'We're finally ready to fight for conservative principles': Republicans back Boehner as crippling $85billion sequester spending cuts kick in

House Speaker John Boehner emerged from the meeting and declared that taxes were off the table as an option for the sequester replacement

Obama said the cuts will mean 'hundreds of thousands of jobs lost'

President blamed the 'dumb' cuts on Republicans but conservatives see it as a win for their tough approach on spending cuts

President officially signed off on the sequester on Friday night



Republicans are cheering over House Speaker John Boehner's decision to dig in his heels by not compromising with President Obama over the mandated $85billion in spending cuts.



Because no deal was reached, the President had to order the beginning of the drastic sequester, forcing federal agencies to cut billions in accordance with a dramatic way to cut down the deficit.



Though his blatant show of partisanship may strike some as callous, it is winning him a lot of points from conservative members of his party who previously felt that they were being ignored.

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Facing public scrutiny: Neither side looks particularly good from the sequester fight but Republicans are very supportive of Speaker John Boehner's tough approach and his refusal to negotiate

President Obama cast blame on Congress for failing to avoid the sequester cuts

'He’s doing exactly what he said he was going to do, and I think it’s working to our favor and to his,' Representative Mick Mulvaney said to The New York Times .



'I get the feeling that our party is probably more unified right now than it has been at any time in the last several months.'

At the beginning of the year, Mr Boehner was not the most popular man in his party and there were even rumblings that he may be unseated. The tides have clearly shifted as he leans in towards the right of his base.



'We asked him to commit to us that when the cuts actually came on March 1, that he would stand firm and not give in, and he’s holding to that,' conservative Republican Steve Scalise told the paper.



'I think Friday will be an important day that shows we’re finally willing to stand and fight for conservative principles and force Washington to start living within its means. And that will be a big victory.'



Conservative support: Republican Representatives Steve Scalise (left) and Mick Mulvaney (right) both lauded Boehner's actions saying that he is playing tough and honoring Republican principles

Headed in without hope: Boehner agreed to nothing during the last-ditch negotiation session

Mr Boehner has also won himself a big-name fan in Mitt Romney, but his support comes more at Mr Obama's expense rather than as a result of Mr Boehner's tactics.



'Well, no one can think that that's been a success for the President,' the former presidential candidate said in his first post-campaign interview with Fox News Sunday.



'He didn't think the sequester would happen. It is happening, but to date, what we've seen is the president out campaigning to the American people, doing rallies around the country, flying around the country and berating Republicans and blaming and pointing. That causes the Republicans to retrench and to put up a wall and to fight back. It's a very natural human emotion.



'The President has the opportunity to lead the nation and to bring Republicans and Democrats together. It's a job he's got to do, and it's a job only the President can do.'



President Obama officially signed off on the $85billion in spending cuts on Friday night after congressional leaders fail to compromise on a replacement deal, leaving thousands of Americans in fear for their jobs.



Sharing his thoughts: Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that the sequester is not a good move for President Obama and he blamed his former opponent for 'forcing' Republicans to dig in their heels

The letter was formally sent to Mr Boehner at 9pm on Friday night and was welcomed by no one involved, as both the Republicans and Democrats agree that it is a bad deal that can drastically damage the country's economy but neither are willing to give in.



'The Joint Committee sequestration is a blunt and indiscriminate instrument. It was never intended to be implemented and does not represent a responsible way for our Nation to achieve deficit reduction,' the formal letter kicking off the seven months of spending cuts reads.

The President made his displeasure with the deal known in a formal statement from the pres briefing room.



'Starting tomorrow, everybody here, all the folks who are cleaning the floors at the Capitol … They're going to have less pay, the janitors, the security guards. They just got a pay cut, and they got to figure out how to manage that,' Obama said.



'That's real... that's not a scare tactic.'



Obama made the remarks from the White House following a meeting with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Boehner emerged from the meeting and told reporters that taxes were off the table as an option to avoid the spending cuts, making it clear that no compromise had been made.



House Speaker John Boehner emerged from a White House meeting and declared that taxes are off the table as an option to avoid thesequester cuts

'The discussion about revenue, in my view, is over,' he said. 'It's about taking on the spending problem.'

In an interview with NBC later in the day, Boehner said he never really saw a path forward that avoided the sequester.

'If I did, that meeting at the White House today might have gone better,' he said.



'The sequestration is a blunt and indiscriminate instrument. It was never intended to be implemented' -Office of Management and Budget

Obama blamed Republicans for the country's predicament, claiming that there are many conservatives on Capitol Hill who agree with him, but are unwilling to say so publicly.

'We just need Republicans in Congress to catch up with their own party and the country on this,' he said.



