The sequester was supposed to be so severe that lawmakers would have to strike a deal to avoid it. 这种缩减如此严重以至于立法者不得不立刻达成协议来避免它。

　　Cutting budgets by a further 10% would be painful. 进一步削减预算的百分之十将是痛苦的。

　　The White House wants the State Department and foreign-aid budgets to bear much of the burden. 白宫希望国务院和对外援助的预算能够承担起大部分负担。

　　But these make up only a small proportion of the federal budget: about $57bn in total. 但是这些只占联邦预算的一小部分：约570亿美元。

　　The sequester also cut defence spending deeply, which is why hawks like Senator John McCain have been questioning America's military preparedness. 这项自动减支也会更深的缩减国防支出，这也是Senator John McCain 等鹰派人对军队准备提出质疑的原因所在。

　　Barack Obama's last budget proposed a boost to defence spending about two-thirds as big as Mr Trump's. 巴拉克·奥巴马的最终预算计划加大国防支出，其数额大约有川普的三分之二。

　　Congress can usually write budgets with a simple majority in both houses. 国会通常会用两院的一种简单的多数同意方式来撰写预算。

　　But amending the sequester may require 60 votes in the Senate, and hence bipartisan co-operation. (This happened in 2013 and 2015. ) 但修订自动预算削减方案可能需要参议院60票绝对多数，进而可能需要两党合作。（这类事件在2013年和2015年发生过。）

　　Democrats will never support cuts on the scale Mr Trump seems to want. 民主党永远不会支持特朗普先生想要的那种规模的开支缩减。

　　Plenty of Republicans, too, worry about cuts to the State Department. 许多共和党人也担心政府部门的开支削减。

　　Mick Mulvaney, Mr Trump's budget chief, says that he is under no illusions about the budget's prospects in Congress, recalling that Republicans paid little attention to Mr Obama's proposals. 特朗普先生的预算办公室主任Mick Mulvaney回想起共和党人不在意奥巴马先生的建议，于是他说对国会预算的前景没抱有任何幻想。

　　The budget, he says, was not written for Congress, but for the people. 他说预算不是为国会撰写的，而是为人民撰写的。