Speaker Boehner has come up with a hashtag according to Jonathan Chait, writing yesterday in Daily Intel.
This morning, John Boehner’s office sent around a Charles Krauthammer column arguing that Republicans should embrace the budget sequester. Also today, in an effort to make my head explode, Boehner’s office has created a new Twitter hashtag, #obamaquester, dedicated to spreading the word that the sequester is all Obama’s fault.
Now, whose fault the sequester is can be debated. Democrats came up with the proposal, in response to Republican threats to melt down the world economy by refusing to lift the debt ceiling. Most Republicans in the House voted for the sequester, while most Democrats voted against it … DailyIntel
In other words, the sequester began as an effort at self-discipline that the Republicans later sabotaged. What else is new. Here’s the actual result of the latest display of the right’s priapistic middle finger.
Message No. 1 is that they won’t compromise at all, not even offering any of the tax reform they’ve been dangling for months, not even in exchange for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, to replace the sequester. Krauthammer: “If they do nothing, the $1.2?trillion in cuts go into effect. This is the one time Republicans can get cuts under an administration that has no intent of cutting anything. Get them while you can.” Sequester ho!
Message No. 2: This horrible sequester is all Obama’s fault! It’s devastating! …DailyIntel
And now they’re saying they embrace the sequester. They love the damn thing!
Are they up to 99.9% on the crazy chart yet? Looks that way. Either they’re going for broke or they haven’t figured out the cost of blundering ahead.
Last year, Republicans sought to shield defense spending with a wide assortment of entitlement cuts, coming up with a net $261 billion over 10 years that included veto bait like pulling funds from state health exchanges under “Obamacare” and key pillars of Dodd-Frank. That legislation is now a fly speck among GOP sequester talking points. It’s now down to who is willing to sweat the cuts.
The GOP appears willing, tactically and operationally, to sweat more first. It is generally unimaginable to see or even imagine Obama sweating. But the unimaginable is now imperative for Republicans. …Major Garrett at National Journal
In the background of all this is the more subtle fight of the Republicans vs. the Pentagon and defense spending. Though it looks like just the opposite of “conventional wisdom,” the Pentagon has been asking for cuts for years. The Republicans — the closest allies and beneficiaries of a bloated defense industry — have tried to bury the issue.
So now what happens? And how much does the Republicans’ treatment of Chuck Hagel –the soldier who wants less, not more war — reflect their huge distaste, not to say panic, at the thought of putting our military on a diet. That diet is something we’ve needed to impose for decades is something the military now endorse, something that’s just plain common sense — and something that makes the Republican party go, um, ballistic.