The Senate has rejected rival bills designed to prevent $85 billion in automatic spending cuts from kicking in on Friday. The two rival bills - one devised by Democrats, the other by Republicans, did not receive nearly enough votes to pass. These two proposals were the last chances for the Senate to avoid the sequester.

According to the Washington Post,

Both parties floated bills that amounted to non-starters for the other side, so the measures were never expected to pass.

The Republican proposal would have left the sequester intact while providing the Obama administration with greater flexibility over how to implement the cuts. That measure failed to advance by a vote of 38 to 62, with all but two Democrats opposing it — 60 votes were needed to advance the legislation.

A Democratic proposal would have replaced the automatic reductions with narrower cuts and higher tax revenues. The Senate stopped that measure from advancing in 51 to 49 vote, with several Democrats up for re-election in the 2014 mid-terms voting against it.

There are no alternative plans, and Congress now has no hope to avert the sequester.

 

Read more of Neon Tommy's coverage of the sequester here.

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