Now it looks like there isn't going to be a deal, and the cuts are going to take effect...
From Guardian.co.uk (underlined points done by me, for emphasis, not in original article):
The chances of a last-minute deal in the latest US tax and spending crisis appeared to be receding after Republican leaders said no new compromise would be tabled in talks at the White House scheduled for Friday.Draconian cuts to the US budget are scheduled to kick in at midnight Friday, with the White House warning it will lead to teachers being laid off, defence orders scrapped, air travel delays, vaccine projects shelved and border security reduced.


The cuts stem from the latest clash between Barack Obama andRepublicans in Congress over tax and spending. The difference this time is that neither Obama nor the Republicans are actively seeking the usual last-minute deal and Washington is braced for a prolonged stand-off in the so-called "sequester" crisis.


Obama is to meet the top two Republican congressional leaders, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and House speaker John Boehner, and their Democratic counterparts at the White House on Friday neither side anticipates a deal even being tabled, let alone reached.


There was not even the remotest hint of a compromise Thursday. McConnell, speaking in the Senate on Thursday, blamed Obama for failing to put forward a serious plan or engage in serious discussion.
"This week, he finally invited Speaker Boehner and me to discuss the sequester – tomorrow, the day it takes effect," McConnell said.
McConnell added: "Now, after thwarting every bipartisan attempt to avert his sequester, the president is ready to make it bite as hard as possible – all to send a simple message to the public: 'You want to control Washington spending, America? Fine, let me show you much I can make it hurt.'


"Instead of directing his cabinet secretaries to trim waste in their departments, he's going to go after first responders. And teachers. And almost any other sympathetic constituency you can think of. And he'll arbitrarily close parks and monuments too – all to force Americans to accept higher taxes. He'll claim his hands are tied.
"He'll say he has no choice but to release criminals into the streets and withhold vaccines from poor children. And somehow, it will be everyone's fault but his. Nonsense."
Read more here
Just goes to show, Obama is the biggest child in our government. He wants things to be his way or no way at all. I really do think that his failure to provide something people can agree on is not just a failure in leadership and failing this nation, it's a failure in being human. He is such a [REDACTED]! I'd say more but I'm already probably on enough lists, plus I don't want to get banned.