Obama Sequestration Request Calling For Short-Term Budget Fix To Delay Automatic Cuts

President Barack Obama will ask Congress to come up with tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to put off the automatic across the board cuts that are scheduled to kick in March 1, White House officials said Tuesday.

Obama will make his request afternoon in a public statement at the White House.

The automatic cuts, if they are allowed to proceed, could require widespread layoffs and indiscriminately affect defense programs and domestic spending accounts.