Sequester This. . .

LMAO! :D... The Democrats are not happy. When Obama proposed sequestration, the idea was that the Republicans would freak out and give him tax hikes. Not only did it not turn out that way, but it looks like Obama will be responsible for the first genuine cuts in American budget history. In fact, sequestration has turned into a rather interesting tale, which could become a watershed moment in American History.

Sequestration began when the Republicans and the Democrats were locked in a phony death struggle over the budget. They needed to find a way to reduce the deficit by about a trillion dollars, but neither side really wanted to propose anything. So they put off the deal with an agreement to agree in the future. BUT... that would not be enough to satisfy angry voters, so Obama came up with the brilliant idea of sequestration: “Uh, why not, uh, agree to reach an agreement in the future (after the election wink, wink), and to calm everyone we’ll slap a doomsday provision on this sucker. Basically, uh, if we can’t reach an agreement, then $500 billion in cuts will befall the favorite programs of each side.”

They shook on it and passed it into law.

Then the election happened and nothing really got resolved. So now it was up to both sides to reach an agreement to stop this doomsday device from going off.

But a funny thing happened on the way to doomsday. The Republicans discovered that this wasn’t really a doomsday device after all, at least not with their voters (I actually credit Rand Paul and some of the Tea Party people for breaking the Rasputin mindlock military spending has had on the Republican Party). So they started to realize that perhaps they were better off letting this thing happen.

For Obama, this was intolerable, because for the Democrats this was a true doomsday device. Not only would this actually cut programs they loved for real for once (the horror, the horror), but it gave the Republicans no reason to agree to the tax hikes the Democrats wanted. So Obama rushed out to try to pressure the Republicans to agree before anyone realized this doomsday device was really a Republican unicorn bomb. Oldbama hit the campaign trail and smeared the Republicans fiercely. Apparently, when these cuts kicked in, the world would literally end. The money in our wallets would melt away to ash, Yellowstone would be repo’d by China, old people would die of plague, and children would be eaten by the dinosaurs who escaped the Federal dinosariums. . . crunch crunch. Oh my!

But the Republicans held fast.

Then the cuts hit and the... world... didn’t... end... See, unlike prior shutdowns, this one didn’t result in chaotic things that could appear on the television. Doors weren’t looked, tourists weren’t stranded, and benefits didn’t stop coming. Few people will actually lose their jobs. Indeed, all that’s going to happen is that agencies will need to find ways to shave about 3% off their budgets for the year. In a federal government that wastes at least a third of all spending, this can be done quite painlessly. And since the public doesn’t really care about the fates of overpaid federal workers, it’s going to be very hard to upset the public with stories of one-day-per-week furloughs.

So the public yawned.

Actually, I would suggest the public not only yawned, but they smiled. The problem with cuts has always been that no one would accept having their own programs cut because they don’t want to be the only one whose programs get cut. So no one agrees to cuts. But people would accept across the board cuts that actually affect everyone equally. This sequestration feels like an across the board cut. Moreover, most people will find that nothing they want has actually been cut. So as far as the public is concerned, these appear to be ideal cuts because they happen to everyone else.

So now the Democrats are freaking out and you’re starting to see the first wave of articles about how horribly they’ve played this. In December, they were bragging how this would force the Republicans to agree to tax hikes and now they’re trying to explain how they could let the programs their supporters love get cut and why the Republicans no longer have any incentive to ever agree to tax hikes to cut the deficits. Ha ha. Basically, what the Democrats saw as the unthinkable nuclear option turned out to be everything the Republicans wanted in the budget deal and then some, and now they are struggling to explain how they missed this. Savor the sorrow of Rep. Gerry Connolly (Duh-Va), “We lost the bet on just how intransigent the Republican majority can be. We made a mistake betting on reasonable compromise ultimately prevailing. We bet on that and we lost.” Yep, sucker.

Now, I can’t really pin this on tactical brilliance on our part. To the contrary, I suspect our side was busy trying to find a way to hand a victory to Obama the whole time and just couldn’t find a way to do it. I also suspect some members of the party. . . looking at you McCain. . . are probably still struggling to find a way to hand Obama a victory in the days to come. But it’s still nice that we stumbled upon this and I do give Boehner credit here.

In any event, I would do the following at this point if I were running the Republican Party:

(1) Embrace these cuts as intentional, “genuine, across the board 3% cuts,” and point out how this is still less than normal people have taken in the way of pay cuts during the Obama years. Either way the media fights that we win. If they call these not genuine, they you say “so what’s the problem with sequestration?” and you demand more. If they call them draconian, then you pound away both on these being significant/real and you ask how the Democrats could object to a 3% cut.

(2) Attack Obama for the specific cuts he makes. Remember, we caused the 3% cut, but he picked what would actually be cut: “We didn’t want your stuff being cut, dude. Obama picked you. . . he’s a very bad man, a very bad man.”

(3) IF any particular cut(s) creates a problem that begins to sway the public, fund that cut and that cut alone. And when you send the funding bill, include other things you want and dare Obama to veto it. Also, I would challenge Obama to find an alternate cut.

Finally, here’s the watershed. The longer this goes on and the world doesn’t end, the more I think the public will feel at ease with cuts. That could well give us the ability to propose across-the-board cuts to get cuts in place, and that is a very good thing for us. Watch for signs of an attitude change in the public.

Thoughts?