Sequestration still coming March 1st

Our friends at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) blogged recently about the effects of the sequestration cuts now scheduled for March 1st. These automatic budget cuts may have a significant effect on Maryland-something not lost on Governor O'Malley, who included contingency funds in his proposed FY 2014 budget. According to CBPP:

The [so-called “fiscal cliff” budget deal] sliced the scheduled 2013 sequestration by $24 billion, from $109.3 billion to $85.3 billion.  This reduces the percentage cuts in full-year funding for most eligible programs (those that the law does not exempt from the automatic cuts).  The Medicare percentage does not drop, however, because Medicare cuts were and are still capped at 2 percent, and the across-the-board cut that applies to other non-defense programs remains larger than 2 percent.

[CBPP] also adjusted the figures to reflect the extension of Emergency Unemployment Compensation in the fiscal cliff deal and the likely enactment of additional disaster funding in response to Hurricane Sandy.  Both sources of extra funding are subject to sequestration, which spreads the scheduled cuts more broadly.