Cue the Twilight Zone music… Friday, Mar. 1, 2013 is coming right up and together with it what some would have the American people believe to be that most ominous of events: the Sequester. I disagree.
A total of $85 billion in spending cuts will go into effect, equaling a whopping 0.5 percent of GDP, in other words not Earth shattering numbers by any stretch of imagination.
[See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]
If this is the best entertainment we can come up with, I would rather watch Twilight Zone on repeat.
It would be great if the folks in Washington came up with something more substantial to haggle about than cutting spending by 0.005 percent of the federal debt.
In order for brinksmanship to be real, one has to push the other to the brink of something, while in this case both sides are in a long, wide, ugly alley of overspending.
[See a collection of political cartoons on Congress.]
Mutually assured destruction this is not. On the contrary, what we have is mutually assured distraction. Distraction from the trillion dollar deficits this country runs every year, distraction from the inability to pass a federal budget since 2009, and distraction from the overall ineptitude in D.C.
Both the GOP and Democrats should come together and say "so what" to the sequester, let the cuts occur and then strive for bipartisanship on larger fronts.
- See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.
- See a collection of political cartoons on defense spending.
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