From KCRW in Santa Monica and PRI, Public Radio International, this is To the Point.

Friday's upcoming sequester, economic disaster or political theater.

Hello again, I'm Mormon Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,

a daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

With the White House spinning out state-by-state damage because of Friday scheduled budget cuts,

Republican governors are increasingly uneasy.

Meantime tea partiers call sequester the best thing since they were elected,

so Republican House leaders are getting hit from both

directions. With no talks visible or behind closed doors, Washington is braced for the blame game.

What's at stake for education, transportation, law enforcement, Pentagon contractors, and

economic recovery? On reporter's notebook later on, ratings were up for last night's Oscars.

Reviews were mixed.

First, here's the news.

Listen to KCRW's 24-hour all-news channel.

Stream BBC World Service, NPR and KCRW programs.

Continuous coverage and accessible via our smartphone app or online at kCRW.com.

Support for To The Point comes from the members of KCRW and from the Public Radio International Program Fund.

Hello again, Mormon-Aldly, back with To the Point.

The $85 billion across-the-board federal spending cuts nobody supposedly wanted are now scheduled for Friday.

Democrats and Republicans are braced to blame each other for whatever the consequences might be.

How great is the threat to a struggling economy and what's the role of political theater?

On reporter's notebook, Seth MacFarlane was supposed to reach both high-brow and low-brow audiences last night during the Academy Awards, did he end up in the middle?

...