FISCAL CLIFF

Pentagon Prepping for Furloughs

If no deal is made.

It seems like we’ve been talking about what will happen if the president and Congress don’t agree on a deal to avoid automatic spending cuts, but the actual effects of tumbling over the dreaded fiscal cliff are finally starting to set in. The Pentagon, which will be forced to cut its budget by 10 percent in the first nine months of 2013—that’s around $55 billion in spending—is preparing to tell 800,000 civilian employees to prepare to take mandatory leave without pay if no deal is reached. The Pentagon isn’t the only government agency that will be impacted if the cuts go into effect. Some companies that do business with the government—as well as other agencies—will have to lay off some workers.