Conservatives Believe The Sequester Is Moral

George Lakoff, professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley, has a blunt analysis of conservative support of the automatic spending cuts (the sequester). “They [conservatives] believe that Democracy gives them the liberty to seek their own self-interests by exercising personal responsibility, without having responsibility for anyone else or anyone else having responsibility for them,” says Lakoff. “They take this as a matter of morality. They see the social responsibility to provide for the common good as an immoral imposition on their liberty.”

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Sequestration: Blame President Obama? – Only Congress Can End It

There’s plenty of talk about who is to blame for the sequestration, the automatic spending cuts set to kick in on Friday. Obama blames congress. Prominent Republican members of congress, like Speaker John Boehner, blame the president. Bob Woodward wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post putting the blame squarely on White House. “My extensive reporting for my book ‘The Price of Politics‘ shows that the automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House,” said Woodward. It was the “brainchild of [Jack] Lew and White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors — probably the foremost experts on budget issues in the senior ranks of the federal government.”

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House Passes Fiscal Cliff Bill 257-167

The House of Representatives passed the Senate fiscal cliff bill by 90 votes, and it has not gone unnoticed by this liberal that both the Senate and the House votes happened in the new year. It means not a single Republican voted for a tax increase since all tax cuts expired at midnight before either of the votes. How convenient.

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Senate Approves Fiscal Cliff Deal 89-8

In the early hours of the new year, the U.S. Senate voted and approved the fiscal cliff deal 89 to 8. This is a much wider margin than most could have even predicted, which really puts the pressure on the House of Representatives to pass the bill. The problem is, it’s the House of Representatives, led by Speaker John Boehner who has no control over the ultra-conservative (radical actually) tea party Republicans.

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A Fiscal Cliff Deal? – Not Before We Jump

We are all jumping off the cliff at midnight. — Apparently there will be no vote tonight on a deal to avert the fiscal cliff. Earlier today it was announced by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell that a deal on the tax side was reached, but a deal on the spending side is still pending.

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