It's Your Fault...No it isn't. It's yours...

(from http://www.motivationalmemo.com/3-great-reasons-to-stop-playing-the-blame-game/)

So as we face another manufactured crisis in Washington, it's not the Sequester I want to write about, but the finger pointing.  Let's get something straight.  If the polls are right, most of you are not following the events of the Sequester.  Some of you, who have government jobs or have someone involved in some of the government programs, are probably paying attention because Sequester has real life implications for those outside of Washington.

First off, who named this cut?  Sequester means to set apart.  The actual noun, I think, Washington probably should have used is Sequestration which means to seize especially by writ.  It is the noun, if you check the web, most news sources are using.  Sequestration is what Congress has done.  They are seizing through law a certain amount of money to cut the budget.  The problem is that Sequestration was not and is not well thought out.  It was an across-the-board cut of funds in both military and social programs.  It was not what budget cut should be which is to eliminate the fat such as the  ear marks, the new name for pork barrel projects,  placed in many a spending bill.

So now you know what SEQUESTRATION is, it's time to talk about the big deal.  The cuts will be in the form of about of about 850 billion or there about.  The reason the market doesn't seem to be reacting to this fiscal mess is probably because that in with government spending being around four and a half trillion dollars. the arbitrary nature of cuts really isn't that much as far as Wall Street is concerned.  So here we come at another crisis manufactured by Washington.  What folks should be upset about isn't the cutting that needs to be done, but that if folks in D. of C. weren't so busy pointing fingers at each other the whole problem could have been avoided.

It's Obama's idea.  It's the Republican's fault.  It's the Democrats fault.  We voted on this package.  The Senate need to pass a package. Yada Yada Yada. Let's talk history instead of standing around and blaming everyone like fifth graders on the playground.  Sorry fifth graders.  Back on the original budget deal, Obama suggested Sequestration as a part of that 1.2 trillion cut deal with the Congress.  The fact is in that deal the Republicans got 98 percent of what they requested.  Now the House has voted on "two bills" in the last congress that would, according to Boehner would have stopped this.  First off that vote was in the last congress, not this one.  Secondly, those bills were both ones that Boehner knows could not and would not pass the Senate, be signed by the President or make most Americans very happy.  In other words, they were political theatrics.  But before we say it's all Republicans, the Democrats have done very little as well.  The Senate tried to pass two different bills yesterday.  The Republican bill garnered only 38 votes and the Democrat bill that could have passed was filibustered.  In fact, the guy who suggested the Sequestration is one person who cannot vote for it.  Congress is responsible for budgetary matters.  The President is not but he did sign the bill that put Sequestration into place.  So here it is.

Sequestration was passed in August of 2011. In the House, 174 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted for it, while 66 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted against it. In the Senate, the vote was 74–26. Six Democrats and 19 Republicans voted against it. Obama signed the legislation into law. It was defended by many but most notably by Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan. I should note that when Obama signed the act, he stated, "Is this the deal I would have preferred? No. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year." You see, at the time, it was believed that Sequestration was so bad that not even extremists would let it go through.  They were wrong.

So while the 12-year-olds (sorry 12-year-olds) are blaming each other and not doing their job because they need to go on vacation due to their strenuous 126 day schedule this year, they actually all own it.  They made it happen.  They created it. They caused it.  It is their fault.  They are the ones playing political games with real people's lives. I am pointing my finger at you Washington.  It doesn't really matter who did what.  You did it together.