Its happening because a choice that republicans in congress have made. Theyve allowed these cuts to happen because they refused to budge on closing a single wasteful loophole to help reduce the deficit. Reporter president obama and congressional leaders met for less than an hour. They did not even discuss alternatives to the spending cuts or when they might again talk about a solution. The impediment is this. Mr. Obama wants to raise taxes on millionaires or eliminate Corporate Tax loopholes. Republicans say they raised 600 billion in the fiscal cliff deal and now is the time they say to focus on spending cuts. The prot got his tax hikes on january 1st. This discussion about revenue in my view is over. Washington has got a spending addiction and its time to begin to deal with that addiction. Reporter the cuts will hit every single agency. Friday they canceled 11 ship maintenance projects in virginia. Other agencies prepared orders for mandatory time off without pay and steep reductions in overtime. Those furloughs could start in midapril. People are going to be hurt. The economy will not grow as quickly as it would have. Unemployment will not go down as quickly as it would have. And there are lives behind it. Reporter Top White House officials predict republican ends will eventually cave and give in. They say theyve never been more unified and theyll withstand whatever pressure comes from the white house and the public. This much we know to be true. Until this morning the politics and spending cuts have been entirely theoretical. Now theyre going to be real and possibly unpredictable. Thats exactly what were going to be talking about at the white house. Thanks so much. So what is next for this mess, and how will it affect the country and how soon . Joining us from washington is john dickerson, cbs news political director and here in our studio is senior director on marketplace and public radio. Nice to have both of you with us this morning. Good morning. Good morning. They brought this up. Its a matter of how people are feeling. People are asking why didnt we see a bigger impact on the stock market when we learned there was no deal on the table. How do you explain that . I think they realize two things. Washington is going to faith. Theyre going to have these con very saktvery sagss. Theyre going to have these conversations. The dow is up. Were doing pretty dwight. Right now theres no Immediate Impact on the economy. Its going to take a little while. Thats the question. How long i mean the president has been pounding the drum saying the consequences are going to be severe. How long before theyre real . A couple of weeks. Theyre not going to hit nobody around this table but people who need unemployment checks theyre going to be cut in about three weeks to a month. Were going to see meat inspections not happening. Its not going to happen right away. Its going to be imkremental and people are going to go oh wait, this is happening. Democrats are saying absolutely not. There will be that as part of this deal. When do they actually come together . Is it when the consumer for example, starts to not have the meet in the Grocery Store that theyd like to see . I think so. The question is where is the pressure going to come . Theres a much bigger issue about taxes and spending. Its not a part of what weve had in the last couple of weeks which is to find a deal to get past this immediate effect of see question trags. They still have to have that big conversation, and you can imagine the situation in which republicans who have now held firm can say to their base look, we held firm we djts raise taxes on this immediate issue, but we still have this bigger conversation to have. But thats still a long way away getting some kind of agreement on those big issues of taxes and spending. John, as youve pointed out, theres been virtually no discussion on this issue in washington, which has been the whole situation of this sequestration deal that it would force a deal. If thats not happening, how can we expect a discussion at any point in time . Well, right. Thats exactly right. The sequestration was set up for everybody to focus on the big thing. The big thing is how do you arrange a budget in the time of scarcity. That conversation has been totally absent while everyone has been debating when is it going to come. There are other choke points coming, the entire funding of the government that comes at the oechlkd march and we have another debt ceiling fight and those are going to be pressure moments that are even more serious than this one. As kai said theres kind of been a wolf crying issue with washington. Theyre always having kind of a freakout and its not as dire as everyone says, but the future debates about funding the government entirely and the debt limit, those are more dire economic cuts with those fights. Of course, at the heart of this whole conversation is the deficit and how to reduce it and the idea behind these cuts was to force congresss hand and yet youre not getting Debt Reduction out of them. I think the point to realize is the deficit has been shrinking. Its lower than it has been a year ago and lower than two years ago. The way were doing this is going to wind up being more expensive. Thats the fallacy of this whole thing. We appreciate you joining us. The Roman Catholic church is officially without a leader following the historic resignation and retirement of Pope Benedict xlvi. Its now up to the princes of the church the cardinals, to choose his successor. Lets get the latest from allen pizzey in vatican city. Reporter the traditionladen process of getting ready for the next pope begins with the vacant see apartment. The door was sealed. A symbolic red ribbon was placed across the door that nothing is to be disturbed. Hell be in charge until a new pope is elected. Most other officials lose their job. Benedict is now hidden behind the walls of Castel Gandolfo summer residence of popes since 1616. Theyve been called to gather for monday for what are called congregations. Informal meetings where they discuss the issues facing the church and begin to get an idea