The simple sequestration rule

This post originally appeared on Slate.

We are headed into the peak week of sequestration insanity. The across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration are set to take effect on March 1. Here's a simple rule for getting through the next few days: If you're talking about sequestration, you're doing it wrong. Sequestration was created to focus minds on the Big Thing. So if you're talking obsessively about the sequestration, it means you aren't thinking about the thing that you were supposed to be focused on.

First, the Big Thing. The two parties need to come to an agreement on how to spur economic growth to spread prosperity and reduce the budget deficit. The president believes growth comes from a balance of tax increases, investment, and spending reductions. Republicans believe growth comes through lower taxes and spending reductions, which in turn will spur companies to hire and invest. The president believes that taxes should increase as a matter of fairness because the system is tilted in favor of the wealthy and well-connected. Republicans believe that the federal government is already taking an unfair amount of taxes from everyone.

Even if this is obvious, it's very hard to get people to focus on the Big Thing, so lawmakers tried to come up with a mechanism to center people's thinking. They placed a big hairy monster outside the door to keep everyone focused on the Big Thing, and they named this monster Sequestration.

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Massive spending cuts loom for government

Right now, the political world is engaged in a debate about the monster, not the Big Thing. That means that right now the public debate is irrelevant. Even worse, the public debate has become a glittery multiweek jamboree dedicated to displaying the madness that puts us in our current budgetary predicament. It is as if faced with a drinking problem, we decided to engage in all of the behavior that led to the binges, hangovers, and blackouts in the first place.

There are two examples of this dispiriting distraction: the long and tedious debate over who came up with the sequester idea and the new debate over whether tax increases were supposed to be a part of it.

The president and his aides at first tried to deny that they invented sequestration (mostly false!), but it is clear that the president and his team proposed the idea. Instead of trying to weasel out and blame the idea on the Republicans, the president should own it: Yes, it was my idea to create a monster to force all of us to focus on the Big Thing, and the fact that you still won't focus is the proof that it was necessary to create it. But President Obama won't do this because the monster is ready to break through the door, and the president doesn't want to be blamed for the wreckage.

• Who's responsible for the sequester?
• Governors agree: Avoid the sequester

But if it's obvious the president came up with the idea, it's also obvious that it doesn't matter who came up with it. First, the Big Thing matters. Remember: focus. Second, a majority of Republicans voted for sequestration. Once everyone agrees to order the monster from Acme and take off his chains, it doesn't matter who suggested it first. Everyone agreed.

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[Anoccupier]

Our money creation system causes this debt crisis. Our government does not create the dollar and that is the problem. Under our current money creation system, private banks create all dollars from debt. Thus, for every dollar created, there is a dollar of debt. But in previous, more successful money creation systems, the government created the money. If we returned to government created money, instead of relying on private banks, our debt crisis would be solved. Please read this International Monetary Fund working paper to learn more: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2012/wp12202.pdf

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

Corporations, big oil, big pharma and the super rich have done extremely well since Republican President Reagan opened the treasury to them. Yet those who have benefited the most from America want to contribute the least to her. An t the GOP = Greedy Obstinate Predators makes sure the 99 percent continue to live off crumbs while they feast.

Remember republicans will not allow corporations, big oil and the super rich to lose any of their subsidies or tax loop holes. Some are but not limited to...the 4 billion dollars a year congress gives big oil in subsidies. Does anybody think big oil needs or deserves 4 billion dollars a year in taxpayer money when they are the most profitable business in the world?

Republicans refuse to eliminate tax loop holes for corporations while gives them taxpayer money for moving jobs overseas and creating jobs over there. Does this make sense to any rational person?

Those are but a few examples of why the treasury is not being replenished but being drained by republicans and their quid pro quo contributors.

