It has become obvious to more and more observers that the impending trillion dollar discretionary spending cuts, scheduled to begin March 1st, are going to happen. It is next to impossible to find any Republican on Capitol Hill who can explain how they will be avoided. And now, even the most conservative pro-defense Republicans are beginning to acknowledge this reality.

“I’m pretty sure it is going to happen now,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., told Politico yesterday. “I guess the feeling is until everybody feels enough pain, we’re not going to do the things that we really need to do. And that scares me.”