Republicans rewrite history on the sequester [View all]

[Bill USA]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-republicans-rewrite-history-on-the-sequester/2013/02/21/3581d05c-7c61-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html?wprss=rss_leftleaning&tid=pp_widget

My short version of apportioning blame for the current mess is this: The Obama administration is guilty of bad negotiating in pursuit of sensible policy. Congressional Republicans are guilty of exploiting the president’s bad negotiating in pursuit of terrible policy.

Let’s quickly dispense with the sideshow of the sequester’s parentage. It makes no difference, no matter how many times Republicans decry “the president’s sequester.”

First, the Obama administration came up with the mechanism precisely because Republicans deemed unacceptable a sequester that included automatic increases in tax revenue.

The underlying concept, from Democrats’ view, was never to implement the $1.2 trillion through spending cuts alone. Rather, the threat of sequester was to be leverage for a blend of spending cuts and tax increases. Sequester is happening because Republicans in the supercommittee balked at raising adequate revenue.
(more)