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| President Barack Obama speaks to reporters in the White House briefing room in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following his meeting with congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Gridlocked once more, President Barack Obama and Republican
congressional leaders refused to budge in their budget standoff Friday
as $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts bore down on individual
Americans and the nation's still-recovering economy. "None of this is
necessary," said the president after a sterile White House meeting that
portended a long standoff.
Even before Obama
formally ordered the cuts required by midnight, their impact was felt
thousands of miles away. In Seattle, the King County Housing Authority
announced it had stopped issuing housing vouchers under a federal
program that benefits "elderly or disabled households, veterans, and
families with children."
The president met
with top lawmakers for less than an hour at the White House, then sought
repeatedly to fix the blame on Republicans for the broad spending
reductions and any damage that they inflict. "They've allowed these
cuts to happen because they refuse to budge on closing a single wasteful
loophole to help reduce the deficit," he said, renewing his demand for a
comprehensive deficit-cutting deal that includes higher taxes.
Republicans
said they wanted deficit cuts, too, but not tax increases. "The
president got his tax hikes on Jan. 1," House Speaker John Boehner told
reporters, a reference to a $600 billion increase on higher wage earners
that cleared Congress on the first day of the year. Now, he said after
the meeting, it is time take on "the spending problem here in
Washington."
Senate Republican leader Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky was equally emphatic. " I will not be part of any
back-room deal, and I will absolutely not agree to increase taxes," he
vowed in a written statement.
At the same time they clashed, Obama and Republicans appeared determined to contain their disagreement.
Boehner
said the House will pass legislation next week to extend routine
funding for government agencies beyond the current March 27 expiration.
"I'm hopeful that we won't have to deal with the threat of a government
shutdown while we're dealing with the sequester at the same time," he
said, referring to the new cuts by their Washington-speak name.
Obama said he, too, wanted to keep the two issues separate.
White
House officials declined to say precisely when the president would
formally order the cuts. Under the law, he had until midnight. Barring a
quick deal in the next week or so to call them off, the impact
eventually is likely to be felt in all reaches of the country.
The
Pentagon will absorb half of the $85 billion required to be sliced
between now and the end of the budget year on Sept 30, exposing civilian
workers to furloughs and defense contractors to possible cancellations.
Said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, only a few days on the job: "We
will continue to ensure America's security" despite the challenge posed
by an "unnecessary budget crisis."
The
administration also has warned of long lines at airports as security
personnel are furloughed, of teacher layoffs in some classrooms and
adverse impacts on maintenance at the nation's parks.
The
announcement by the housing agency in Seattle was an early indication
of what is likely to hit as the cuts take effect. It said it was taking
the action "to cope with the impending reduction in federal funding,"
adding that it normally issues 45 to 50 vouchers per month.
After
days of dire warnings by administration officials, the president told
reporters the effects of the cuts would be felt only gradually.
"The
longer these cuts remain in place, the greater the damage to our
economy - a slow grind that will intensify with each passing day," he
said. Much of the budget savings will come through unpaid furloughs for
government workers, and those won't begin taking effect until next
month.
Obama declined to say if he bore any of
the responsibility for the coming cuts, and expressed bemusement at any
suggestion he had the ability to force Republicans to agree with him.
"I
am not a dictator. I'm the president," he said. "So, ultimately, if
Mitch McConnell or John Boehner say we need to go to catch a plane, I
can't have Secret Service block the doorway, right?" He also declared he
couldn't perform a "Jedi mind meld" to sway opponents, mixing Star Wars
and Star Trek as he reached for a science fiction metaphor.
Neither
the president nor Republicans claimed to like what was about to happen.
Obama called the cuts "dumb," and GOP lawmakers have long said they
were his idea in the first place.
Ironically,
they derive from a budget dispute they were supposed to help resolve
back in the fall of 2011. At the time, a congressional Supercommittee
was charged with identifying at least $1.2 trillion in deficit savings
over a decade as part of an attempt to avoid a first-ever government
default. The president and Republicans agreed to create a fallback of
that much in across-the-board cuts, designed to be so unpalatable that
it would virtually assure the panel struck a deal.
The
Supercommittee dissolved in disagreement, though. And while Obama and
Republicans agreed to a two-month delay last January, there was no
bipartisan negotiation in recent days to prevent the first installment
of the cuts from taking effect.
It isn't clear how long they will last.
Of
particular concern to lawmakers in both parties is a lack of
flexibility in the allocation of cuts due to take effect over the next
few months. That problem will ease beginning with the new budget year on
Oct. 1, when
Congress and the White House will be able to negotiate
changes in the way the reductions are made.
For
his part, Obama suggested he was content to leave them in place until
Republicans change their minds about raising taxes by closing loopholes.
"If
Congress comes to its senses a week from now, a month from now, three
months from now, then there's a lot of open running room there for us to
grow our economy much more quickly and to advance the agenda of the
American people dramatically," he said.
"So this is a temporary stop on what I believe is the long-term, outstanding prospect for American growth and greatness."
But
Republicans say they are on solid political ground. At a retreat in
January in Williamsburg, Va., GOP House members reversed course and
decided to approve a debt limit increase without demanding cuts. They
also agreed not to provoke a government shutdown, another traditional
pressure point, as leverage to force Obama and Democrats to accept
savings in benefit programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Obama
has said repeatedly he's willing to include benefit programs in
deficit-cutting legislation - as long as more tax revenue is part of the
deal.
"I am prepared to do hard things and to push my Democratic friends to do hard things," he said at the White House on Friday.
Republicans
speak dismissively of such pledges, saying that in earlier
negotiations, the president has never been willing to close a deal with
the type of changes he often says he will accept.
