WASHINGTON -- The federal government will start cutting spending as early as Saturday, with President Barack Obama and congressional leaders unable to bridge their fundamental disagreement over spending and taxes.

About the only thing the leaders who met at the White House for less than an hour agreed on: It’s the other party’s fault.

The administration has warned for weeks that the spending cuts – known in Washington as sequestration – will cause delays in air traffic, prompt teacher layoffs and hamper food inspections. But the White House has been accused of overstating the effects, and Obama said Friday that the $85 billion slice in federal spending, though painful for a still-recovering economy, will be survivable.

“This is not going to be an apocalypse, I think, as some people have said,” Obama said. “It’s just dumb. And it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt individual people and it’s going to hurt the economy overall.”

Obama’s remarks came minutes after he and congressional leaders wrapped up a 50-minute, last-ditch attempt at avoiding the series of spending cuts, designed by the administration and Congress in 2011 to be so objectionable to both parties that they would be forced to reach an alternative deal to trim projected deficits by $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

But resolution has proved elusive, and Obama put the blame squarely on Republicans, who opposed replacing some spending cuts with tax increases. He wants a mix of tax revenues and spending cuts; Republicans say they already agreed to a tax increase in January to avoid an earlier fiscal crisis.

“None of this is necessary, it’s happening because of a choice that Republicans in Congress have made,” Obama said. “They’ve allowed these cuts to happen because they refuse to budge on closing a single wasteful loophole to help reduce the deficit.”

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio underscored the Republican position, saying Obama “got his tax hikes” on Jan. 1. Republicans agreed to raises taxes on annual household income over $450,000 as part of a deal to avoid a collision of spending cuts and tax increases dubbed the fiscal cliff. That deal also raised the Social Security payroll tax on all Americans, regardless of income.

“This discussion about revenue in my view is over,” Boehner told reporters outside the White House. “It’s about taking on the spending problem here in Washington.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., vowed that he’d “not be part of any backroom deal” on the sequester and that he would “absolutely not agree to increase taxes.”

Obama and congressional Republicans did signal that they’d strive to keep the fight over sequestration separate from the next crisis: reaching an agreement to avoid a government shutdown later this month. Government funding expires March 27 and will require new budget legislation to keep many government operations running.

“There’s no reason why we should have another crisis by shutting the government down in addition to these arbitrary spending cuts,” Obama said. “If the bill that arrives on my desk is reflective of the commitments that we’ve previously made, then obviously I would sign it.”

And Boehner said the House of Representatives will take up legislation next week to continue funding the government beyond the end of the month.