Impasse portends government service cuts

WASHINGTON — Come January, be prepared for fewer air traffic controllers, FBI agents, border patrol officers and park rangers, as well as lower farm and winter heating subsidies. Less meat might get inspected. Furloughs will likely sweep across the government. Even the weather service could be affected.

The looming funding crisis in domestic spending is the result of automatic across-the-board cuts that go into effect Jan. 2 because of Washington’s inability — so far — to reach a budget deal for achieving less red ink in the future.

The idea behind the automatic cuts, called a sequester in Washington parlance, was to force the warring sides to agree on a deal to slash out-of-control deficits that currently require the government to borrow 33 cents of every dollar it spends. The sequester was intentionally designed to be harsh if the negotiators couldn’t agree — and they haven’t yet.

Military personnel would be exempt from the cuts, but neither Congress nor the White House would be spared.

While Republican defense hawks are up in arms over $55 billion in cuts that would slam the Pentagon next year and wreak havoc in the jobs-rich defense industry, there’s been relatively little attention paid to a matching $55 billion cut from domestic programs. And those are the cuts most Americans are likely to notice.

“The situation on the domestic side is just as bad as the situation on the defense side, but you don’t have as many contractors who are willing to lobby and scream publicly,” said budget expert Richard Kogan of the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The impact of the cuts is shrouded in both debate and mystery. Alarmists warn that smaller airports would have to close for lack of air traffic controllers and say meat plants could be temporarily shuttered for a lack of inspectors.

Others say agency managers will be able to mitigate much of the impact, especially if the automatic cuts are turned off after a short while.

Some of the biggest and most important programs are exempt from the cuts entirely: Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps, veterans’ health care and federal employee pensions.

Medicare cuts would be limited to 2 percent.

But farm subsidies would be cut, as would federal courts, the National Weather Service and food aid for pregnant women.