Sequester (2013)

The budget sequestration in 2013 refers to the automatic spending cuts to United States federal government spending in particular categories of outlays that were initially set to begin on January 1, 2013, as an austerity fiscal policy as a result of Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), and were postponed by two months by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 until March 1 when this law went into effect.

The reductions in spending authority were approximately $85.4 billion (versus $42 billion in actual cash outlays) during fiscal year 2013, with similar cuts for years 2014 until 2021. However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the total federal outlays would continue to increase even with the sequester by an average of $238.6 billion per year during the following decade, although at a somewhat lesser rate.

The cuts were split evenly (by dollar amounts, not by percentages) between the defense and non-defense categories. Some major programs like Social Security, Medicaid, federal pensions and veteran's benefits are exempt. By a special provision in the BCA, Medicare spending rates were reduced by a fixed 2% per year versus the other, domestic percents planned for the sequester. Federal pay rates (including military) were unaffected but the sequestration did result in involuntary unpaid time off, also known as furloughs.

The sequester lowers spending by a total of approximately $1.1 trillion versus pre-sequester levels over the approximately 8-year period from 2013 to 2021. It lowers non-defense discretionary spending (i.e., certain domestic programs) by a range of 7.8% (in 2013) to 5.5% (in 2021) versus pre-sequester amounts, a total of $294 billion. Defense spending would likewise be lowered by 10% (in 2013) to 8.5% (in 2021), a total of $454 billion. Savings in non-defense mandatory spending would total $170 billion, while interest would be lowered by $169 billion. The CBO estimated that in the absence of sequestration, the GDP would grow about 0.6 percentage points faster for 2013 (from 2.0% to 2.6% or about $90B) and about 750,000 more jobs would be created by year-end. As of May 2013, FY2013 spending ($3.455 trillion) was projected to be lower in an absolute sense than FY2012 spending ($3.537 trillion).

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