By now everyone remembers that the sequestration was President Obama's idea, despite his persistent efforts to fudge the facts.
The White House instead has, with great success, fudged the facts. The administration has convinced a majority of the country that Republicans are more to blame by emphasizing that Republicans voted for the plan. Which they did -- after Obama conceived it.The truth is that Obama and Republicans supported it because everyone believed it was a such a stupid idea that the grown-ups in Washington would never actually let it happen. They thought Obama and Congress would come up with a grand bargain on spending, entitlement cuts and tax increases, instead of allowing the sequestration ax to fall. They were wrong.
Our politicians are pretty absurd, but democracy means that we get what we deserve. The fact of the matter is that the public wants the budget to be cut, but no one wants to accept the loss of programs that a budget cut would mean. Politicians harp on "waste, fraud, and abuse", but that's hard to find and target. Everyone complains of bureaucratic bloat, but that's just another word for "jobs". Every anti-sequester sob story I've seen focuses on the poor bureaucrats who will suffer.
So, until the American people figure out what we want we shouldn't expect our politicians to do it. Politicians don't lead, they generally follow, and right now the boss, the public, is basically insane.
