department of agriculture in which a mid level manager said i have got make sure that the meat inspections work and his boss says oh, no, no. you are going to cut consistent with the president s message. my goodness are they spending our money in our name rather to hurt us in order to make the government work? if that s the case it s impeachable offense because it s the opposite of what he was elected to do. he was elected to make the government work not to use the government to hurt us. neil: under lings they think they have broad parameters what can be cut. that s a message not getting through. they do. one of the reasons they do is the president s own fault. we don t have a budget. we have spending goals but we don t have a budget. if there were a specific budget thou shall spend x on project y they would have no choice. where there is no budget the budget hasn t had one even though the federal law requires it, in four years, they have broad discretion. hire the soldiers, drop t
border security. let s get to the water cooler. well, you know, you were talking about those automatic spending cuts kicking in, people like myself don t understand how it s going to affect them. good thing that saturday night live s president obama was there to explain the sequester in human terms. some employees will be outright let go. like this teacher. this is the greatest day of my entire life. good luck reading beowulf, you monsters. the cuts will a also affect the zoo here in washington. d.c. we ll have to fire three monkeys. on the plus side, ikea and taco bell have made a generous offer to buy some of our horses. plus, there will be cutbacks on meat inspections.
of compromise. reporter: tomorrow the president will begin showcasing the impact of sequester cuts on individual states when he travel s have virginia where 90,000 civilian defense workers would be furloughed one day a week, jenna. jenna: a big story in the state of virginia and many states, wendell. we know the president just made these comments in the last hour or so, but what s the republicans take on all this? reporter: they say the president got the tax hike he d been demanding at the end of last year when the rate was raised, the top rate on families making more than $450,000 a year. they say he traded away increased revenue as part of the sequester for an 18-month expansion of the nation s debt ceiling at the end of 2011, and they say the 3% spending cut the sequester demands doesn t have to hurt as much as the white house says it will. the reality is nobody is saying he should make these exact cuts, but we can cut less than 3% of the budget without jeopardizing air traff
that start kicking in later this week, march 1st, friday. both republicans and democrats appear to be digging in for a long fight. the sequester, as it s known, or sequestration, is being billed by some lawmakers as drastic and dangerous and white house officials and even president obama says they re warning of possible layoffs and negative economic impacts as a result. however, many republicans in congress called the warnings overblown. either way it appears that barring a 11th hour deal the cuts will happen. steve centanni live with more. steve? harris, you know, the obama administration rolled out top officials today to highlight the problems these budget cuts might cause. and one high profile republican governor of louisiana, bobby jindal, responded this way. if he thinks this did he have states the military and air traffic control, really devastate meat inspections and they rolled out the political debate. cutting less than 3% of the
the president has to stand up to the plight. if he really thinks this will devastate the military, air traffic control, really devastate meat inspection, they rolled out great political theater, cutting 3% of the budget can cause all these consequences, here is a chance to say here is how we can do it better. the reality is the federal budget even after the cuts will be larger than last year s budget. bob woodward has a great piece where he he doesn t use these words, basically says the president has amnesia. he proposes sequester, signed it into law and doesn t want to make the cuts. the reality is he doesn t need these exact cuts but we can cut 3% without hollowing out military, meat inspections. you re saying the folks in your state who are reading that headline, they can solve this? absolutely. governors solve this. families, businesses have had to tighten their belts and do more than less. we re talking less than 3%. we re talking about a federal budget that s still going to