The Sequester: From Crying Wolf to Just Crying

     Republicans and much of Bob Woodward's Very Serious Media (VSM) had accused the President of "crying wolf" about the sequester when he talked about workers being furloughed, delayed flights, and government benefits cut and reduced. Now many of them are just crying.

    What was interesting about the budget discussion in the Senate yesterday was how many Republicans offered amendments to divert more funds to their states-a fair amount of Democrats did too, but obviously for Republicans it's particularly ironic.

    They seem to now have given way to a certain NIMBYism on the cuts. They're for the cuts and think they're no big deal-except in their own states.

    "A strange sickness is afflicting congressional Republicans.

Unwilling to team up with Democrats to replace sequestration with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases, and unable to pass a cuts-only sequestration measure on their own, Republicans’ official position is that they’ve made their peace with enduring, across-the-board spending cuts in perpetuity.

But now that those cuts are creating real consequences, individual members are experiencing buyer’s remorse. The only problem is, until they change their underlying position on replacing sequestration, the only thing they can do about it is whine.

Call it sequestration NIMBYism.

“It seems difficult to say with a straight face that completely eliminating a source of revenue for the National Park Service is a smart, targeted cut,” said Sen. John Thune (R-SD), a member of GOP leadership.

Thune says he thinks the National Park Service made a political decision to close revenue-generating campgrounds, including at Wind Cave National Park in his home state, to make the cuts more visible to the public.

“Instead of cuts that reduce wasteful and duplicative spending, the administration’s politically calculated cuts are targeting facilities like the campground that actually serve as a revenue source for the park,” Thue added. “It appears NPS is just another agency following the White House’s lead in trying to find the cuts that can trigger a press release before looking to internal cost-saving measures that are less newsworthy.”

     http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/sequestration-nimbyism-grips-gop.php?ref=fpa

     This is a posture we've seen developing starting with the furor about a cancelled White House tour-as if there aren't worse things that can get cut than this. If this were the worst result of the sequester it really wouldn't be so bad. What this strategy seems to have evolved into is every time there is a cutback due to the sequester the Republicans suggest they are unnecessary and that the President is only doing it for political points.

     I'm glad Senator Thune doest see a cut in National Park Service as a "smart, targeted cut." Neither do I . However, he and his party can put a stop to it very easily. Rather than cursing the rain for wetting you because you've peevishly refused to buy a new umbrella. 

     What his complaint about the sequester amounts to is that it's a sequester which by definition is indiscriminate. 

    "Sequestration is intended to be indiscriminate. It requires federal agencies to reduce spending by a certain percentage on each of their programs and activities."

     "That means all House and Senate members are likely to see some consequences in their districts and states. But when those consequences materialize, Republicans either blame the administration or plead for special treatment."

     “Our military trains at Griffiss [International Airport],” said Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY). Griffiss is one of nearly 200 towers the FAA wants to close. “The airport offers some of the most unique infrastructure in the Northeastern United States. And during Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Sandy, it was Griffiss International Airport that served as a staging area for relief efforts. It is short-sighted and unnecessary to close this control tower. And I implore the FAA to remove it from the closure list.”

     "The Obama administration has taken note of these complaints. And while Republicans and the media in Washington limit their focus to the fact that the White House canceled public tours, the administration hopes the problems sequestration is causing back home will create pressure on the GOP to support a balanced tax increase and spending cut measure to replace it."

    “[T]hey’re right,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at his daily press briefing Thursday. “[T]here are real impacts out there. And it’s an unfortunate result of the arbitrary, across-the-board nature of the sequester cuts. That was the — I use this term facetiously — the genius in the design of the sequester — it was written in a way to make it terrible. That was the purpose. Republicans and Democrats alike wrote it that way so that it would be so onerous that it would compel Congress to take alternative action to reduce our deficit in a more responsible way. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. And unfortunately, Republicans in Congress made the choice not to postpone the implementation of the sequester.”

     How long will the GOP force this self-imposed pain on their various states and the country? Hopefully people are calling these Congress critters. Really, the GOP position is indefensible. They continue to try to find a hostage they can shoot without doing too much damage. In the 90s they tried the federal government. In 1995, they ridiculed President Clinton's warnings about the pain and damage their irresponsible shutdown would cause. 

     The GOP listened to Rush and friends who assured them it would be no big deal. They learnt differently after a public backlash. Then in 2011 it was the debt ceiling that they took hostage. Now they thought maybe the sequester would be a painless hostage situation. When there is enough pain then maybe they'll do something. What does it say though that this party can continue to put subject the country to these games?