This would require testicular fortitude which is in painfully short supply. All it will take is the mere threat of sending out the flying monkeys to blame the Republicans and they will collapse.

The sequester was Obama´s idea, he signed the bill and I don´t see how the GOP takes the blame for this one, so I´m encouraged.

I am Pro-Defense, but I have trouble believing that the military cannot tighten it up. And it´s like they are having major weapons platforms sent to the bottom of the ocean on a regular basis. Heck, they could probably sell billions of obsolete stuff to foreign governments with no negative effect.

#3, meant to say

And it´s NOT like they are having major weapons platforms sent to the bottom of the ocean on a regular basis.

I have been hoping we could somehow get to the sequester. As the article says, it is the only way we will ever get any cuts. We can rebuild the military after the Democrat administration is gone (as we always do).

Obama must have thought he made a master stroke when he appointed his committee and congress passed its recommendations. He may have backed himself into a corner.

Of course McCain & the other progressive RINO´s want to fight it.

Obama´s more than happy to allow the military bear the brunt of spending cuts. I´d like to see what other cuts are made. Probably not a drop in the bucket compared to the military.

Military spending is the only spending that creates good private sector jobs.This is a bad bluff by Boehner.

Try cutting one dime from the wasteful $80 billion food stamp program and you´ll have starving lefts crawling around on the capitol´s steps.

Liquor stores would probably suffer the most if you cut food stamp spending.

Who wants to bet that this won´t turn out to be another bunch of hot air followed by capitulation?

Sometimes I think all Republicans ought to just quit. Just walk away from it. Let the Democrats have everything the way they think they want it, and see how long it takes to completely backfire on them.

As long as Republicans keep trying to right the ship of state, they´ll be out there, right up front, to be blamed for everything that goes wrong, regardless of the actual source of each specific act of stupidity on the part of the pro-regressives.

The lo-fo´s need to see, feel, breathe, sleep, dream, scrounge, and fully experience who´s actually doing what to their lives.

#10 is supported by Dennis Miller, who has been making the same point lately. Any adjustment the Republicans extract from Obama--no matter how small--will become the reason his policies fail. In this instance, GOP can passively await the implementation of Obama´s policy of sequestration, express their sadness that his inability to produce a budget has brought us to this point, and let the automatic cuts happen. Four years from now, they can point to the mess from eight years of Obama-ism and say, "He built that." Anything else, we own it.

Sequester all of it. Shut the government down.

Read somewhere (wish I could remember) that only part of the Defense budget is subject to Sequestration, Other agencies have also been excluded, such as social security.
This means those agencies left to go under the knife, will have to make up the difference and will be harder hit. What a mess you got us into Ollie!

....saying they are willing to accept the deep cuts to military and domestic spending in order to force Mr. Obama to come up with his own counteroffer.

That is naive beyond belief. Does the GOP actually think Obama will allow the slightest whiff of compromise, even false compromise, to pass his lips?

Obama doesn´t compromise or do "counteroffers". He talks and lets everyone else do the dirty work, then blames the GOP. It will be the same with the sequesters.

The GOP is peeing up a rope with this tactic.

And the Republicans must ALWAYS remember to point out clearly that these are "The Obama Sequesters" and "Obama´s Sequestration cuts" right upfront. Every time.

Once the sequester takes over there is no more negotiating. Some of you are over ventilating.

I keep reading these articles about sequestration and I don´t see anything but cuts to the military. I thought there was supposed to be cuts in domestic spending also. Anyone know what other spending cuts (if any) are involved? Maybe I am missing something in the article.

As above have posted, the Pubs need the testicular fortitude to allow the sequester to happen, block any continuing resolutions, and own it. No more $$$ without a formal budget. Period. It´s time for some tough measures to right this ship.

I´m not holding my breath.

Civilian government furloughs start in April.

No. 11. Starting with the WH travel budget and fuel allowance..

#7 “...Liquor stores would probably suffer the most if you cut food stamp spending….”

And under-the-counter meat sources supplied by multiple food stamp holders. When I regularly see shopping carts stacked to the top with nothing but steak and chicken it’s difficult to believe it’s just one family’s food supply for a week or so.

On it´s face, I should support sequestration; however, I´m concerned about the DoD cuts. Admittedly, that´s my area of expertise, as I work in the research end of the DoD world. While the military is certainly overly bloated in areas, the potential cuts are already having some serious effects.

It´s not just a matter of not buying a $500 hammer or the wasteful spending that does occur, it´s the indisciminate cuts that will hurt the military. By cutting ´´across the board,´´ we´ll be seeing such effects as extending maintenance cycles of equipment and weapon systems, massive civilian and contractor labor cuts that will effect many areas dependent on them, cuts in necessary R&D, development of new weapon systems, cuts that have deliterious effects on logistics, etc.

