The thinking among many Democrats is that Republicans will cave when it comes to the issue of the sequester. They can be forgiven for thinking this, since the GOP gave in on the issue of the fiscal cliff. There is, however, a big difference between the two issues. For one, the fiscal cliff would have triggered tax increases that were philosophically unacceptable to the Republicans, so it was in their interest to go along on that issue. The sequester, on the other hand, only involves spending cuts, something Republicans have been seeking for years. Democrats appear to think that the defense cuts associated with the sequester will be enough to get the GOP to play ball. Secondly, the sequester is largely an invention of President Obama – he devised it as a means of having a supercommittee put together to come up with a better, alternate plan. It didn’t.
Republicans, for their part, are fine with the sequester, understanding that they can’t move the Democrat-controlled Senate to do anything acceptable to deal without of control spending, and that the president, were he to get the tax increases he’s seeking, probably would just keep on spending it. So, on one side of this discussion, liberal partisans insist that Republicans simply "must" be concerned about the sequester. On the other, Republicans seem to be perfectly at ease, and fully prepared, for the sequester to kick in. This all points to a certain delusion on the part of some Democrats.
On the GOP side, House Speaker John Boehner noted of the possibility of raising taxes as part of a deal to avert the sequester, "Americans know that if they give President Obama more tax revenue, he isn’t going to use it to reduce the deficit; he’s going to spend it." And Boehner is right, because that is what the president does. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell noted, "President Obama still prefers campaign events to common sense, bipartisan action. Surely the President won’t cut funds to first responders when just last year Washington handed out an estimated $115 billion in payments to individuals who weren’t even eligible to receive them, or at a time when 11 different government agencies are funding 90 different green energy programs. That would be a terrible and entirely unnecessary choice by a President who claims to want bipartisan reform."
Republicans, for their part, are fine with the sequester, understanding that they can’t move the Democrat-controlled Senate to do anything acceptable to deal without of control spending, and that the president, were he to get the tax increases he’s seeking, probably would just keep on spending it. So, on one side of this discussion, liberal partisans insist that Republicans simply "must" be concerned about the sequester. On the other, Republicans seem to be perfectly at ease, and fully prepared, for the sequester to kick in. This all points to a certain delusion on the part of some Democrats.
On the GOP side, House Speaker John Boehner noted of the possibility of raising taxes as part of a deal to avert the sequester, "Americans know that if they give President Obama more tax revenue, he isn’t going to use it to reduce the deficit; he’s going to spend it." And Boehner is right, because that is what the president does. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell noted, "President Obama still prefers campaign events to common sense, bipartisan action. Surely the President won’t cut funds to first responders when just last year Washington handed out an estimated $115 billion in payments to individuals who weren’t even eligible to receive them, or at a time when 11 different government agencies are funding 90 different green energy programs. That would be a terrible and entirely unnecessary choice by a President who claims to want bipartisan reform."