[Donnie_G]

Asking who is responsible for the sequester simply shows just how dysfunctional our federal government has become. There's plenty of blame to go around, and no one side can lay claim to having a moral or ethical advantage over the other. The bottom line is that both sides in this dispute agreed to the terms of the sequester specifically because it would be equally as painful for them both, and that's a good thing. No pain no gain! If it takes swallowing this bitter pill to undo the current state of gridlock in government and bring both sides back to a middle ground of compromise, then so be it. Let the sequester happen.

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

Republicans hate govenment to the point they sabotage it whenever possible. They intentionally run up deficits spending on things not productive for America. They do this to justify saying there are no funds for social programs. They hate social programs. They do not believe the government should help individuals and they do not want government to work for individuals. This is another reason they sabotage it every chance they get.

The US post office is a prime example of republicans sabotaging government. They passed a law requiring the USPS to pre-fund employees retirement 75 years in advance in a 10 year window. No other entity in the entire country is required to do this except the USPS. This is what's causing the USPS to be cash strapped. Absent that the USPS would be fine. The bogus fiscal cliff crisis to the current sequester. There are more examples of republican sabotage, you get the picture.

[frank_farmer]

@gop-r-con-men, Kindly, please read today's op-ed by Thomas Sowell on playing games with people's retirement money gov't style vs private sector style. There are no angels in either camp. But don't blame it on the GOP: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/340948/guns-and-pensions-thomas-sowell

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

On December 20, 2006, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA, P.L. 109-435) was
enacted into law and was the first broad revision of the 1970 statute that replaced the U.S. Post Office
with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), a self-supporting, independent agency of the Executive Branch.1
Among other things, PAEA required the USPS to pre-fund their future retiree health benefits (provided
through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program) by establishing the Postal Service Retiree
Health Benefits Fund (PSRHBF). The law established set payments to the fund from 2007 to 2016 of
between $5.4 billion to $5.7 billion annually.

[frank_farmer]

The *states* should run the Senate - not the populists. Repeal the 17th Amendment. This is why things are broken. What is the answer to columnist Dickerson's question, 'What is the real point ?' The party that WOULD be responsible instead of irresponsible, the states, is not even at the table in the legislative process anymore. Not since 1915. Wake-up America.

[dustin96v]

America has severe problems with international and domestic terror activists. But, a true threat are white Hippies dealing their narcotic dope. Our national economy suffers due to massive spending on law enforcement and defense projects. Congress should make the smart move with the federal funds to Local Police Authority.

[jschm2681]

The cuts are targeted to make the most impact on necessary services so the Democrat want to convince voters to raise taxes and not cut. Democrats don't cut. But no one is thinking outside the box. Target the cuts to less important agencies. Dept of Ed, Environment, Commerce and DHS. Also we have 1 trillion in overseas profits companies do not want to bring into tax at 35%, the highest in the world. So bring in those profits at 10% giving 100billion to revenue more than we need this year to prevent the cuts. Tell the companies funds must be used for investment in the US and not stock buybacks. This is 1.2% cut this year or 2.3% on a year basis. Not a lot. But Democrats only spend, borrow and tax.

[kcreligion]

I don't see the cuts being that bad. A lot of workers are going to be taking off a day every couple of weeks. The fact they still have jobs and are far above poverty level should be considered a good thing. For the last 4 years many workers have been without any job. The workers didn't get a chance at reduced wages in all cases. The businesses simply went under. There is going to be much more then enough pain to spread around."make it hurt so good"

[kevcl6750]

Bring on the sequester ! When the sun comes up the day after and life goes on it will prove once again what a BS artist Obama really is ! Remember he was the one who pledged" to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term and raising the debt ceiling during the Bush years was unpatriotic ! This guy is so full of excrement I am surprised he hasn't already choked on it !

[GhettoSkulls]

What a whine-fest. At least Dickerson confirms Obama is a weak-kneed liar.
Look, if you're going to procastinate, revel in your procrastination. Everyone was for this the first time around, including the media; the sequestration bill helped to get Obama re-elected, which was fine then, so it should be fine now, no? There was no talk of the "Big Thing" back then.