There are now four big plans to stop the sequester  Note: Now
that Senate Democrats have released their own plan to stop the
sequester, we're updating and republishing this old post.  On
March 1, a whole bunch of deep, automatic spending cuts are
scheduled to take effect. This is known as the "sequester," a
mechanism that will trim the federal government's budget by
$85.3 billion this year and by $1.2 trillion over 10 years.
Artist's rendition of the sequester.  The trouble is, few people
in Washington actually want these cuts. They were designed to be
sweeping and crude — affecting everything except Social
Security, Medicaid, a few anti-poverty programs, and the ongoing
wars. Republicans don't like the fact that the Pentagon's budget
gets slashed 7.3 percent this year. Democrats don't like the
sweeping, across-the-board hacks to government agencies.    Sen.
Patty Murry (D-Wash.) chair of the budget committee.   How would
they pay for this? For one, this plan would include about $27.5
billion in spending cut