Sequester News Update: What is Getting Cut and by How Much

Time's up for Congress and the White House.

The sequester deadline is today and unless President Obama and Republican leaders can strike a last minute deal the $85 billion of across the board cuts will go into effect. But what program budgets are actually getting snipped and by how much? 

Whats important to remember is that the $85 billion cut is only the first part of a much bigger sequestration that stretches until 2021 and in all will cut roughly $1.2 trillion in federal spending. Meaning, this is only the beginning. Fiscal conservatives may say cuts are long overdue considering the spending spree that the federal government has been on since the financial crisis. But regardless of political ideology, it appears that no one is happy about the cuts as they will take much needed cash out of the pockets of people who can't afford it.

As the writers and researchers at the Pew Charitable Trust put it, "If Congress and the White House cannot reach an agreement to avert the automatic cuts, a broad swath of government services would be reduced: law enforcement, food safety, schools, national parks, health services and the military. More specifically: Kids sent home from Head Start, airline passengers stuck at choked security checkpoints, unemployed people turned away from job counseling."

Here are the general cuts expected to go into effect: $42.7 billion in defense cuts (a 7.9 percent cut).$28.7 billion in domestic discretionary cuts (a 5.3 percent cut).$9.9 billion in Medicare cuts (a 2 percent cut).$4 billion in other mandatory cuts (a 5.8 percent cut to non-defense programs, and a 7.8 percent cut to mandatory defense programs). 

The cuts include thousands of programs but here are few notable ones reported in the Washington Post:

- Aircraft purchases by the Air Force and Navy are cut by $3.5 billion.

-Military operations across the services are cut by about $13.5 billion.

-Military research is cut by $6.3 billion.

-The National Institutes of Health get cut by $1.6 billion.

-The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are cut by about $323 million.

-Border security is cut by about $581 million.Immigration enforcement is cut by about $323 million.

-Airport security is cut by about $323 million.

-Head Start gets cut by $406 million, kicking 70,000 kids out of the program.

-FEMA's disaster relief budget is cut by $375 million.

-Public housing support is cut by about $1.94 billion.

-The FDA is cut by $206 million.

-NASA gets cut by $970 million.

-Special education is cut by $840 million.

-The Energy Department's program for securing our nukes is cut by $650 million.

-The National Science Foundation gets cut by about $388 million.

-The FBI gets cut by $480 million.

-The federal prison system gets cut by $355 million.

-State Department diplomatic functions are cut by $650 million.

-Global health programs are cut by $433 million; the Millenium Challenge Corp. sees a $46 million cut, and USAID a cut of about $291 million.

-The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is cut by $55 million.

-The SEC is cut by $75.6 million.

-The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is cut by $2.6 million.

-The Library of Congress is cut by $31 million.

-The Patent and Trademark office is cut by $156 million. 

For a more information about how your home state is going to get hit with the cuts visit the Washington Post's state-by-state sequestration breakdown.

Reports vary but estimates but the amount of jobs lost at roughly 2.14 million, most will be jobs in the defense sector. For more information about which states are most susceptible to job loss visit the Washington Post's Sequester FAQ report.

For easy to read data about cuts in, for example, student financial aid and environmental programs visit the Pew Charitable Trusts

And finally, if your curious about the long term cuts still to take effect, the OBM has released a report detailing possible cuts over the next several years.