奧巴馬將與國會議員商討預算問題大綱

U.S. President Barack Obama is due to meet at the White House Friday with top Republican and Democratic lawmakers to discuss a last-ditch effort to avoid across-the-board budget cuts scheduled to take effect before the day is over.

The meeting is largely viewed as symbolic, after dueling bills to avoid the cuts were defeated in the Senate Thursday, making $85 billion in automatic spending cuts appear inevitable once the Friday deadline passes.

President Obama has said the effects of the cuts on federal agencies - most notably defense, infrastructure spending, public schools and preschool care - will not be felt immediately, but instead will have what he calls a "tumble downward" effect. That means, the longer the cuts remain in place, the worse the damage they will cause.

Defense employees are expected to be forced to take unpaid time off work, while funding for big infrastructure projects will eventually halt.美國總統奧巴馬星期五將在白宮會見共和黨和民主黨的國會領導人，商討如何在最後一刻做出努力，避免在今天限期之後全面削減開支計劃自動生效。

美國國會參議院星期四否決了旨在避免開支削減的相互競爭的法案，一旦星期五的最後期限過後，850億美元的開支自動削減計劃看來已經勢在必行，因此奧巴馬與議員們的這次會晤多半被認爲屬於象徵性質。

奧巴馬總統曾經表示，削減聯邦各機構開支的影響不會立即被感受到，但將產生他稱作的 "逐漸下滑 "的效應。那就是開支削減持續的時間越長，造成的損害就越大。最受到關注的是國防、基礎設施經費、公立學校和學前教育等領域。

預計國防部員工將被迫接受無薪休假，同時對大型基礎設施項目最終也將停止提供資金。