Obama To Ask For Sequester Delay, Propose Short-Term Fix

“Given that the budget process in Congress won’t likely be completed by March 1st, the President on Tuesday will call on Congress to pass a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reforms to avoid the economically harmful consequences of the sequester for a few months, which will allow Congress more time to reach a solution that permanently avoids the sequester and significantly reduces the deficit in a balanced way,” a White House official told The Washington Post late Tuesday morning.

Obama will deliver a statement outlining his proposals at 1:15 p.m.

The deep spending cuts were established during the August 2011 debt ceiling deal as way to force Congress to come up with a long-term deficit-reduction plan. The deal set up the ill-fated 2011 “supercommittee” that was ultimately unable to agree on spending cuts.

Although $109 billion in cuts were originally scheduled to occur on Jan. 1, Congress approved a last-minute “fiscal cliff” deal in December that delayed the sequester until March 1.

Democrats are discussing implementing a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to replace the sequester, according to The Hill.