White House Explains Sequester

Washington is not going to be a fun place this week. The White House on Sunday released 51 fact sheets explaining how the looming spending cuts, known as the sequester, would affect each state individually as lawmakers prepared for a week of fighting. If the $1.2 trillion worth of cuts go into effect as planned, the Washington area will be hard hit—especially since most of the area involves government workers—and nearly 150,000 Defense Department personnel will be partially furloughed through the end of September. Meanwhile, Republicans accused the White House of exaggerating the effects of the cuts, and Democrats claimed Republicans are using the cuts as leverage to avoid reducing tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.