Half the automatic cuts will come from the military budget.

The technical word for the act of making an automatic spending cut.

Otherwise automatic cuts in most Government programs would go into effect.

The automatic cuts, half of them in the military, will take effect if there is no compromise.

Such calculations may sometimes lead to automatic cuts in Federal benefit programs.

Thus, a deficit reduced only to $160 billion would avoid the need for an automatic spending cut.

This means the impact of the automatic cut would be $10 billion, not $23 billion.

I can see the rationale here but the problem is that the automatic cuts are not set in stone.

The automatic cuts are to be based upon 1987 spending levels plus 4.2 percent for inflation.

"We need to take steps to avoid having the automatic spending cuts become permanent."