Obama’s chance to expose conservatism - by David Sirota

[DonViejo]

After Californians experienced awful budget cuts last year, they demanded higher taxes. Obama should take heed

BY DAVID SIROTA

As the sequestration brinksmanship intensifies, many are likely experiencing déjà vu as they think back to the infamous Gingrich-Clinton budget showdowns of the 1990s. That, of course, seems like the set of events that would best help predict the political fallout from the Obama-Boehner budget crisis. But while Obama, like Bill Clinton, seems positioned to politically benefit from the sequestration fight in the short term, the 1990s are not the best way to glean the more long-term political implications of the fight. California circa 2012 is, and that’s even worse news for Republicans.

Recall that in 2011, California faced at the state level what the federal government faces at the national one. (With “trigger” mechanisms that made them even more sequester-like).

Facing that budget situation and an obstructionist Republican minority, newly elected Gov. Jerry Brown (D) made the same choice that President Obama is now making: Rather than cutting a stopgap deal, he decided to use his power to propose and enact the massive cuts, which were felt all over the state.

A Democratic governor spearheading this kind of agenda might have seemed like a huge political victory for the conservative movement, except for the fact that Brown didn’t see the cuts as an end unto themselves. On the contrary, he viewed them as a means of prompting a larger, more constructive discussion about government in general and taxes in particular. Specifically, he framed the budget cuts as being the effect of the GOP’s — and general public’s — unwillingness to raise taxes, and cited the budget cuts’ effects as a reason that voters should approve tax increases, which is exactly what they voted to do last year in resounding fashion.

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http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/obamas_jerry_brown_moment/