Posted on 02/24/2013 1:51:51 PM PST by Kaslin
Sequestration Is the Worst Option Except for All the Other Options
Both Democrats and Republicans have been roundly criticizing the security and economic effects of sequestration and, at the same time, taking very little action. The only logical conclusion is that both parties agree that sequestration is an awful, terrible, harmful set of policies - except the other proposed replacements are worse.
President Obama said "these cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy." Speaker Boehner, writing in the Wall Street Journal, said "there's nothing wrong with cutting spending that much... but the sequester is an ugly and dangerous way to do it."
Beyond that, however, there's little agreement. Republicans in the House of Representatives have taken legislative action, twice recently passing bills that would avoid and replace sequestration with cuts in other areas that they argue would be less economically damaging. The most recent sequestration replacement bill passed on December 20, but would have to be passed again in order to have the Senate take them up.
In the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the fiscal cliff last year, they projected that cuts to defense spending in the scheduled sequestration are mildly more economically harmful than cuts to nondefense discretionary spending. If the purpose is to allay short-term economic harm, the GOP proposals are small moves in the right direction.
What's important, however, is that if any of the short-term spending is delayed for any significant amount of time, the CBO has said that the cuts must be made up elsewhere, and the cuts must be at least as deep, in order to preserve long-term economic activity.
The White House has been insistent that President Obama has a detailed plan to avert sequestration by moving the cuts around - including searching for "new revenues" (tax increases) in the form of limiting deductions. Bob Woodward, in a Washington Post op-ed today, wrote this is a backtrack on the part of the White House, and that tax hikes were not originally a part of sequestration.
In fact, the final deal reached between Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2011 included an agreement that there would be no tax increases in the sequester in exchange for what the president was insisting on: an agreement that the nation’s debt ceiling would be increased for 18 months, so Obama would not have to go through another such negotiation in 2012, when he was running for reelection.So when the president asks that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts. His call for a balanced approach is reasonable, and he makes a strong case that those in the top income brackets could and should pay more. But that was not the deal he made.
Indeed, if President Obama's proposal is one that Democrats want to rally behind, they should do it. Democrats - who control the Senate - should take up President Obama's sequester replacement bill and pass it. That would put the onus on Republicans to act (again) and pass their own version of a sequestration replacement and force both sides to the table to hammer it out in conference.
If sequestration is truly the economic armageddon it's being painted as, Democrats could also just take up a copy of the legislation that Republicans passed in December. It's likely that, if Democrats rallied behind the Republican plan, there would be bipartisan approval in both chambers of Congress. But that's not the point of the politicking over sequestration.
Democrats think the Republican plan is worse than what's currently on the books with sequestration. They would prefer to protect spending on the food stamp (SNAP) program and health benefit programs than to see spending cuts to the Department of Defense get re-allocated to programs they like. Republicans, similarly, think sequestration is preferable to passing President Obama's plan - or any that Democrats are likely to come up with. (Democrats have indeed come up with some - and Obama's is far from the worst. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Keith Ellison's are both far to the left of President Obama's.)
Cutting federal deficits over the medium term is of fairly large importance to the well-being of the United States. What both parties agree on is that sequestration is bad, but it's better than the other party's ideas.
I thought that had something to do with riding horses...?!
When they deviate from soundness, good sense, and societal benefit, they come up with obscure terminology like this.
CUT GOVERNMENT ENTITLEMENTS AND SPENDING. That's a pretty straightforward way to put it I think.
“sequester is bad”
WTF? Bad for whom?
Everyone is getting an increased budget but instead to 8% they are getting 7.8%, big whoop.
In "Washington-Speak" that is called a "cut."
Both parties agree ... we are going to keep spending until we collapse!!!!!!!
Bet if you actually had creative people who know how to manage, I bet you could cut (I mean a real cut) 50% and they shouldn’t miss a beat.
Didn’t the Liar in Cheif sit right there, during the debates, and tell the American people that there would be no sequestor?
Didn’t the Liar in Cheif sit right there, during the debates, and tell the American people that there would be no sequestor?
Didn’t the Liar in Cheif sit right there, during the debates, and tell the American people that there would be no sequestor?
My attitude towards both houses of Congress and members of both political partiies and the “independents” is a POX on all of them.
In private business they would have been fired along time ago for non-performance. They only reason they are still in office is they take our tax monies, skim off the top, and give a little of it back to us in the form of “bringing home the bacon”. Something that has been going on for decades (since LBJ) if not centuries.
A POX on all of them!
The entire Federal Givernment needs to be Sequestered...
Reduced in scope with a meat cleaver.. bone saw.. MAce and Sword..
The Constitution was written for ONE PURPOSE...
TO LIMIT THE FEDERAL GIVERNMENT.. no other reason..
Rights were given by God NOT the givernment any givernment..
Neither Federal, State or Local givernment..
Thats WHY democrats and Rinos despise the Constitution..
It limits the scope and breadth of the federal givernment..
Somebody that understands how to use the media should have written this. To wit:
Boehner is a BAD MAN... AN enabler...
I did not read the article, I guess I should have remarked that I was addressing the headline.
I also am still laughing that dems think we are spending to much, was that a joke on your part?
I have actually not heard one Republican say it was bad only dems.
Yesterday was National Margarita Day.....I should have celebrated and had a hangover and not read political news today.....my voice is going horse from yelling at the TV.
Has nothing to do with what you said...just a rant.
If you provided cash incentives to every federal employee for cutting waste, theft and inefficiency you would get results and you might begin to change the mindset.
The government also sits on billions of dollars worth of real estate it could sell. I'd also like to see them privatize the TVA and national parks.
didn’t you hear, if we don’t allow spending to increase as planned, the sky will literally fall from heaven and every man woman and child in America will be killed by it. This is serious stuff.
Yes he said that. But Obama is a cunning,devious politician. All demoncrats dream of cutting our defense budget to the bone. That’s why Obama made the military cuts disproportionately high.....he wins no matter what.....these asshats just want to continue to tax and spend,tax and spin.
I talked to a couple of government employees today who said they are eagerly looking forward to getting a few unpaid days off. They said to me ( a private sector guy), “you have no idea how much waste there is, it’s horrible.”
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