The Monkey Cage's Nolan McCarty (also of Princeton):
The stakes of the political debate [over sequestration] are heightened precisely because the extent of presidential and OMB discretion is not very transparent. For example, the president can say that the sequestration will force him to furlough air traffic controllers and Transportation Security agents, but it will be very hard to determine whether or not those cuts were inevitable. Thus, we should expect a nice round of blame-game politics where Republicans charge that [the] president has politically manipulated the cuts to make the public (especially those in bluish Republican congressional districts) feel all the pain. And the Republicans might be right, but they’ll have a tough time proving it.
We should add that if Republicans do actually attempt to prove it, to prove anything, it'll be a first. And at least that's something.
And in the meantime, why the f**k shouldn't PBO manipulate the situation to cause the maximum amount of pain in the red districts that sent these buffoons to Washington in the first place? Karma's a bitch.
Posted by: shsavage | February 21, 2013 at 02:32 PM
Heck, he'd be a fool not to hit 'em where it will hurt. They asked for it, after all.
Posted by: Janicket | February 21, 2013 at 03:42 PM
This is called Firemen First. It is a law of nature (human nature).
Posted by: Jim Milstein | February 21, 2013 at 07:25 PM