REUTERS – The automatic federal budget cuts slated to go into effect in January would lead to large reductions in both military and domestic programs, the administration said on Friday, forecasting that the cuts would have a devastating impact on the country.
According to a White House report, the cuts, under a process called “sequestration,” would result in a 9.4 percent cut in defense discretionary funding and an 8.2 percent cut in non-defense funding.
The reductions would also shrink funding for Medicare, the healthcare program for the elderly, by 2 percent, an amount equal to $11.1 billion.
“No amount of planning can mitigate the effect of these cuts,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in the report.
“Sequestration is a blunt and indiscriminate instrument. It is not the responsible way for our Nation to achieve deficit reduction,” OMB said.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert and Mark Felenthal; Editing by James Dalgleish)
