Why hasn't the American public risen up in fury at Republicans over the sequester's annoyances and inconveniences, as President Obama had clearly hoped? Because the annoying things about the sequester perfectly play into the Republican talking point that government is dumb and wasteful and run by people with no common sense.
Operating with a laser-like focus and speed rarely seen in Washington these days, the House and Senate have now both passed a bill designed to fix the FAA's furlough problem, proving that Congess can fix problems quickly — as long as those problems directly impact Congresspeople.
The evil sequester has claimed its latest victim as the U.S. Navy has announced a full retreat from the annual Fleet Week celebration in New York City next month.
One of those notable "real world consequences" that came out of the government's sequestration debacle hit the country on Sunday, but the real world people that are supposed to be affected by the cuts remain unfazed.
Late this week we learned that the sequester may bring an end to the annual tradition of Fleet Week, in which members of the Navy and Marines swarm New York. Is this a good thing? We discuss, with unadulterated weekend joy — and posters.
One possible explanation is Biden's net worth, which is on the modest side compared to the president and other Cabinet members.
In a measure of solidarity with those affected by the budget-slashing government sequestration, President Obama is giving up 5 percent of his salary for rest of the year, which is almost as admirable and sensible as a mansion-owner shutting off his marble fountains during a drought.
President Obama will continue to woo Republicans over meals — and to woo editorial pages that have demanded more schmoozing by releasing vague details about those meals — by lunching with Ryan on Thursday. Details are scarce, and that's kind of the point.
The sequester has gone into effect, and no deal has materialized, so Obama is working behind the scenes to woo people on Capitol Hill. Or at least, the White House is waging a PR offensive to get op-ed writers to praise him for doing so. And there's good reason to be skeptical.
A new poll out shows that Americans support federal budget cuts, but not to the military, making this debate a manifestation of a broader attitude: Americans have much different attitudes toward things they're familiar with than things in the aggregate.
As Ryan finishes up the House Republican budget before he presents it on Wednesday, he's confronting a last-minute problem on Medicare.
Has the sequestration actually resulted in a huge increase to airport security wait times? We used the (not very helpful) tools available online to find out!
The Republican Party has earned such a reputation for stubbornness that the kind of extralegal presidential powers George W. Bush used to handle terrorists are now popping up in discussions of Barack Obama's budget negotiations with Congress. But Republicans have not decided to block all things forever. "No" has its limits.
The 112th Congress was widely regarded as the worst Congress ever. The 113th -- which is just 58 days old, but will go into recess on Friday as the sequester hits -- is taking do-nothingness to the next level, because it has done nothing to stop the deliberately stupid cuts of the sequester from happening.
The two most powerful men in Washington failed to come up with a deal to stop the sequester in their White House meeting on Friday, and they said as much. But you don't need words to understand the deterioration of their relationship — you can see it in their faces.
Paul Ryan promises the sequester will not be the last fiscal crisis this year, but it didn't have to be this way.
Welcome to Sequester Day! How will you celebrate and/or mourn? And what is your government doing to put a stop to it?
Bob Woodward offered his side of the White House "threat" story to Sean Hannity on Thursday night, presumably to defend himself from the firestorm of criticism over this week's weird incident.
Since the sequester hasn't forced a deficit-cutting deal, some pundits, like The Washington Post's editorial page, David Brooks, and most spectacularly Bob Woodward, are putting their faith in mind control magic to get the centrist deal they want.
Alex Pareene on Woodward's weird sequester statements, Ezra Klein on better budgeting, Adam Serwer on the Supreme Court's racism blindness, Charles Blow on the Voting Rights Act, and Boris Muñoz on Chavez's would-be successors.
Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward has been telling everyone who will listen that the White House is so mad he called them out on the sequester that they're making threats. But on Thursday, the White House released the emails containing the threats. They turn out to be not that threatening.
When Gary Mead sent notice of his planned resignation to colleagues, it's likely he didn't expect that the move would almost instantly become a furious topic in the boiling debate over the sequester.
Because there appears to be no serious effort to stop it before it starts, we have to think about the actual mechanics of the sequester.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Which is worse: raising taxes or ceding your biggest and most important power to someone else? Some Senate Republicans would rather be irrelevant than raise taxes.
