With the sequester approaching lawmakers and Obama will meet

A meeting between President Obama and the bipartisan congressional leaders is set for Friday; the day when automatic federal spending cuts are set to go into effect.

Does that make any sense? Well, according to NBC News the Republicans don’t think so. Republican aides are at a loss.

"If the President is serious about stopping the sequester, why did he schedule a meeting on Tuesday for Friday when the sequester hits at midnight on Thursday?" One Republican aide said. "Either someone needs to buy the White House a calendar, or this is just a - belated - farce. They ought to at least pretend to try."

The Senate will vote Thursday to turn off the sequester. Republicans will likely filibuster that and believe it will have a little chance of going through both chambers.

As reported last week, if passed, the sequester could cost 700,000-1 million Americans their jobs over the next two years.

There appears to be no last minute negations going on, reports The New York Times. President Obama seems confident that the two sides can come up with something before the March 1 deadline on how to cut the nation’s deficit.