So what happened to the sequester?

[AgingAmerican]

Remember? The sequester was "too horrible!" to allow to happen? It was "Unthinkable!". Why did it fall off the radar so quickly? Was it all just posturing? Why no action on it? Why no more mention of it from the White house?

"Disaster capitalism is when special interests deliberately invite crisis and then seek to profit from it at the expense of many innocents. It is, in essence, political blackmail: In order to save ourselves from the effects of their decisions, we are told we must agree to screw ourselves, in ways dictated by the self-same perpetrators of our misery. This is authoritarianism writ large and has nothing at all to do with the tenets of a democracy or a republic."

Disaster capitalism. It handed the GOP the cuts they wanted. They manufactured another crisis and the Democrats went along with it. The sequester, it turns out, is a GOP wet dream.

Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) "I think that you have to have some kind of a spending cap in place. You know, you can knock sequestration or not knock it, but it’s worked in the sense that hit has forced reduction in spending. And I’ve been here 11 years and this is the first time I’ve seen it in this manner, in the sense that it is something that’s actually working."

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) told The Wichita Eagle: “In my judgment, the pain [from the sequester] has not been too great.”

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) at the Heritage Foundation: “I think it’s the first time we’ve saved money in Washington D.C., I think we need to move on from this subject and talk about how we can get to a balanced budget in the next ten years and stop trying to find ways to bring the sequester up in every conversation.”

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) on the House floor: “Even though sequestration is painful, it is working.”

link

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that keeping the spending cuts from sequestration in place through fiscal 2014 would cost up to 1.6 million jobs.

Canceling the cuts, on the other hand, would yield between 300,000 to 1.6 million new jobs, with the most likely outcome being the addition of 900,000, the CBO said.

Link

CBO report on sequestration

We are screwed. Welcome to the new normal.

[msongs]

1. dems went along with it willingly as well. there is blame for both groups here nt

[bluestate10]

5. "Went along willingly". Wrong. Democrats voted for the Sequester as the lesser of two

evils, the thinking was that the greater evil (default on the nation's debt) would be avoided and the economy would be getting better with tax revenues rising, making the sequester a bad choice for the times. What Democrats and the President under-estimated and how fucking crazy the republican party has become. With republicans holding a majority is the House, it would be impossible for democrats and the President to stop the sequester. The President and his team can only blunt the effects of the sequester with implementation policy. The only way to stop the sequester is to vote republicans out of office.

[LWolf]

10. A "lesser of two evils" vote is a willing vote. nt

[Duckhunter935]

2. I am taking my 20% pay cut

Doing my part under it

[AgingAmerican]

4. A good friend of mine took a $2 per hour cut last week

He said the place he works at did it so, "they could make more profit."

At my work everyone took a 3% pay cut the first quarter of this year.

We are sliding into the third world economic model

[bluestate10]

3. It has been clear for a long time that republicans don't care about jobs for Americans.

Why do you think they will view the sequester as a negative. What I am concerned about is with the economy getting better and tax revenues rising along with the deficit becoming a surplus from the last quarter and likely beyond, republicans will attempt to take credit for the progress, President Obama and Congressional Democrats can't allow republicans to take credit for any economic progress because republicans have done nothing but obstruct.

[AgingAmerican]

12. In a poor country

Rich people rule all.

[NightWatcher]

6. Wait till they start threatening a govt shutdown

Players from both sides will then tell us how it's so terrible that it will never happen.

I think they'd let it crash for maybe a week, maybe more.

[AgingAmerican]

7. If Obama doesn't take a stand

When they threaten a shutdown, it will be obvious that he will never stand up to them.

[Duckhunter935]

8. that would not surprise me this year

[n2doc]

13. It's coming

They have already vowed to shut down the Government to stop Obamacare. And they still are tying a debt ceiling increase to massive cuts in non-military spending.

[AgingAmerican]

14. Obama should ignore them

that way they own it. It's what Clinton did and it blew up in the Republicans faces.

[Agnosticsherbet]

9. My household is bringing in 20% less.

Sorry, it isn't working.
We had a slight cushion to begin with that we could save for those rainy days that keep coming.
Not anymore.

[HiPointDem]

11. kr