WASHINGTON — Facing a Friday deadline, President Barack Obama said Monday that Congress can avert sweeping across-the-board cuts with “just a little bit of compromise.”
Speaking to the nation’s governors, Obama acknowledged that the impact of the $85 billion in cuts may not be felt immediately. But, he also said, the uncertainty already is impacting the economy, as the Pentagon and other agencies get ready to furlough employees.
“At some point we’ve got to do some governing,” Obama said. “And certainly what we can’t do is keep careening from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis.”
There is little indication that the White House and Congress will reach a deal by Friday. Obama wants to offset the sequester through a combination of targeted spending cuts and revenue increases, but Republicans oppose any plan that would include tax hikes.
The $85 billion budget-cutting mechanism could affect everything from commercial flights to classrooms to meat inspections.
Click hear to see how the sequester would affect Arkansas.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.