If Congress and the President do not reach a spending deal by March 1st, budget cuts will automatically go into effect. Todd Zwillich explains the steps the president and Congress are taking to avoid sequestration.

Both Democrats and Republicans seem to be getting more comfortable with the automatic cuts known as "sequestration," set to kick in on March 1st. But outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the cuts to the military budget would be "shameful and irresponsible." Nancy Cook, budget and tax correspondent for the National Journal, discusses the impending cuts, from social security to defense spending, and the political jockeying taking place in DC.

Ahead of another battle over sequestration, President Barack Obama is expected to unveil a proposal of spending cuts and reforms to tax policies today at 1:15.

It's another busy week in DC, with continuing efforts to reach immigration reform, the confirmation of Chuck Hagel in the balance, and another set of negotiations over taxes and "sequester" cuts on the horizon. Jake Tapper, CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent and author of The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, discusses the latest.

New York stands to take a $600 million hit in 2013 if Congress fails to avert automatic spending cuts slated for January, which would fall disproportionately on poor and middle-income New Yorkers, according to a new study. 

At 1 p.m. Friday afternoon, President Obama will make his first comments on economic policy since the election. The president is expected to address the "fiscal cliff" the nation will face in January.

Ideology is a dangerous thing. Both parties would rather tell fictions about the economy than deal with real, imminent problems.

Members of Congress won't see their paychecks shrink after massive scheduled spending cuts go into effect in 2013, but the police on Capitol Hill will.

Mandatory spending cuts are on the horizon, and the party of fiscal discipline doesn't do itself any favors by running from them.

Virginia Democratic Senator Jim Webb and Independent Joe Lieberman were right to vote against President Obama's political play to allow the tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 a year to expire in a few months.