Tax IncreaseHouse Republicans are against any form of tax increases to avert the $85 billion worth of across-the-board spending cuts. The so-called sequester will likely to take effect March 1 and would be effective for months.

The White House urged Congress to pass a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to delay the sequester. Despite the call from the president, the House is going for legislative measures that would keep the cuts to domestic and defense programs in place until the end of 2013.

Republicans in Congress have conceded in the past fiscal battles with the Obama administration. But in this latest fight, lawmakers have no intention of relenting even if President Obama said that the cuts would disrupt government services and military operations in the coming weeks.

The president won the fiscal battle last January that resulted to increases in capital gains, income, and dividend tax rates on wealthy Americans. This has led to the Republican resolve of giving additional tax increases in the near future.

House Republicans said that they are not responsible for the cuts that resulted from the measures they approved last year that replaced reductions in government programs such as food stamps for lower military spending. Strategists advised Republican members of Congress to put the blame on the president for the creation of automatic spending cuts and the failure to prevent them from taking effect.

In order to prevent a full government shutdown by the end of March, the House Appropriations Committee will introduce legislation to keep the government financed until September 30, which is the end of the fiscal year. The committee can’t do anything to curb the pending spending cuts.

The present stopgap measure ends March 27. Republican leaders are trying to avoid an Easter-week shutdown of the government. President Obama criticized the current Republican plan as placing the burden of preventing the cuts on middle class families and seniors.