Senators on Thursday appeared poised to shoot down a pair of competing bills to stop automatic budget cuts from going into effect, paving the way for the so-called sequester to hit federal programs beginning Friday. Democrats and Republicans were each preparing on Thursday to offer bills to replace the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts scheduled for the remainder of fiscal 2013. But there was still a deep divide over including tax increases in the replacement legislation, and the focus was turning to a Friday meeting between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders about the automatic cuts. U.S. ... (full story)