As the House on Wednesday approved a GOP plan to move a debt limit deadline to mid-May, the focus was quickly shifting to the next battleground over automatic budget cuts, as some lawmakers predicted that across the board budget cuts would take effect in March.
"I do think we will probably have sequestration," said Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), referring to the approximately $85 billion in cuts that would be divided equally between domestic and military accounts.
"I don't think the White House wants to avert it," Miller said just off the House floor.
"At this point, I don't see that they're going to have a proposal," said Rep. Michael Turner (D-OH), who like Miller has military facilities in his district that could be hit by across the board cuts.
"The President said in the debates that sequestration would never happen, yet he hasn't come forward with a plan," Turner added.
Republicans said one way to ease the cuts would be to reach into the budget and identify programs that are duplicative - or aren't needed - as they pointed to part of the President's Inaugural Address, where he said it was time to do away with "outworn" programs.
"If we can identify all of those 'outworn' programs and just sunset them - and they're gone - that's much better than just doing an across the board cut," said Rep. James Lankford (R-OK).
But each party has much different ideas on how to deal with the $85 billion in automatic cuts that kick in at the start of March, as Republicans would like to reduce cuts in defense, while Democrats might want to use new tax revenues to offset any cuts on the domestic side of the budget.
There is also a growing feeling amongst some Republicans that the automatic cuts actually give the GOP the best opportunity to reduce the budget, no matter if they aren't targeted on specific programs.
For example, the budget for the current fiscal year for everything outside of Medicare and Social Security - what is known as the discretionary budget - is $1.047 trillion.
After you crunch the numbers with sequestration, the budget baseline for the discretionary budget would be re-set at $974 billion, $73 billion in actual cuts, not a reduction in a planned spending increase.
There isn't much time for the Congress to act on a compromise plan to change the sequester, as the House is now gone until February 4, and lamwakers there have only eleven work days between now and March 1.
If sequestration occurs, it's still not clear how federal agencies will deal with the 8.2% cut in domestic accounts and 9.4% in military spending, but the White House has warned that the outcome won't be good.
"Federal agencies will likely need to furlough hundreds of thousands of employees and reduce essential services," said the President's budget director in guidance issued earlier this month.
The White House refused to negotiate over the debt limit, one reason Republicans blinked and extended borrowing authority until May 19; but no one is quite sure whether there will be real negotiations over the sequester.
March 1 is five weeks away.
