Pope Hitler II announcing his retirement, effective at the end of this month;
The "Looming Threat" of Sequestration
As I've made abundantly clear in past blog posts, I have nothing but antipathy and malice to express when it comes to the Catholic Cult, so we won't even touch that subject.
Rather, my focus is really on the overhyped fear of upcoming (and entirely avoidable) sequestration slated to take effect on March 1st, 2013.
<hr>
All day long, when not hearing about the goddamned Pope, NPR was on a loop about "Sequestration," and constantly posing (but never answering) the question, "Who is really responsible for this coming to pass?"
Every reputable reporter, along with several disreputable political pundits and talking heads, spent the better part of the day stumbling all over themselves attempting to answer this question, and along the way, they consistently do one thing: attempt to find a way to spread the blame around equally.
But this, it must be said, is simply an act of false equivalencies.
The Washington Post puts it best:
"It’s a little like asking what came first — the chicken or the egg?"
Aside from a questionable misuse of "what," instead of "which," it really is a great way to describe it...if you take the behavior of Congressional Republicans completely out of the equation.
Bob Woodward of the Washington Post explains that Jack Lew suggested to Harry Reid the concept of Sequestration as a purposely draconian measure that would basically scare Republicans out of purposely defaulting on our nation's existing debts during their first idiotic debt ceiling debacle.
If you'll remember, Sequestration was proposed as a last resort in the event that the so-called "Super Committee," comprised of both Republicans and Democrats, was unable to come to any sort of bi-partisan agreement to reduce our nation's debt.
Several Congressional Republicans not only agreed to, but enthusiastically supported the sequestration, assuming, of course, that they would walk into the Super Committee and participate in their usual brand of compromise (AKA - "We give you a list of our demands, you agree to them, and if you don't agree to them, we'll behave like children and not do a goddamned thing"), and walk away with a solid victory, where no taxes were raised, tax cuts for the rich were extended and expanded, and every social spending program would see their budgets drastically cut, if not eliminated.
And so, we wound up with the Super Committee.
Republicans came to the table, made their demands, and when Democratic leaders said, "Okay...that's a nice idea; here's our counteroffer," Republicans balked, threw their hands up in the air, and said that the Democrats weren't serious about negotiating. After that, there was basically no chance, whatsoever, of the Super Committee coming to any sort of agreement, not, mind you, because Democrats weren't willing to compromise, but because they chose not to "negotiate with terrorists."
Fast forward, and the deadline for the bi-partisan debt reduction plan passed, and (as expected) the Super Committee proved to be an entirely worthless venture where America got to see exactly what is wrong with Washington politics - a group of terrorists have taken over one wing of the political spectrum, and you just can't fight crazy.
<hr>
When you get down to brass tacks and actually lay out the vast majority of Democratic budget, spending, and debt reduction plans, even many of my Republican friends find themselves in the uncomfortable position of saying, "You know...I actually agree with a lot of these proposals."
In fact, when most people look at these plans, they are all generally pretty reasonable. There are, of course, the various pet causes of each party - Democrats want to cut Defense spending down to a reasonable level; Republicans want to cut spending for virtually every other program, save for Defense.
There are a lot of cuts that Republicans in Congress propose that aren't bad ideas. And because I am a reasonable and generally mature person, I am able to take those ideas and attempt to work with them to come up with something that will satisfy both parties.
This type of maturity is not, however, present in Congressional Republicans. It really does come down to the fact that, if Republicans don't get what they want, when they want it, and the way they like it, they will go out of their way to shut everything down.
They are domestic terrorists; and you just can't negotiate with terrorists.
