Let the Finger Pointing Begin

You have to love our Washington politicians. Now, as sequestration is just a week away, and congress remains in recess, we are starting to see the finger pointing that goes with any kind of impasse that develops in DC.

 

This time we are being told by conservatives that this was Obama’s idea, and liberals are tsk-tsking, saying that sequestration originated with congress.

Well a pox on both your houses. First for wasting time trying to lay the blame at the feet of the opposition instead of working out a compromise, and second for the sheer hypocrisy that goes with the blame game.

It’s everyone’s fault.

When President Obama announced in debate with Romney last year that “the sequester is not something that I've proposed,” he was deflecting. He was spoke inaccurately. The truth is, when the Budget Control Act of 2011 was being negotiated the Obama team suggested, as an incentive to deal, that defense budget cuts could automatically go into effect if the “super-committee” couldn’t agree on a budget. This to give Republicans the incentive to deal. A similar measure in social programs was settled on to give Democrats incentive to deal. There was never any intention of cutting any budgets. This was a poison pill.

And the problem with leaving congress blameless in this is that they voted for it. Giving Obama the complete blame is idiocy at its best. It’s like blaming someone else for your jumping over a cliff because that person suggested you do it.

So now, because no deal is on the table despite the fact that the poison pill is about to be swallowed hair pulling and finger pointing rules the day.

And you know what is really ridiculous? Watching all of this whining and moaning as congress edges our economy over an abyss of their own construction.

Why not just repeal sequestration?