President Obama wanted to replace the so-called sequester with a plan that would raise revenues as well as make a series of targeted spending cuts. But after making concessions on taxes in December by raising rates on the wealthiest of Americans, Republicans said they were unwilling to include new revenues in a plan to avert the sequester.



Asked why Congress was not even in session on the sequestration deadline day, Obama snarled that he could not employ a 'Jedi mind meld' to force cooperation between lawmakers.

'I'm not a dictator,' he said. 'I'm the president.'



The immediate impact of the reductions remains uncertain, even as Obama has declared it would mean 'hundreds of thousands of jobs lost.'

The administration has pulled back on earlier warnings of long lines developing quickly at airports and teacher layoffs affecting classrooms. Because of those claims, Obama has been accused of posturing and exaggerating the effects of the cuts.

His warnings of economic doom appeared to be a partial attempt to avert blame in the future if the economy begins to contract.



'Every time that we get a piece of economic news over the next month, two months or six months... We'll know that that economic news could have been better if Congress had not failed to act,' he said.



'I don't anticipate a huge financial crisis, but people are going to be hurt. The economy will not grow as quickly as it would have, unemployment will not go down as quickly as it would have,' Obama said

VIDEO Nancy Pelosi: The Sequester will hurt women

Industries most affected by the cuts will be those that rely heavily on government funding, including the military and defense contractors.



'Communities near military bases will take a serious blow,' Obama said. 'Border patrol agents, FBI agents ... all will suffer significant pay cuts and furloughs.'

While Obama warned off mass layoffs and smaller salaries as an immediate result of the cuts, he also hedged his warnings, saying , 'This is not going to be an apocalypse... It's just dumb.'

He urged Congress to continue working on a plan to eventually replace the sequester.



'I don't anticipate a huge financial crisis, but people are going to be hurt, he said. 'The economy will not grow as quickly as it would have, unemployment will not go down as quickly as it would have.'

Vice President Joe Biden arrives at the White House for a closed-door meeting with President Barack Obama and congressional leaders on the automatic spending cut

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said Senate Republicans would pursue a plan to maintain the sequester cuts but target them more intelligently. He reiterated that tax increases were off the table.

'I want to make clear that any solutions will be done through the regular order, with input from both sides of the aisle in public debate,' he said. 'I will not be part of any back-room deal and I will absolutely not agree to increase taxes.'

The meeting at the White House between Obama and congressional leaders, which lasted just under an hour, ended around 11:10 a.m. No breakthrough was expected to come out of the talks. But the meeting was an opportunity for all sides to stake out their fiscal positions with the threat of a government shutdown looming less than four weeks away.

HOW WILL THE SEQUESTER AFFECT YOU? BUDGET BREAKDOWN Department of Defense

Frequently pointed at as one of the biggest losers if the budget cuts go through Homeland Security Hundreds of illegal immigrants have been freed from jail across the country in favor of more cost-effective manners of supervision

Transportation and Recreation The nation's busiest airports could be forced to close some of their runways



Flights to cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco could have delays of up to 90 minutes during peak hours because fewer controllers will be on duty



Visiting hours at all 398 national parks are likely to be cut



Fleet Week, an annual celebration of the armed forces in which recently deployed ships dock at major cities for a week drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors to ports, could be cancelled and the Navy's air display team, The Blue Angels, will also likely not perform

Public Schools

70,000 children will be cut from Head Start's preschool program

14,000 public school teachers may be fired Federal Workers

More than half of the nation's 2.1 million government workers may be required to take furloughs if agencies are forced to trim budgets

At the Pentagon that could mean 800,000 civilian workers would be off for 22 days each

Other federal agencies are likely to furlough several hundred thousand more workers

Thousands of seasonal workers looking for jobs at National Parks will not be hired Health and Safety

2,100 food inspections will not take place due to cuts from the sequester

Funding to treatment centers for HIV and substance abuse will be cut significantly

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio enters the White House. The automatic cuts are set to kick in before midnight

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi arrives. No breakthrough is expected to come out of the talks

Boehner said Congress will move next week on a measure to maintain government funding after March 27th.

On the Senate floor Thursday, a Republican proposal requiring Obama to propose alternative cuts that would cause less disruption in essential government services fell to overwhelming Democratic opposition, 62-38.

Moments later, a Democratic alternative to spread the cuts over a decade and replace half with higher taxes on millionaires and corporations won a bare majority, 51-49, but that was well shy of the 60 needed to advance. Republicans opposed it without exception.

In a written statement after the votes, Obama lambasted Republicans.

'They voted to let the entire burden of deficit reduction fall squarely on the middle class,' he said.