President Obama heads to Newport News, Virginia, where he’s expected to tour and speak at a shipbuilding factory about sequestration’s potential impact on the defense industry. The White House says the across the board cuts could have a harmful impact on jobs, economic demand and military readiness. The administration also says the President will urge Republicans to come to the negotiating table to work on a compromise to avoid the sequester, which will go into effect if a deal is not reached by Friday. President Obama’s Virginia visit comes after House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Republicans continued to dig in yesterday. Boehner responded to the President’s sequester warnings, saying “The president says we have to have another tax increase to avoid the sequester. Well, Mr. President, you got your tax increase. It’s time to cut spending.” Meanwhile, lawmakers in the Senate are working on dueling bills, reportedly in hopes that each party will avoid blame if the $85 billion in cuts takes effect. The upper chamber will vote on the proposals this week, but neither is expected to pass. But will there be any meaningful attempts to broker a pact before Friday? Right now that doesn’t appear likely, but who stands to lose the most? Democrats? Republicans? Or the American people? We’ll try to answer those questions and more when we see you at noon ET on msnbc.
PANEL
Bill Burton, Executive Vice President, Global Strategy Group/former senior advisor to Priorities USA Action (@billburton)
Fmr. Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA), NBC News Political Analyst (@govedrendell)
Leigh Gallagher, Assisting Managing Editor, Fortune (@leighgallagher)
Michael Eric Dyson, Georgetown U./msnbc Political Analyst (@michaeledyson)GUESTFred Wertheimer, President and CEO, Democracy 21 (@fredwertheimer) [DC NC]
Robert Gifford