Politico writes “Congress’s next battle will be to keep the government open after March 27 while simultaneously stopping massive spending cuts to the Pentagon and other government programs that take hold March 1. And that fight shows how steep the hill is to climb. The GOP wants to replace automatic spending cuts with changes to mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid without any additional tax increases. Obama and Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for additional revenue — which the GOP refuses to countenance after the fiscal cliff deal — and are serious about protecting entitlement programs.” This sets the stage “on a course to a possible government shutdown or deep cuts to government programs that no one wants, unless someone blinks.”
29
Jan 2013
