Recommended Readings for Thoughtful People: Sequestration

By Dale Bowling



Good morning all! It's time for another installment of our recurring series: Recommended Readings for Thoughtful People. This time we delve into the arcane world of Sequestration. I have written about this a number of times recently since as Biden would put it, it's a "big f-ing deal".

This artificial fiscal crisis could throw America back into Recession and totally upend the Democratic agenda and momentum, which is why House Republicans are still mostly willing to let it happen even though it will cause totally needless suffering for millions of Americans.

But one thing that I have noticed when talking to people about this, is that they don't know anything about it and therefore aren't very concerned about it. We're a week away from this taking place so it's time to learn about it and write letters to your representatives in Congress.


http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/02/20/1614631/sequester-101-where-it-came-from-and-what-it-will-mean/

This is a good place to start on this mess.


http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/02/19/1612591/sequester-kills-jobs/

Again from Think Progress. Some of the human cost.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/opinion/krugman-sequester-of-fools.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

The Nobel Prize winning economist and NY Times Columnist, Paul Krugman is the man to read on sequestration and pretty much everything else that has to do with economics. His column appears every Monday and Friday. I never miss it and neither should you. The best part of this column is when he says leaving aside who's to blame, who has a better plan for solving the problem?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/white-house-pushing-tax-hikes-spending-cuts-to-avoid-sequester/2013/02/22/aa4f9ab0-7ca5-11e2-82e8-61a46c2cde3d_story.html?hpid=z1.

This is a good summary of President Obama's plan to replace Sequestration with a "balanced approach" of revenue and cuts. Barring a total repeal of Sequestration, this is the next best thing and probably the only realistic one, politically speaking.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/us/politics/white-house-memo-for-obama-an-air-of-confidence-not-crisis-in-the-latest-fiscal-battle.html

Given that Obama is by far more popular than House Republicans (which is not difficult), the White House feels they have the upper hand. The Administration still assumes they are dealing with rational beings who will see they can't win this rather than nihilist lemmings bent on destroying America. I wonder how that will work out?


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/21/obama-boehner-mcconnell_n_2734854.html

An olive branch and some snippy tweets. Shows where we are in terms of the political divide.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/21/do-republicans-really-like-lower-spending-or-not/

There's a lot of things that are just plain wrong in this piece, especially about Obama and spending (what did you expect from Faux News?) but one thing it gets right is that Congressional Republicans can't decide whether they want Sequestration or not and that just makes them look stupid and weak. So as far as Faux News goes - even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/02/22/no_winners_in_this_game_117119.html

Eugene Robinson makes the excellent point that everyone loses as a result of sequestration: Republicans, Democrats and most importantly America. He asks Republicans to stop the madness. Good luck with that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/02/19/the-sequester-is-inevitable-so-why-is-president-obama-still-trying-to-avert-it/

Obama, the Machiavellian politician?


As I have said before, these articles and the comments therein do not necessarily represent the views of the Democratic Party of DuPage County, or me or you or whomever.

If you have any other articles that you'd like to share on this topic or comments there is a comment section below. Don't be afraid to use it. Thanks!