The Washington Post on Thursday slammed both Congress and President Barack Obama for choosing “not to govern” and reaching a deal to avert the $85 billion in broad government cuts scheduled to take place on Friday.
“To govern is to choose,” The Post said in an editorial. “Congress and President Obama have chosen not to govern. Instead, each side has concluded that its interest lies in letting the ‘sequester’ proceed as scheduled — and then trying to win the political blame game.
“This abdication is bad public policy,” The Post said.
The newspaper attacked the idea of indiscriminate agency cuts — and how these cuts will lead to employee furloughs and loss of pay. In addition, sequestration will do little to solve the nation’s long-term budget issues.
The editorial then discusses the failed bills that were voted on Thursday, including how one GOP proposal would have given Obama more flexibility in deciding where to make cuts.
“And the GOP was just trying to ‘shift the focus away’ from its refusal to compromise,” The Post editorial said.
“Washington has reached a strange place indeed when the opposition party offers the president more control over spending — and he refuses it,” The Post continued. “Apparently, in addition to its policy objections, the White House figured that a softened sequester couldn’t force Republicans to accept a long-term deal including higher revenue. It’s a gamble that the worse things might get now, the better they will get later.
“A strange place, and a sad one,” The Post concluded.
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