Page 3 - Sequester Hit News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

♪ ♪ >> bret: america survives the weekend and the sequester so far. so it's time for the next budget crisis. or is it? this is "special report." i'm bret baier. the republic did not fall over the weekend despite series of cuts and growth of federal spending. doom and gloom predictions so far not come to pass. chief white house correspondent ed henry tells us tonight how the obama administration is dealing with this. >> at the first cabinet meeting since the sequester hit, president obama declared a budget cuts are of deep concern. since the sky is not fallen, not yet, mr. obama also contin...

Taxes have been about a quarter of our total debt reduction. but this is no more. the tax debate is completely over. they prefer the sequester to replacement that includes even a dollar, even a hint, a shadow of revenue. in 2011, when the sequester was created there were two ideas for keeping it from happening. one, the super committee, which could maybe come to a deficit deal before this sequester hit. the other idea, and this was the big one, was the election would decide the tax issue. the american people would decide the tax issue. here is eric cantor, speaking about the failed grand barga...

Want to go ahead and close those loopholes. what's interesting, back in the mid-1980's there actually was a sequester that kicked in. it was part of the gramm-rudman sequester. fill gramm writes in the -- phil gram writes in the "wall street journal" journal today in anticipation of the sequester there were a lot of people in washington talking about doom and gloom and the sequester hit and it never happened. the reason it never happened, phil gramm writes today is the fact that the federal government actually has a lot of leeway. and despite the chicken little sky is falling stuff, if they ma...

Are we going to see these kind of cuts, the ones that were outlined in the sequester proposal? >> i think the odds are pretty high, to be honest. i don't think there's any appetite from republicans in congress to do any deal that has any tax revenue component just because they just signed off on a deal, the fiscal cliff deal that had $610 billion in tax revenue. they think it's time to go back to spending cuts. they really don't take into consideration the fact that we had the debt ceiling deal which was all cuts. that means they'll probably hold out for something that has cuts only. democrats...

Irs has not told the truth on that issue. >> and when the irs was hit with the budget cuts, he comes in front of congress and said the first thing we'll have to do is stop answering customer phone calls. it reminds me of what happened when the sequester hit. first thing the white house did cut it for the school children. and make it painful to the so- called lack of funding. >> when you head a agency that is customer- service oriented. you have to put your spending in that area and put other things on the sidelines, whether it is used furniture or anything else. it helps your reputation. the i...