This is the kind of diary you can read as a plea for correction because I don't want to believe Obama really, truly f*cked up and handed the GOP exactly 98% of what they wanted.
It seems to me that President Obama got took, was had, walked into a huge, obvious trap when he proposed the sequester. And to the extent that it was Jack Lew's idea, isn't Lew a shining example of failing upwards?
Here's my reasoning: Obama knew who he was dealing with in the GOP and its leadership when he was negotiating over the GOP hostage taking also known as the debt ceiling. He knew they were unreasonable. He knew they were interested in making Obama a one term president.
But he also knew that the GOP is pro-austerity. So what does he hand them to get the debt ceiling issue resolved? Austerity on steroids. A sword of Damacles so horrible, so bad, he thought neither party would let it fall and the budget deal would get done. Seems he thought wrong.
I didn't need to hear from Rachel Maddow last night in her segment about how the GOP is now introducing legislation to only undo the parts of the sequester that the GOP doesn't like to think this, it's just part and parcel of what the GOP is known for doing. Still, for those of you who didn't see it, here's maddow's self-summation below the squiggle.
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