After the debt debacle of 2011, Congress and the president agreed to a sweeping package of budget cuts that no one really wanted, as an incentive to work together later to reach a bipartisan compromise on more targeted cuts. That incentive didn't work as designed, and after postponing the date of the 'sequester' cuts, the U.S. Defense Department and other discretionary programs are now staring down the gun of massive, across-the-board budget cutbacks.