This Is What Americans Will Lose with Sequester

[Kaitlin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJnrTi...

[Mark]

Seder adduces what I think is the most salient point: The sequester was a ransom payment for a Republican act of political terrorism, and the President had other options, including invocation of the fourteenth amendment, minting of a trillion-dollar coin, or just ignoring the whole, artificial notion of a debt ceiling. I can think of no legitimate reason for his refusing to exercise one of these options, other than fear of an impeachment effort by Republicans, but it's not as though the Republicans are *ever* going to take *that* implicit threat off the table. In the same vein, I can see absolutely no legitimate reason for Reid not to have enacted filibuster reform. It's not as though the Republicans aren't going to eliminate the filibuster the very nanosecond they regain control of the Senate, as some sort of gesture of gracious reciprocity. I suspect Reid more than I do Obama, but I don't think anyone's allowed to accede to a position of political power in this country who isn't controlled, so at some point, you have to wonder who's really calling the shots in these unilateral acts of capitulation and political hara kiri.