It´s not all just multimillion dollar F-22s and extravagant travel spending. This will severely weaken our readiness and mission capabilities.

Glenn Beck´s REAL NEWS showed a graph of sequestration and current spending. The cuts in "sequestrtion" are minimal - a drop in the bucket.

But, it MUST be done to start the trend and to make a point. We are serious about cutting spending.

#9, just after the election, an editor at Commentary magazine (I´m sorry I don´t remember his name) made the same suggestion Dennis Miller is advocating now. Let the dems own it.
The fiscal cliff is now the Obama tax hike. The affordable health care blah blah blah is now Obamacare. This spring, the Obama sequestrian.
Just the other day, Jay Carney blamed the current recession on the GOP for some convaluted reason. Let the dems own it. Four years from now, "He built that."
Sometimes "I told you so" is the only time somebody listens.

I would love to believe that the Republicans could take advantage of this situation but their track record stinks. A "Gang of (insert appropriate number here)" will emerge to negotiate a deal. Count on it. The "gangs" in Washington are as dangerous as any street gang. They just wear $2K suits.

It´s one way to cut the budget. Fauxbama will try to cut the military budget anyway, so this may be our best opportunity to cut the handouts and the pork.

The reality is that BO will NEVER agree to any deal that includes real spending cuts or decreases taxes. All Republicans can do is work with what they have got in hand, which is the sequestration. It´s crude and is probably heavier on defense than what might be desired but it is a first step, maybe the only step that can be taken while BO is in office.

All BO´s policy failures are coming home to roost, shrinking economy, taxes increasing, etc. Of course he is going to blame Republicans for any problems, it´s all BO knows how to do, duck blame. All Republicans can do is take the best actions they can given the current political realities.

As sequestration moves forward, BO has the hot potato, domestic cuts HE agreed to. Further, more is coming up. The Republicans are NOT going to agree with tax or spending increases. They may not get any further spending decreases either but they may be able to stop spending increases.

Yup, BO and the MSM will throw fits but now is the time to take a stand.BO´s ever more liberal policies and the faltering economy are not going to serve the progressives in power well in 2014.

and with baseline budgeting, even the sequester cuts are not really cuts. nothing NOTHING will get less money this year than last. let the sequesters begin.

I agree with #2 ... Obama´s idea and he signed the bill and we all know how smart he is. /s

Sequestration will impose mandatory across the board spending cuts, with certain very specific exemptions such as spending on medicaid, social security, and military pay. With many states refusing or financially unable to set up state insurance exchanges under Obamacare, HHS must then cover them under a federal exchange. But there is no automatic appropriation of money to do that in the Affordable Care Act (oops!!). Any appropriation must go through Mr. Boehner´s House (double oops!!) HHS has some limited authority to shift some appropriated money over to cover the federal exchanges, but that would be at the expense of other HHS programs, all of which will already have been reduced by .... wait for it ... the sequestration. Hah!

Rock and hard place, meet Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama, meet rock and hard place. Heh heh heh.

Topic for discussion: do the republican governors and bankrupt democrat-led states comprise the rock, and Messrs. Boehner, Ryan, and Cantor are the hard place? Or is it the other way around?

I agree with Bobby Jindal. Let the Republicans be the party of free market growth, let the Dems be the party of government control. This economy is tanking. $85 billion in cuts is spitting into the ocean. Give the Dems all the rope they need to hang themselves and let them own this boondoggle.

I am hearing it again - the theory that we should let Obama have everything he wants and then he would be blamed for the collapse he is causing. Obama is already clearly to blame for the stagnant economy but over half the population blames Bush or the republicans or the tsunami in Japan etc. These low info people will never blame Obama for the problem no matter how clear it is to the rest of us. If Obama has no opposition whatever others will still be blamed for the disaster. We must block Obama as much as possible. We can do a lot because we have the power of the purse if the house republicans can be kept together. Many men have died to serve the country, can´t our elected leaders take a bit of bad publicity for the sake of the country? I would guess that their re-election chances would be better if they do it - especially if they would only learn to make their case they would be heroes!

Any cut is better than none. I´m for sequestration. Let it begin.

Certainly, cut our military and further compromise our national security - make us an even more sitting duck nation.
that anyone thinks zippy would have a counter-proposal once he´s gotten what he wants is beyond ludicrous.
God help us!

Lest we forget that Boehner snookered Obie into making the Bush tax cuts permanent last month, good chance Boehner has Obie´s number right now.