Top Ten Stupid Things About the Sequester

After the first several of these are in no particular order.

1. That sequestration is happening at all.

Once again, I’m reminded of the “chicken” scene in Rebel Without a Cause.

2. The House Republican position

The idea that we can (or should) achieve a balanced budget without any additional revenue, even by closing loopholes that should be closed, without cutting Medicare, and without cutting defense is unquestionably one of the stupidest thing about the sequester.

3. The White House position

The notion that the White House has no discretion in how it implements sequestration is remarkably bone-headed.

4. The Senate Democrats’ position

The Senate Democrats’ refusal to accept any reductions in Social Security or Medicare is just plain nuts. Additionally, budgets aren’t death pacts. They’re planning documents. The Senate’s refusal to produce a budget is beneath disdain.

5. Threatening to cancel the White House Easter egg roll

Does anybody but the White House really believe that will convince people of the desperate necessity of getting rid of the sequester?

6. Arne Duncan’s pink slip remark.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s dire warning about teachers being laid off as a consequence of sequestration is without question one of the dumbest things. If anything, it bolstered the case that the White House was exaggerating the effects of the sequester which is probably the opposite of what he intended.

7. The president denying that he proposed the sequester

This has been so widely debunked I’m amazed that people are still arguing over it.

8. The Congressional Republicans denying that they had anything to do with the sequester.

Ditto.

9. Maxine Waters’s warning

You can hardly lampoon Maxine Waters’s warning that 170 million jobs could be lost as a result of sequestration.

10. The idea that we can’t trim 2.4% from a $3.6 trillion budget without dire consequences.

Feel free to contribute to the list.