Finger-pointing trumps problem-solving on budget

Just about every official in Washington, D.C., is in agreement that making big across-the-board spending cuts at the Pentagon and throughout domestic federal programs on March 1 is a bad idea. So far, however, the warring tribes in the nation’s capital seem more interested in finger-pointing than problem-solving. Top House Republicans have embarked on a PR campaign reminding the public that the idea for the across-the-board cuts originated in President Barack Obama’s White House. Senate Democrats are preparing a bill to substitute about $120 billion in alternative deficit cuts over 10 years and prevent the automatic cuts—in Washington parlance, a sequester—through the end of (calendar year) 2013. Its biggest component is a $47 billion tax increase on the rich; that is sure to prompt a GOP filibuster, probably successful, that will give Democrats political cover—and ammo. “We again find ourselves in sad and familiar territory,” says Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “Democrats sit on their hands until the last minute. Then they offer some gimmicky bill designed to fail.” House Republicans do not have a plan to shut off the cuts and instead point to a spending cut bill that passed twice last year, most recently by a slender 215-209 vote in December. The GOP now controls eight fewer seats in the House, and there’s hardening sentiment among some tea party Republicans to allow the automatic cuts to take effect. It’s not clear whether GOP leaders such as Speaker John Boehner of Ohio could muster enough support to stop them. More details can be found in the full story here.