Originally Posted by raymr

It's all part of the deal Obama signed in 2011 to take effect if Congress doesn't come to a budget agreement. It was meant to be so distasteful to both sides that there would be no way it would come to pass. Yet here we are. The 20% cut is for a fixed length of time only, not sure how many weeks or months. So even though there is a 20% weekly cut now, over the year it might really be equal to 5 or 10%.