Many domestic programs face big cuts in Jan.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Come January, be prepared for fewer air-traffic controllers, FBI agents, border-patrol officers and park rangers, as well as lower farm and winter heating subsidies. Less meat might get inspected. Furloughs likely will sweep across the government. Even the weather service could be affected.

The looming funding crisis in domestic spending is the result of automatic across-the-board cuts that go into effect Jan. 2 because of Washington’s inability — so far — to reach a budget deal for achieving less red ink in the future.

The idea behind the automatic cuts, called a sequester in Washington parlance, was to force the warring sides to agree on a deal to slash out-of-control deficits that currently require the government to borrow 33 cents of every dollar it spends. The sequester was designed to be harsh if the negotiators couldn’t agree — and they haven’t yet.

Military personnel would be exempt from the cuts, but neither Congress nor the White House would be spared.

Though Republican defense hawks are up in arms over $55 billion in cuts that would slam the Pentagon next year and wreak havoc in the jobs-rich defense industry, there’s been relatively little attention paid to a matching $55 billion cut from domestic programs.

Some of the biggest and most-important programs are exempt from the cuts entirely: Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps, veterans’ health care and federal-employee pensions. Medicare cuts would be limited to 2 percent.

But farm subsidies would be cut, as would federal courts, the National Weather Service and food aid for pregnant women.