Charlotte wrote earlier this month asking is it time to learn to love the sequester.
It’s not a question for me anymore. Surely there are far better ways to approach trimming back our super-sized government, but I’m fully embracing the sequester with a love-the-one-you-are-with attitude.
The Obama Administration wants Americans to think that asking agencies to shave a few percent off their budgets spells doom for key national priorities. Yet as Kim Strassel explains in the Wall Street Journal:
Agencies will have 120 days to implement changes. While those agencies are currently predicting doom, they will in reality face pressure to impose cuts in ways that minimize harm. Government unions won't let agency heads cut employees instead of fancy conference budgets. Moreover, this is a 2.5% cut in spending, not a government shutdown. Americans will continue to get their passports, cash their Social Security checks, and visit national parks.
Indeed, this boy-who-cries-wolf tactic should backfire on the Administration. Once the American people see that the world continues chugging along even if Washington for once has to get by with a few pennies less, they might start wondering what else politicians aren’t telling them and if a little more government belt-tightening might be in order.
Perhaps that too much to ask. What can I say, love makes everything look a little brighter.