Democrats: Doomsday; Republicans: Your fault

President Obama’s budget director told Congress Wednesday that automatic spending cuts will slash funding for 16,000 school employees, cut the U.S. Border Patrol and kick 100,000 children out of the Head Start program as the White House sought to up the political pain for lawmakers bickering over how to stave off the cuts.

House Republicans offered to cancel their August vacation and stay in town to work on a solution, but Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration can’t deal with the Republicans until they agree to raise taxes on the wealthy.

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