Mitt Romney has been rousing military-minded voters with warnings of giant defense cuts in January, but he’s only telling half the story. An alarming White House report issued Friday shows that the full impact of next year’s ham-handed budget cuts would affect virtually every government function, not just the Pentagon.

From the Secret Service to food inspection to air traffic control, a broad range of programs would be cut by at least 7.6 percent, whether they are essential or frivolous. A few categories are exempt, including Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, Social Security, veterans affairs and military personnel. Everything else would be run through a Procrustean band saw, a mindless way to govern.

These cuts, known as the sequester, were the result of the debt-limit crisis created by House Republicans last year, when they threatened to throw the government into default if the deficit were not reduced. President Obama and the Democrats tried to respond with a balanced package of spending reductions and tax increases on the rich. But when Republicans refused the deal, the two sides agreed on a different incentive: $100 billion a year in indiscriminate cuts to programs that each side holds dear.

So far, though, it hasn’t produced any serious negotiation on the deficit. The House, as recently as Thursday, has made several attempts to cancel only the defense sequester and double the size of the domestic cuts. That won’t fly with the Senate or the White House.