11:59 p.m TONIGHT, THE President will be required to initiate the budget process known as sequestration. As Obama is forced by law to trigger $85 billion in automatic budget cuts, now a bipartisan delegation marches to The White House on this first day of March to negotiate. But all are expected to restate long-held positions, making this of a photo op. In fact, now that sequestration has arrived, the budget gridlock gripping Washington may be about to get worse.
Two parties are already looking ahead to a fight over how to fund the federal government beyond the end of the month. By March 27, legislators must pass a new one or the lights go off. Unlike the effects of the sequester, whose hazards are real but not immediate, a shutdown’s seismic impact would reverberate across the economy immediately, if not sooner!