WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama presided Monday over the first meeting of his new-look Cabinet in a sobering climate of forced fiscal belt-tightening, urging humane management of spending cuts for communities and families that are "going to be hurting."

Obama said he's continuing to seek out Republican partners to reach a deal to end the so-called "sequester," but there was no sign that a breakthrough was in the works to reverse the $85 billion in budget reductions that went into effect Friday.

"We are going to manage it the best we can to minimize the impact on American families," the president told reporters allowed in for the beginning of the meeting. "It's not the right way to go about deficit reduction."

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