Politics: The Confused Person?s Guide to Sequester Politics

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Politics The Confused Person's Guide to Sequester Politics Who is lying to you about sequestration? Whom should you believe? By David Weigel Posted Wednesday, Feb 20, 2013, at 11:46 PM ET In nine days, $85 billion of automatic spending cuts will snap down on the federal budget. Half of the cuts will hit defense; half will hit Medicare spending. We've been expecting this since the summer of 2011. We were supposed to deal with it in December—remember the words fiscal cliff?—but most of Congress punted the cuts to March 1. It's the latest in the ongoing series of manufactured crises that have made Congress our most beloved institution. What's more fun than a manufactured crisis? Why, a manufactured political spat about that crisis! Seven weeks have passed since the deadline was bumped to March, and in that time the Republican Party has alternated between attacking the White House for pushing sequestration and infighting over whether the cuts should proceed as they are. It's confusing. I can explain. How did this become Obama's fault? It started with Mitt Romney, a once-influential Republican Party politician and its 2012 nominee for president. In the third debate with President Obama, Romney fretted that "a trillion dollars in cuts through sequestration and budget cuts to the military" would weaken America's defenses. The president literally dismissed this with a wave of his hand. "The sequester is not something that I proposed," he said. "It's something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen." Up to that point, Romney had talked vaguely about how "presidential leadership" could undo sequestration. Republican candidates in states with lots of jobs tied to ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate The Art of Cyberwar Suffer the Little Children House of Cards Is Paying Off for Netflix	Advertisement
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