President Obama, Republican Leaders to Meet As Sequester Cuts Look Likely

The budget ax is about to fall, and there's small lawmakers in Washington are trying to stop them.
Despite a parade of fire warnings from the White House, an $85 billion package of deep spending which cuts appears poised to take effect at the stroke of midnight on Friday.
The cuts – known in Washington-speak as the sequester – will destroy many what federal have in budget, from defense to education, and even the presidency’s staff.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats and Republicans has each staged votes on Thursday aimed at substituting the indiscriminate across-the-board cuts with more sensible ones. Democrats also called for including new tax revenue in the mix. Both measures failed.
Lleaders on both sides publicly conceded that the effort was largely for show, with little chance the opposing chamber would embrace the other's plan. They will discuss their differences with President Obama at the White House on Friday.
"It isn't a plan at all, it's a gimmick," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said today of the Democrats' legislation.
"Republicans call the plan flexibility" in how the cuts are made, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Let's call it what it is. It is a punt."
The budget crisis is the product of a longstanding failure of Congress and the White House to compromise on plans for deficit reduction. The sequester itself, enacted in late 2011, was intended to be so unpalatable as to help force a deal.
Republicans and Democrats, however, remain gridlocked over the issue of taxes