Voices
proved by Obama, and so asking
for revenues was hypocritical.
“That was not the deal he made,”
scolded Woodward.
Well, Woodward went on
to receive the same helping of
blowback that was meted out to
Brooks, by people who had actually been paying attention to the
policy-making, and not the stagecraft. Ezra Klein helpfully pointed
out that the entire intention behind the sequester as a policy
“was to buy time until someone,
somehow, moved the goalposts
such that the sequester could be
replaced.” But it was TPM’s Brian
Beutler who filleted Woodward’s
piece like he was Hannibal Lecter
taking on a census worker.
Via Beutler, here’s the fava beans:
Obama and Democrats have
always insisted that a balanced
mix of spending cuts and higher
taxes replace sequestration. It’s
true that John Boehner wouldn’t
agree to include new taxes in the
enforcement mechanism itself,
and thus that the enforcement
mechanism he and Obama settled upon — sequestration — is
composed exclusively of spending cuts. But the entire purpose
of an enforcement mechanism is
to make sure that the enforce-
JASON
LINKINS
HUFFINGTON
03.03.13
ment mechanism is never triggered. The key question is what
action it was designed to compel... on that score the Budget
Control Act is unambiguous.
And the nice Chianti is the fact
that the Act itself imposes the
sequester unless the Super Committee can find $1.5
trillion in deficit reduction, not spendIt’s an
ing cuts. The Budget
argument
Control Act both althat has no
lowed for and, indeed,
winner, and
anticipated, that revnone of its
enue would be part of
good for the
that mix. So Obama
country, but it
wasn’t “moving the
was good for
goalposts” by seeking
Woodward.”
revenue, he was staying true to the game.
I like to think that a strong week
of smacking down this sort of lazy
work will perhaps spur everyone
to do their best work as we sprint
headlong into the coming sequester
deadline. But then I remember that,
just like everyone who spread that
weird “Friends Of Hamas” story,
there’s never going to be any real
accountability, or reputational hit,
for just being uniquely wrong about
the important matters of the day.
These are most mobile
goalposts of all.