The Sequester Was the Republi-CON Ransom Payment

UPDATE:  After the 2012 election, "many Republicans interpreted the loss as a message that the GOP’s monomaniacal focus on government spending wasn’t helping the party. But while that might be a convincing political diagnosis, the reality is that the members of the House Republican Conference remain monomaniacally focused on spending cuts, and they’re forcing the GOP even further to the right on the issue."

Read the Washington Post, The GOP’s moving even further right on spending.

And you thought those Republi-cons were crazy before.

The sequester "was created by the Budget Control Act of 2011, the ransom Republican leaders received for agreeing to let the U.S. government pay its bills.

Traditionally, the debt ceiling had been a symbolic cap, an opportunity for members of Congress in the minority party (including a certain Illinois Senator Barack Obama back in 2006) to grandstand about the fiscal irresponsibility of the majority party before the limit was increased. (In Obama’s semi-defense, the irresponsibility of tax-cutting, big-spending Republicans in the Bush era was truly breathtaking.) After their big congressional wins in the 2010 midterms, though, GOP leaders declared that the debt was out of control, so they would not raise the debt limit without an equivalent amount of spending cuts. They threatened to force the U.S. government into default—essentially, to crash the global economy—unless Obama accepted a massive rollback of the welfare state. . .

Incredibly, Republicans (who overwhelmingly voted for the sequester) are now calling it the 'Obamaquester,' like kidnappers claiming the ransom was their victim’s idea because he came up with the method of payment. If they really hate the sequester as much as they claim, they could always just cancel it—but of course, they don’t want to do that."

Read Time, The Sequester Is a Republican-Inflicted Wound.