White House officials reported Friday that it will cut $120 billion from the budget come January 2013. Of that amount, $11.1 billion will be slashed from Medicare and $54.7 billion from U.S. defense spending.

According to the information the White House released, the cuts to the Pentagon will include $15 billion from Army, Navy and Air Force operation and maintenance.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention will face a budget cut of $464 million, but the National Institutes of Health is slated to have $2.5 billion cut from its budget.

The White House was careful to point out that the administration did not have any “discretion” in the cuts and was not in favor of the cuts.

The cuts are due to the administration and Congress failing to reach a debt reduction deal last year. Failing to reach a deal, set up automatic sequesters “in exchange for granting the administration the borrowing authority to go deeper into debt,” the Washington Times reported.

“The report leaves no question that sequestration would be deeply destructive to national security, domestic investments, and core government functions,” the White House report stated.

Besides the defense budget and Medicare, what other parts of the federal government will be hit hard? According to the administration the federal civilian workforce would be forced to take a pay cut of 8 percent. Staffing of the various layers of government would also be impacted.

Why is this all happening? Last year a bipartisan committee was formed to stave off the automatic cuts, but no agreement was reached, so the automatic cuts to government spending will become a reality on Jan. 2.

The report issued last Friday was required by a law Congress passed earlier this summer.

The impact of these cuts will devastate a soggy unemployment picture for Americans already suffering from long-term unemployment.

Keith Hansen