of who among them might be the man to succeed benedict. The days for the con calculate is expected to be announced next meech. Chicagos Cardinal Francis george says theres a desire to move quickly. It is kind of a date imposed on us by the liturgical calendar. Reporter instead of the popes image it will show apostolica. Special stamps one of the most prized souvenirs went on sale yesterday. All are expected to be here on monday when the congregations begin. But the power broking have begun in the better restaurants around the vatican. For v cbs this morning, allen pizzey. For more on the new pope lets head back to vatican city and delia gallagher. Good morning, delia. Reporter good morning. Has it begun . Whats the first step . Reporter as you heard the report in fact, the informal discussions have already begun. Those take place at the lunches and dinners amongst the cardinals. What happens now is they go into these congregations, meetings which is more formal. They dont discuss names but they have an opportunity to suggest what type of person the next pope should be and what should be the priorities for the future of the church. Its important to know that these are 207 cardinals. So even though those cardinals wont be voting in the Sistine Chapel, those that are over 80 years old, they have an opportunity to give a speech and see what the priority should be. So its really their opportunity to let their voice be heard for those cardinals who will be doing the actual voting. It sounds like these informal meetings as you described them are where some of the real deal making could actually be taking place. What do we know about whats going on in the meetings right now . Whats the meat and the context of them . Reporter well theyre just discussions. Theyre discussions amongst the cardinals who, remember dont always have the opportunity to meet and talk face to face because they are in different countries. They have to decide on the names because once they get into the Sistine Chapel and the con agree zbags begins, theres no more time. They have to get in this week. Theyll have to actually name names and see who has support amongst whom because they have to reach a twothirds consensus. So its very important that at a certain point they actually get together and start deciding well, this person or that person, and see how the numbers fall. I mean at a certain point it is actually a numbers game to see who has the most support and who can actually be the candidate that will have a bit of unity so that the conclave doesnt go on too long because if it goes on too long it gives an impression that they cant make up their mind. So its a very delicate balance. Delia gallagher in vatican city. Thanks delia. A little later well take a look at whether a new pope will be able to reform a church so engulfed in scandal. Now we turn to a moneyeating sinkhole. A giant sinkhole opened up east of tampa and swallowed a man sleeping in his bedroom. Officials are warning now that the sinkhole is still dangerous and its likely to grow. We want to get the latest from gray son grayson of our affiliate wbst. Reporter theres been no change but experts expect more. More growth more collapse. The reality is even recovery crews may never find this house safe enough to reenter. I didnt care. Jerry bush didnt think. He just leapt into the sinkholes that moments before swallowed his brother jeff alive. He searched but found nothing. All you could see is the top of his bed, nothing else. I jumped in the hole. I thought i could hear him screamling linging for me and hollering for me. He pulled jeremy out of the sinkhole. Knowing he couldnt save jeff haunts him. I couldnt sleep because spending so much time with these people and wanting to know what was happening. Reporter engineers spent friday analyzing the ground surrounding the house, testing the density of the soil and mapping the area in 3d. The hole is now almost 30 feet deep and it paints a precarious picture. The soil cannot hold the slope it has right now, so we do expect the sinkhole to grow. Reporter we learned he was not going to stay here long a few months. In fact today was supposed to be the day he was supposed to move out. For cbs this Morning Saturday, i grayson in florida. Concern over the wide use of the chemical called bpa. Its commonly found in plastic containers and linings of food and beverage cans. It can get into food and studies have tied it to a wide range of health concerns. Now scientists have linked bpa to an increased risk of asthma. Dr. Kathleen donahue is the lead author. Good morning. Good morning. First of all, what is bpa . Its a chemical used to make hard plastics like poly carbonates. And why are children so vulnerable to it . Because they eat more than adults do and most of our exposure is through our diets. I mean are we talking excessive exposure here or just moderate exposure going to affect people . So our study found that routine low doses of exposure were associated with increased odds in wheezing. Weve been seeing this increase in as mathma among young people. Do you think its tied to it . Our studies suggest that it might be. Its the first one. Wed like to see the results replicated in another one and wed like to confirm that its a cause but our Study Suggests that it might be one of the environmental exposures that may have contributed to the increase in asthma over the years. Does it look like adults are being affected or the risk is more with kids . Our study is lived to children but we didnt look into adults, so i cant speak to that. How about the pregnant women . Are they passing it down to the fifiee fetus . They do. They transfer it through the bloodstream and placenta to the fetus. Last year the government banned bpa in baby bottles and sippy cuts. Do you think its going to cut . If other studies confirm that this is in fact a true cause, then, yeah it might reduce asthma cases. In the meantime for people hearing results of studies like this, what are your recommendations for how people should go about serving their children and even the pregnant women . Sure. So they have recommendations on