The first cut is the deepest shallowest

Brace yourself for this surprising news: all those "deep spending cuts" hammered out in Washington were illusory.  Wash Post: "Many 2011 federal budget cuts had little real-world effect."

In the real world, in fact, many of their “cuts” cut nothing at all. The Transportation Department got credit for “cutting” a $280 million tunnel that had been canceled six months earlier. It also “cut” a $375,000 road project that had been created by a legislative typo, on a road that did not exist.
At the Census Bureau, officials got credit for a whopping $6 billion cut, simply for obeying the calendar. They promised not to hold the expensive 2010 census again in 2011.

Washington is profoundly unserious abut reining in spending.  Bring on the sequester.

"These aren't the spending cuts you're looking for."