Actually, the rate of growth is being cut, not spending. We will still spend more this year than last year. and to add insult to injury, they are going to prorate the sequester, essentially halving it. I still haven't figured out why, if they're allowed to prorate it, which seems fishy, then why didn't they schedule it at the end of the fiscal year instead of in the middle? Then they could demagogue all they wanted to and actually cut virtually nothing.

Last I checked Republicans hold the house, so Obama should not have been able to sign this into law. The new RNC ad shows Obama vowing to veto the house bills, but where is the video of Boehner excoriating Obama? We've known of this for more than a year and now, at the last minute, were going to play cover our butts. (hey, we passed 2 bills!). Provided that the sequester is as bad as everyone says, (personally I don't think it goes nearly far enough), Boehner's failed leadership is every much to blame ss Obama. He even bragged in his op/ed about helping to form the idiotic super committee that started all of this. And he wants sympathy for passing the cliff bill against his house wishes, resulting in tax increases with no cuts!

Not to get too sidetracked, because I agree Beckel is an idiot, but these statistics seem a bit unrealistic. I went to a university with a student pop. of 26,000. That would mean, as a low estimate, approx. 2,080 rapes occurred, of which 395 would have been reported. If that many rapes are known to be occurring then 1) why would anyone send their daughter to college, and 2) why hasn't there been a class action lawsuit against any campus for failure to protect its students from an obvious epidemic.

The media and the dems are blaming the Republicans, and the Republicans are blaming Obama. Im blaming everyone. This is SOP for Obama, fail to lead, demagogue, and blame someone else when it all comes crashing down. And, as usual, Boehner is playing from a defensive position instead of going on the offensive. We've only known this was coming for over a year, and all we did was pass two bills which we knew would die in the senate. That's about as effective as Obama's response to the looming housing crisis... He wrote a letter. We never should have been in this position in the first place, yet here we are, thanks to Boehner. Please, citizens of Ohio, primary the man.

I meant spending cuts, not spending.

...if the sequester is avoided we have caved once again, and nothing will be done about the economy, and if the sequester goes through we will be blamed for every alleged bad consequence and we will never get any other spending passed because we will have already made "draconian cuts." And has been shown numerous times on TH in graph form, the cuts are ridiculously inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. So instead of picking sides we need to be pressuring our representatives to be bold and cut spending or get primaries.

Actually, Baucus is the most correct, everyone is to blame. The sequester, inspired by Lindsey Graham years ago, is a result of the failure of the "supercommittee" which Newt accurately labeled as stupid during the presidential debates. And Boehner was bragging in his op/ed about helping to form the supercommittee. Boehner also blames Obama for the fact that there were tax increases with no spending cuts when he was the one who put it up for a vote in violation of his majority of the majority rule. Thanks to Boehner's great leadership we are in a lose/lose situation...

And of course this was all for show and meaningless because McCain and Graham don't believe in filibuster and have already conceded their point. McCain was the guy screaming off the rooftops that we can't give the Taliban a firm exit date or they will wait us out. How are we supposed to get answers if Obama can simply wait one week and get his way with no consequence? McCain and Graham are gutless cowards. Don't open your mouth unless you're willing to back it up.

Krauthammer exposed the fraud of Rubio's gang of 8 proposal the day it was announced, it was called instant temporary legal status that in reality is permanent. I have tremendous respect for Rubio, and tend to agree with him on most other issues, but he is wrong on immigration. We do not need "comprehensive" reform. We need a singular bill regarding border security. Then and only then should we tackle the rest of the issue.

Agreed, the dems didn't get the ball rolling. However, instead of improving things they doubled down, with no end in sight. Growing up I was always taught two wrongs font make a right.

The fact: Spending is so out of control it is impossible to balance with revenues. Especially when all of the increased revenue from the fiscal cliff bill has already been spent by the pork included in said bill and an unpaid for Sandy bill ladened with pork. What we need is growth, entitlement reform and spending cuts. The dems policies are killing growth, they live in an entitlement fantasyland, and consider a reduced increase in the baseline as a cut. We don't need balance, we need a reality check.