Set Sail

Conclusion
"As everybody here knows, last year upon a long period of reflection, I concluded that we cannot discriminate against same-sex couples when it comes to marriage," Obama said at a Friday press conference at the White House. "The basic principle that America is founded on -- the idea that we're all created equal -- applies to everybody, regardless of sexual orientation, as well as race or gender or religion or ethnicity." (Huffington Post, 3/1/2013)

A bigot and a homophobe no more!


Problematic
The problem with sequestration, of course, is that the cuts are across the board and do not allow money to move between accounts. It’s dumb because it doesn’t discriminate. Fine. Then change the law. That’s why we have a Congress. Discriminate. Prioritize. That’s why we have budgets. Except that the Democratic Senate hasn’t passed one in four years. And the White House, which proposed the sequester in the first place, had 18 months to establish rational priorities among accounts — and did nothing. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 2/28/2013)

RedStateVT believes that Obama is angling to blame the continuing economic malaise of his second term on the sequester and Republicans. He may have miscalculated this time. Republicans have had some success in getting the word out that 1) sequester was Obama's invention, 2) the cuts are in the range of single digits, 3) if he was serious, Obama could prioritize the reductions (Krauthammer's point), and 4) the world did not end on March 1st. 


Business Like
Some business owners and people facing furloughs said the cutbacks were manageable, even a good thing. Moe Jafari, whose company Human Touch in McLean does technology work for the military, said he saw a new cost-consciousness in the government that pleased him.

“They’re looking at budgets that are not unlimited,” said Mr. Jafari, whose contracting includes work for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in Charleston, S.C. “We see the government for the first time having discussions with us in ways we never thought. They’re looking at saving money. They’re starting to act like businesses.” (NYT, 3/2/2013)

Politicians should start managing the government like a business that has shareholders to whom they are accountable. The current practice of the political class is to treat constituents as a bottomless source of funding. 


Virtual
It does not add up to the “grand bargain” that the two parties had been seeking, because it leaves virtually untouched the entitlement programs — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — that are responsible for projections of an unsustainably rising federal debt in coming decades. 
.....
“I still believe we can and must replace these cuts with a balanced approach — one that combines smart spending cuts with entitlement reform and changes to our tax code that make it more fair for families and businesses without raising anyone’s tax rates,” Mr. Obama said. (NYT, 3/2/2013)

Even the New York Times admits that entitlement reform is necessary?!?! 

What is galling is Obama's obfuscation on the issue. He has NEVER embraced entitlement reform and even recently took off the table any raise in the eligibility age for Medicare. And changes to the tax code? Proposed by Republicans, rejected by Obama.