Sequestration 2013 White House Meeting: Congressional Leaders to Meet Obama Over Sequester

Impact

President Barack Obama will meet congressional leaders today at the White House to discuss the $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts triggered by the infamous sequestration — reported Bloomberg Businessweek.  

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will attend the meeting to negotiate over how to replace the cuts totaling $1.2 trillion over nine years ($85 billion of which would occur in the remaining seven months of this fiscal year). 

"Middle-class families can't keep paying the price for dysfunction in Washington," Obama said yesterday. "How much more money do we want to steal from the American people to fund more government? I'm for no more," said Boehner in a clear indication that the Democratic/Republican standoff over how to address the fiscal issue (namely, spending cuts versus tax increases) will continue for the time being. 

The White House sequester meeting's outcome is complicated by the fact that the Senate unsurprisingly rejected yesterday of two partisan and opposing proposals to replace the spending cuts.