to strike sort of compromise on spending levels, or face a government shut down come March 27 when the current authorization for spending runs out.
The public, of course, has an interesting relationship with the idea of sequestration. David Leonhardt, the Washington bureau chief for The New York Times, says, “Whatever people say about their feelings toward the deficit, most people want their taxes to be low and their benefits to be good… That’s a recipe for a deficit.”
Also in March, Republican Representative Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, says he will introduce his plan to balance the budget over the next 10 years, proposing the steepest spending cuts yet. President Obama too will unveil his budget for the next year.
But it doesn’t end in March either. Come July, Congress and the White House will likely return to the question of raising the debt ceiling.
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