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If you were hoping that the sequester being only hours away from taking effect would spur Congress to take action, you are going to be very disappointed. There are currently no serious negotiations taking place. Instead we are still in the kabuki theater phrase. When Congress only pretends to be doing something while trying to shift blame.
The only recent big developments regarding the sequester are two failed show bills in the Senate and what is effectively a photo-op meeting at the White House. In the Senate Democrats and Republicans put forward their alternatives, and as expected both failed. From The Hill:
The Senate on Thursday rejected rival proposals to stop the sequester, ensuring the $85 billion in automatic spending cuts will begin on Friday.
A bill crafted by Senate Democrats won 51 votes, while a Republican alternative won only 38 votes. Three Democrats — Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Kay Hagan (N.C.), who are all up for reelection in 2014 — voted against their party’s bill, which fell 51-49.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also switched his vote to “no,” a procedural move that would allow him to bring the bill to the floor in the future.
No one expected either of the bills to pass or even gain any support from across the aisle. They were put up at the last minute mainly so senators can claim they “tried” to do something if they get blamed for the impact of the sequester.
The meeting taking place at the White House with the congressional leaders was also doomed to fail, but it happened anyway so they can at least claim they got into a room together to “try to work it out.” While people should know complex issues with huge ideological disagreements don’t get fixed by forcing all the top players to sit together in a room for half an hour, for some reason there is a whole class of centrist pundits who pretend it is the magical elixir that can cure anything. Now they can claim they at least tried that.
Photo by tommy the pariah[away] under Creative Commons license
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“… there is a whole class of centrist pundits who pretend it is the magical elixir that can cure anything.”
And of course by “centrist” we mean the gamut from moderate right to far right.
Cutting can’t work so where cuts happen isn’t as big a deal as that they happen at all. Sequester is a short term fix proposed and implemented by the PTB becuase they can’t agree on blame fixing so this way cutting happens automajically and we march merrily on to the second great depression.
There were three letters to the editor in the Houston Chronicle this morning addressing the sequester. All made essentially the same point.
I suspect that is not an accurate representation of what is actually happening but is good messaging from the right. The middle class has not had a meaningful raise in 30 years. It is understandable that people who may get a 1% COLA think the government should be able to function under the same limitations.
Of course it’s still in the kabuki theater phase. No checks have been stopped. The folks on Friday furlough have only had their first non-paid furlough. No one of significance to Republicans has felt the least twitch of pain yet.
The Presidential budget for FY 2014 is not out yet. So we don’t know how much more cuts there will be even if the sequester were repealed. Both Democrats and Republicans are dug in until the public begins to holler in pain.
I give until warmer weather before anything happens other than kabuki. April 15 would be a great time to raise the issue of the Swiss cheese tax code.
Don’t expect resolution of the sequester before June, if ever. Congress still gets its pay no matter what.
I heard a clip of Obama on NPR an hour or two ago saying he had told Republicans, “I’m willing to take on the problem where it is-in entitlements” (then something about his party not being happy about it. )
I wouldn’t pee on him to put out a fire. He is a disgrace and a clear and present danger to the poor and working and middle class people in this country. He and congress ought to be tried for malfeasance.
Then Karen Tumulty went on and on about how the effects of the sequester wouldn’t be noticed for months, oh, except some people would be only working 4 days rather than 5, and oh, and as far as schools it will only effect the poor children…. WTF! What is wrong with these people? They live such privileged and insulated lives that they have absolutely no empathy or compassion for anyone outside their immediate cocktail circuit. They don’t even exist, as humans to these people. It was sickening. Both Obama and Tumulty made me literally sick to my stomach.
An injury to one is an injury to all. This can’t continue.
I apologize but I must protest this connotative drift in the term “kabuki theatre” as it applies to the current state of governance in the US.
“Kabuki theatre” originally referred to political posturing by either or both of the two main parties wherein the final outcome of said posturing was known well ahead of time. As actual Kabuki plays are well known traditional forms of drama where the audience knows the plot ahead of the performance. Examples of this can be found in past “bargaining” by both sides during the run up to the debt ceiling fiasco, and just about every subsequent time Obama has had to negotiate since then.
I think the term Jon Walker is looking for here is just plain “theatre”.
We know that the ultimate purpose of sequestration and the fiscal cliff before it is to create an atmosphere where the public will accept cutting the social safety net through a Grand Bargain. The Grand Bargain seems to be the ending we all know will happen.
In the old days, when we had two actual political parties, and not the dominant party and the collusionary party, with the on going Kabuki manipulations, fifty one votes in the Senate meant the bill actually friggin’ passed!!
Enough of this trivial kabuki stuff.
It’s obvious, Don Cheadle will play Obama in the MOVIE version. BUt who are they gonna get to play Boehner, McConnell, Ryan, Cantor, Reid and Pelosi????
INquiring minds want to know.
MY take: Pelosi = Jessica Walter, BOehner = Tom Hanks, Ryan = Duh, Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster), Cantor = ????????, Reid = It’s a shame Don Knotts isn’t avasilable
Of course Congress did nothing. The Republican House like the sequester better than anything their opposition is prepared to put on the table, so why wouldn’t they take the status quo?
Also of course the Republicans put forward a couple of bills to keep the spending cuts but in a less damaging form than the sequester. It’s not that they thought Democrats would go for it. They just wanted to make the point that Democrats weren’t interested in lessening the damage of the sequester. Democrats in fact want to maximize the damage of the sequester, because they think it gives them leverage to get what they really want, which is tax hikes. But it looks as though they miscalculated. So now they’ll go back to trying trying to blame Republicans for the damage done by the sequester.
There is a phase after the Kabuki Theater phase? What does that phase look like? I have been watching for decades and have yet to see any other phase. Perhaps I’m not part of the right audience. What channel are you watching?
Sequester. Schmaquester. Get out of all the BS wars and we can have a domestic life in America. Get rid of military golf courses.
It is kabuki because we all know that the outcome will be to help the 1% and harm the 99%.
Sorry. No one in Washington wants to do that.