Defense experts starting to worry that sequestration really might happen
So what might an endgame look like in the war of sequestration?
If Obama wins, Democrats could try to improve their negotiating position by allowing sequestration to take effect and letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire — forcing Republicans into a corner on two top GOP priorities.
“Some people think the circumstances are better for a deal if you just let everything expire first,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow with the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. “It makes a deal with Republicans on taxes a lot more feasible because it doesn’t have to be couched as tax increases.”
If Romney wins, Republicans also could improve their negotiating position by waiting until January — once they take control of the White House — to haggle with their Democratic counterparts.
“I would expect that the lame duck would not foreclose any options for President-elect Romney,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and an informal adviser to the Romney campaign.
Blowback
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PLEASE try this. See what happens.
thirtyandseven on November 6, 2012 at 3:43 PM
Something is going to have to break. We can’t keep spending like this. The majority of our $$$ goes to entitlements and DOD spending.
MoreLiberty on November 6, 2012 at 3:45 PM
Of course it’s going to happen, dummies. It is scheduled to happen. It’s only a longshot that the intransigent congress would come up with some deal to avert it. That’s why O was so full of lies on this.
anotherJoe on November 6, 2012 at 3:49 PM
The truth is, sequestration would be good for America. Both parties would have to act — if not like grownups — at least like a reasonably competent high school student council. Something would get done.
urban elitist on November 6, 2012 at 3:56 PM
There is a huge amount of waste and corruption within DOD.
The people who are most worried are the lobbyists and contractors for the larger programs like the F-35, which is program that should never have started in the first place but the wheels were greased and there you go.
CorporatePiggy on November 6, 2012 at 4:00 PM
“Couched as” tax increases. If taxes tomorrow are higher than they are today, how is that anything but a tax increase?
Shump on November 6, 2012 at 4:07 PM
I don’t think people are realizing how many jobs this will affect. Good paying, highly skilled jobs at that.
Do we need to reduce our military spending? Absolutely.
Is throwing a huge immediate cut into the fray the way to implement it? Ehhhh, I’m not so sure about that.
KMC1 on November 6, 2012 at 4:10 PM
If it happens which is unlikely.
The lobbyists will remind the people’s representatives that they can be very generous at campaign time so why don’t we scratch each other’s backs?
Result: Emergency vote to cancel sequestration and pre-emptively raise the debt ceiling to 10 gazillions and the announcement of “Stimulus 3″.
CorporatePiggy on November 6, 2012 at 4:20 PM
It will happen. Harry Reid wants it to happen. So does Barry.
stvnscott on November 6, 2012 at 4:55 PM
They’ve played politics with this long enough. Sequestration doesn’t just cut the military where it might make sense. It cuts the strength of the military in a dangerous world.
Ron Paul idiots would be happy, but I would hope the rest of us realize that the DOD is not the budget problem, and keep the focus on the entitlements where it belongs.
There Goes The Neighborhood on November 6, 2012 at 4:57 PM
If we are to have any prayer of returning to fiscal sanity, our mentality of “international cop” MUST end, sequestration or no sequestration!
MelonCollie on November 6, 2012 at 6:45 PM