I just laid down a stinging rebuke over at Delaware Politics of the Right’s assertion that Obama caused the Sequester. The aim of their article was to blame President Obama for coming up with the sequester about to floor us on March 1st.. Nothing could be further from the truth… For in negotiations, it is not who comes up with an idea that matters, but who provides that idea with enough support, that it becomes so.

It appears that the sequester idea when it first appeared was nothing more than a leaf falling off a tree.

The sequester began in the budget crises of 2011. Here are the facts.

  • For the first time in history, the Tea Party forces Republicans to put limitations upon the raising of the debt ceiling.
  • On May 16 the US goes into technical default, but weaseling can extend the money until August 1.
  • April 2011: Obama says debt limit must not be tied to any other deals.
  • May 11th; Obama’s chief economic advisor writes that hobbling the debt limit would be “insane”.
  • May 31st; 2011; Obama’s request for a clean debt limit is voted down in the House; All 236 Republicans vote no.
  • Up thru August, Republicans were screaming “it’s gotta’ have catastrophic budget cuts” and Obama said “no”.
  • Republicans caused Standard and Poors to collapse our rating. Republicans insisted they didn’t care and would still default.
  • The White House asked:  if we could “guarantee that cuts would occur in the future” would Republicans climb on board?
  • They said” yes”; as long as it was solid law that the sequestration would eventually take effect, they would raise the ceiling
  • Finally, when the Budget Control Act was passed, it was the Republicans who passed it. 218 voted yes for sequestration. It could not have passed without their support.

Bottom line, no matter who brought up the idea or where it came from, if Republicans had acted rational at any point along the way, we would not be on the edge of losing 700,000 jobs this March, 2013.

John Boehnor, and Delaware Politics spent much time saying that Obama is the author of sequestration….

Red State Politics disagrees….

Here is their quote…

“Republicans act as if the sequester is a natural disaster. They make no mention of the fact that they caused it and voted for it knowing that the sequester would take effect.... So why did they vote for it? None of them ever connect the dots and apologize for voting for it. The reality is that John Boehner said that he got 98% of what he wanted from the deal…..”

There you have it. If Red State proudly stands up and takes credit for engineering and forcing the sequester to tighten the vice grips upon the American economy,  I certainly not going to stand in their way.

For Delaware Politics to go against Red State, and point their finger at Obama as originator of the “sequester”, can only show Delaware Politics doesn’t have the balls to be anything close to a real Conservative…   They are Faux Conservatives at their best…  or Ostrich Conservatives the rest of times, when they are not even close to being at their best.

Despite any words otherwise,  Republicans own this sequester; good or bad.