We understand it's all very confusing, but if you take a look at the spin and talking points and (occasional) actual analysis, a few themes start to emerge. If you plan on talking about the sequester today, we advise going with one of these strategies.
Joanne Bamberger on Silicon Valley's working moms, Jonathan Cohn on the inevitable sequester, Jeffrey Toobin on Pistorius' likely plea bargain, Hussein Banai on Iran's refusal to talk, and Arthur Levitt on an SEC failure.
Remember the President's secluded golf outing with Tiger Woods? Or the White House hosting the Miami Heat? Or the First Lady appearing during the Oscars? Or dancing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon? All while wearing those bangs? Watch Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee connects the dots.
Chuck Hagel will likely get confirmed as secretary of Defense on Tuesday, with deep cuts to the Pentagon's budget set to hit three days later.
The Obama administration has microtargeted its sequester warnings to appeal to very specific sets of people. Is it working?
The person who deserves the most blame for the sequester -- the automatic spending cuts that kick in March 1 and will slow GDP growth by 0.5 percent -- is not President Obama or John Boehner, but House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Longer lines! Fewer flights! Doomsday delays! So let's not further fan the fire: This chart shows which sectors would be hit hardest by cuts to federal grants to states — amounting to $427.6 billion over the next ten years.
We're one week away from the sequester, and Republicans and Democrats are panicking about it actually hitting and over their side having to cave. But fear is a good sign, right? The fiscal cliff proved it can force a deal. Here's the current state of panic.
Paul Krugman on sequestration shenanigans, Heather McRobie on urging Obama to shut down Keystone XL, Michael Daly on cyberwarfare preparedness, Steve Hess on the elusive Chinese Spring, and Ryan Avent on the inflation we need.
Both House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama agree that the sequester will be a disaster for the economy. But Republicans and Democrats aren't allowed to agree on anything, so, with eight days before $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts kick in, a chorus of conservatives have emerged to ask, what's so bad about sequestration?
Greg Austin on China's hackers, Matthew Yglesias on an expensive airline merger, Jamelle Bouie on sequestration backfiring on the GOP, George Packer on Walmart and the payroll tax, and Hadley Freeman on Hilary Mantel and the media's royal-industrial complex.
It is starting to look less likely that Congress will reach a deal that prevents automatic spending cuts from taking effect March 1, so politicians are finding the strength to accept the things they cannot change, and change the things they cannot accept. That means accepting the sequester but changing who gets blamed for it.
Senate Democrats claim they struck an "agreement" that would head off the looming sequestration cuts, but since the deadline is 14 days away and Congress is in recess for the next ten, you probably shouldn't hold your breath.
Peter Wensierski on the polarizing pope, Greg Sargent on Ted Nugent's friends in D.C., Sam Lagrone on looming Navy cuts, Jeffrey Toobin on vanishing Republicans, and Andrew Ross Sorkin on an elite LinkedIn.
There is broad agreement that allowing the sequester -- automatic spending cuts set to go into effect March 1 -- to go into effect would be disastrous. And yet, like fresh growth after a forest fire, both parties see a way to benefit from all the economic destruction.
The President did, in fact, suggest Congress kick the can at a White House briefing, saying that his fiscal-cliff deals are "very much" still on the table.
Matthew Yglesias on the stupidity of sequestration, Caroline Baum on Paul Ryan's deficit elimination plan, Daniel Gross on the GDP report, Erick Erickson on Rubio's immigration play, and Rory Carroll on Venezuela's post-Chavez void.
U.S. gross domestic product fell by 0.1 percent in 2012's fourth quarter, and analysts are chalking up the losses to reduced government spending — especially on defense. Will evidence about downsized federal budgets shrinking GDP change how lawmakers approach the budget fight?
Call it the partial fix to the partial fix to the partial fix. National Journal's Dan Friedman and Billy House report that leading lawmakers are discussing a plan to make a "down payment" of cuts that would amount to half of the $110 billion in sequestration, which is set to go into effect in January.
After months of foot-dragging, the White House finally announced how it would implement the mandatory spending cuts to defense and domestic spending Republicans and Democrats agreed to last year, but that no one — not Congressional Democrats, Republicans, or the White House — wants to see go in effect.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's threat to let steep cuts hit the Pentagon seems to be working, as some staunchly anti-tax Republican Senators appear to be warming to revenue increases.
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