The Sequester: Who Gets the Blame

     It's disappointing if that becomes the question rather than how to avoid it. However, no one seems to believe right now that there will be a deal right now. One common premise is it may be handled by March 27 along with avoiding a government shutdown.

     Yet, paradoxically enough, some thin kit hurts the Democrats' position if the sequester's pain isn't felt right away as the GOP will feel less pressure to change them.

     Robert Kuttner has some rather depressing thoughts on who will receive the blame. The GOP may take most of the early blame, however, by 2014 going into the election, and then going into the 2016 election people will have started to forget the details of the sequester just that the economy has slowed down. This will hurt the Democrats' chances going forward as there will be no recovery to point towards.

    "The Republicans are willing to take the political heat now, as obstructions, for three reasons.

First, as noted, accountability will be blurred. Both parties will be blamed, and by 2014 the details of the great sequester squabble will be blurry."

    "Second, any short-term pain to Republicans is outweighed by long-term gain: an austere budget slows the recovery and leaves the Democrats with no economic bragging rights going into 2014 and 2016."

      "Would the Republicans be that cynical -- to deliberately retard growth so as to embarrass Obama? Is the Pope Catholic? (Actually that's become a more complex question, but I digress.)"

       "The third benefit to Republicans is that the sequester, and all the sequential sequesters over the next decade, deprive Democrats of the resources that they need to be, well, Democrats. Obama can proclaim big, bold initiatives as he did in the State of the Union Address, but they are all mere gestures -- because there is no money to spend on any of them, thanks to the bipartisan obsession with budget cutting."

        "Even worse, Democrats end up colluding in eviscerating very popular and necessary signature programs like Medicare and Social Security, which literally define the core differences between the two parties."

        "So by 2016, and even by 2014, nobody will much remember who was more at fault in the sequester battle of early 2013. The voters will be looking at their own economic situation, and it won't be pretty."

        http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/obama-sequester_b_2756603.html

       On the face of it the Dems should have all the advantage in the world. Nobody actually likes spending cuts or at least any specific spending cuts. What helps the GOP some is that people do like general spending cuts-that the imagine can be paid for by cutting "waste, fraud, and abuse" and that benefits someone else. 

        http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-catch-22-of-sequester.html

        This along with that the cuts may not be felt right away could be enough to help the GOP as Kuttner suggests. This is why the President has urged Americans to speak out about this and call their Congress people.