Politics News Alert

Competing bills to avert sequester fail in Senate

Competing partisan bills to avert the looming budget cuts failed to advance in the Senate Thursday, as Congress prepared to leave Washington for the weekend without taking action on the $85 billion sequester.

A Republican proposal would have left the budget cuts intact but provided new flexibility to President Obama to decide where the cuts would fall. It was rejected on a 38 to 62 vote -- as all but two Democrats opposed it, along with nine Republicans who feared it would afford President Obama too much power. Sixty votes were needed to advance the measure.

Likewise, a bill from Democrats that embodied President Obama's call to replace the across-the-board budget reduction with a mixture of other cuts and higher tax revenues was also blocked, on a 51 to 49 vote. Several Democrats facing 2014 elections voted against the measure.

Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/harry-reid-says-its-still-not-too-late-to-avert-sequester/2013/02/28/d252595e-81b8-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html

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