Starting Jan. 2, defense spending will be slashed automatically by 10 percent, while domestic spending will take an 8 percent hit. It's all part of a nine-year process to whack $1.2 trillion from the federal budget. That's about $133 billion annually through 2021. The ax, however, will spare Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps and veterans benefits, among other programs. No one knows exactly where all the cuts will come from, but all corners and sectors of the country will be affected. People already are worried about the loss of money and jobs Lehigh University could feel the cuts, too. Nearly 60 percent of Lehigh's $43 million research budget came from the federal government in 2009-10, according to the university's latest available statistics, and part of that money came from defense. Neither Tobyhanna nor Lehigh could comment on the impact of sequestration.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-pa-federal-sequestration-budget-20120819,0,7898973.story
