Exactly one year ago, Moody’s put the states of Maryland and Virginia, as well as several municipalities in Northern Virginia, on its “watchlist.” It wasn’t anything they had done — rather, it was because their economies depend on federal defense spending.

Congress and President Obama, having failed to agree on serious deficit reduction, instead agreed on a “sequestration” — $492 billion to be cut indiscriminately from the Defense Department budget over the next ten years. It will be triggered automatically on Jan. 1, 2013, if nothing is done to stop it.