Of course it’s artificial. It was cooked up by Reid, Schumer and McConnell, and Boehner went along with it, and strong-armed it through the House (remember “get your asses in line”?). None of them can be trusted.
The yearly revenue coerced from us is not enough to pay the yearly bills. The only answer is GROWTH. How do we get the economy to grow and produce more revenue? According to past experience (Reagan, Kennedy, etc.), the best way to get the economy to grow is to cut taxes, resulting in an explosion of new hires and new purchases. See Laffer curve.