Republicans float plan to give flex on cutbacks  Share with
others:  Print Email Read Later  WASHINGTON -- Congressional
Republicans are preparing to counter increasingly dire warnings
from President Barack Obama about the effect of automatic budget
cuts with a plan to give the administration more flexibility in
instituting $85 billion in cuts, a proposal they say could
protect the most vital programs while shifting more of the
political fallout to the White House.  The plan is vigorously
opposed by the administration, which said Monday that it would
do little to soften the blow to military and domestic programs.
But it is also dividing Democrats, with lawmakers from states
facing the deepest cuts signaling that they may be prepared to
go along with Republicans if it means avoiding indiscriminate
cuts to defense programs and social services.  With just three
days left until the across-the-board cuts called sequestration
are to begin, administration officials continued to describe the
consequences in alarming