Sequester

Congress and the White House have once again danced around sequestration.

The Joint Strike Fighter -- a new, high-tech jet known as the F-35 -- is way over budget and years behind schedule. Yet Congress has not moved to clip its wings.

Businesses that rely on government subcontract work are wary of budget cuts potentially set for next year, even as they continue to deal with the fallout from last month's partial government shutdown.

More than 20 Senators and seven Representatives have begun work on a compromise budget that liberals and conservatives can live with, before new sequester cuts hit in January. A supercommittee was what created the sequester impasse in the first place, what will be different this time around?

Across-the-board budget cuts that would slash the number of ships in the Merchant Marine would end up costing the Navy -- perhaps billions of dollars.

It's good news for the approximately 640,000 furloughed Department of Defense employees that there will be only six furlough days instead of 11. But it's still a hardship for many of them.

The IRS is canceling its Monday furlough day because it has managed to cut costs enough to avoid it.

The suicide rate for Native Americans is nearly four times the national average, but many tribes' mental health services have been compromised by the sequester.

Monday is day one of the sequester-driven defense cuts, including a one-day a week closure of all domestic military grocery stores.