No Sh!t Sherlock

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/sequestration-nimbyism-grips-gop.php?ref=fpb

The GOP is undergoing a sort of slow motion intellectual collapse these days.  The epistemological closure has been pierced by the election, which proves that all those polls saying that GOP positions are unpopular were not really skewed after all.

The problem is the modern GOP really only has one priority, as Jon Chait in particular has documented: they want to cut taxes on the rich.

Really everything else is window dressing.

This is not to say that there aren't true social conservatives or neo-cons still running around.  But the central animus in the party right now is the Grover Norquist camp.

This is why the GOP has been universally disastrous for the national debt whenever they've been in charge.  They don't care about balanced budgets, they care about slashing revenue.  If slashing revenue results in cuts in programs for the poor or middle class, well that's fine because all government spending is de facto evil and wrong.

So really it's the Norquist-Ayn Rand political philosophy in charge.

The problem is that government spending is woven into our national economy in so many important ways.  The Randians can complain about waste all they want, but government spending has declined in the last few years as a percentage of GDP.  And the sequester has simply taken a meat cleaver to what's left.

And they are once again forced to match their philosophy to empirical observation.

As government spending continues to dry up in their districts, even some of the most rabid Randian House members may see the problem in the sequester.

Just repeal the damned thing...