their website based on this. Use less canned foods. Use stainless steel and to avoid plastics number 3 or 7. One of the things i never look at but youre telling me i should be looking at it. Before youre buying the product as opposed to when youre tossing it into your grocery cart. Dr. Donahue, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. It is now 19 minutes after the hour. We want to turn to craig from wfor in miami for our very first check of the weather this morning. Good morning. Looking pretty good nationally. Wnter holds on in the northeast. Lingering snow showers and a cloudy cold day in florida. The big problem today is going to be over the Tennessee Valley region where snow work its way to the eastsoutheast. You can see snow anywhere from 2 to 4 inches. In terms of temperature, its going to be cold. Especially tonight youre going to need to protect plants. Its getting late in the year for 20s and 30s. A little bit cold for this time of year. Frost advisories even into parts of florida. Thats a look at your national weather. Heres whats going on with your local forecast. In the next half hour well take a look at the National Temperatures in the west with which are warm. Today is the national day of unplugging. Chances are when you woke up one of the very first thing use did was reach for your cell phone or sit down at your computer to check facebook or twitter. A lopt of people seem tied to it. Todays chance to disconnect at least today. Heres michelle miller. Reporter theres no question weve evolved to be constantly plugged in. I saw the best minds of my generation distracted by texting, emailing, tweeting. Reporter but on friday night Jeremy Goldberg and company opted off the grid putting away all electronics for 24 hours. Off. Not standby. We all know its the button up there, so stop it. Do it. Sorry. Reporter a recentnomo phobia causes panic. How do you find the balance . Wheres the equilibrium. The key is hey, if god needed a day of rest maybe thats not a bad idea for us either. Reporter jeremy is a thinker of rebooter. Three days ago they came up with this main fess toe which encourages people to shut down their devices once a week. Now the brainchild of dan roman has turned into a national day of unplugging. Even heavyweight Arianna Huffington is unplugging. Multitaskers are inexclusively using enormous fractions of their brain. Reporter he shows how it affects the brain. We were stunned because people who think theyre getting more done by doing a lot at once are actually getting less done. So we asks our congregation to give up social media for three or four days. Reporter in pittsburgh the reverend william f. Curtis has his own take on the sa both manifesto. It will be hard for me because im always on twitter. Reporter no matter who you are, unplugging seems to come from strength from a higher power. For cbs this Morning Saturday, michelle miller, new york. I like this concept. I like it too, but heres how addicted this stuff i am to promote this story i actually tweeted out it was unplugging day. I think it will be interesting to see what happens when people study evolution. Were overstimulated. Theres constant commotion. Im curious to see a brain scan from now how does it differ from present day because of all this. I thought the point the gentlemen maine about how our brain responds to this was really, really interesting. Nice work by michelle miller. Coming up at just 23 hes the top golf never the world but rory mcelroy stunned and disappointed the golfing world yesterday and were going to talk about what might be going on with the young superstar. Later working from home, how do you prove to your boss that youre mow productive there than you are at the office. Youre watching cbs this Morning Saturday. woman 3 days of walking to give a Breast Cancer survivor a lifetime thats definitely a fair trade. It was such a beautiful experience. jessica lee and its beautiful woman why walk 60 miles in the boldest Breast Cancer event in history . Because your efforts help komen serve millions of women and men facing Breast Cancer every year. Visit the3day. Org to register or to request more information today. It was 3 days of pure joy. And its beautiful i i got it, i got it made i got it made, i got it made i got it made fresh at subway breakfast made the way i say [ male announcer ] at subway you got breakfast made. Like an under 200 calorie steak egg white cheese. Subway. Eat fresh. The historic resignation of Pope Benedict xvi as head of the Roman Catholic chur sch complete but now we take a look at the next chapter. Can the next pope reform the church in the period that some call a crisis. In the next half hour well take a look at this question at the college of cardinals and see if there is a welcome back to your local cutaway. Were joined by seth cresser. Its so nice to have you here. Youre here from miami . From miami. Im visiting for the moment. You want to get away from the heat. Yeah, its been too hot. We always want to know what the temperature is down there. Its kind of cool. Its only in the 60s today. How are you going get by. And 50s tomorrow. Im glad i didnt book a spring break trip down to florida right now. He was talking about it. Ft. Myers or ft. Lauderdale. We usually go this time of year all the time. Im also interested what is interesting in miami that turns out so many weather people, meteorologists. It must be a nice place to cover weather. Most of the year its quiet, its nice and then you get Hurricane Season its like christmas. I used to be a tornado chaser. People used to take pictures of me. How real was the movie compared to actually tornado chasing . It was compliant. A lot of it didnt happen. How does a person decide id like to chase a tornado . Whats inside of you that makes you want to do that . You want to see nature as its finest. Its really incredible. I worked in oklahoma a couple years and wed go out and chase tornadoes and id look up and go what am i doing here . Exactly. You never get that . Nature says run, run, run but youre awestruck. Stay with us. Youre watching cbs this Morning Saturday. Well be right