The Issue: Is the sequester a 'whoa' or a 'yikes' that's just days away?

The Issue: Is the sequester a 'whoa' or a 'yikes' that's just days away? $GS $MS $BAC $C $BCS $JPM $RDN $MTG

"The game of chicken over the across-the-board cuts in federal spending threatens to play out until the bitter end as both parties dig in to their respective positions and are blaming the other for the impasse.

Unless something is done, $85 billion in across-the-board cuts through the rest of the year -- aka the sequester -- in domestic and defense spending go into effect on Friday.

President Obama used his bully pulpit to warn that military readiness and a myriad of domestic and education programs would be harmed "if Congress allows this meat cleaver approach to take place."

House Speaker John Boehner used a Wall Street Journal commentary to say Obama lacked "courage" for warning about the cuts but offering no viable alternative.

"Having first proposed and demanded the sequester, it would make sense that the president lead the effort to replace it," the Ohio Republican said in the commentary published in the Journal.

The sequester was part of the Budget Control Act passed by Congress in August 2011 that brought conclusion to the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis, which had threatened to send the United States into default. The Republican-led House passed the act by a vote of 269-161, with 174 Republicans and 95 Democrats voting for it, and 66 Republicans and 95 Democrats voting against it."