Four reasons Republicans are embracing the 'sequester'

Republicans, it is clear, are conflicted on the "sequester." How did they come to embrace it? Here are four reasons.

4. It's better than the debt ceiling ... or a government shutdown

Pete Souza/White House/Reuters/File
Remember this scene of the US narrowly avoiding its debt-limit deadline by President Obama signing the Budget Control Act in 2011? Republicans would like to remind you that this time is very different.

While Republicans hold out for their spending reductions, it’s important to remember what isn't at stake.

They are not taking the nation to the brink of defaulting on its debt, something that appeared possible in the summer of 2011 debt-ceiling battle. Nor are they threatening to shut down the government, something Republicans tested within months of securing their majority two years ago, unless Democrats relent on spending.

So instead of risking the potentially massive economic consequences of a debt default or the symbolic and practical disruption of a government shutdown, Republicans looked at the post-fiscal cliff landscape and decided to go to the wall for the one with the most guaranteed spending cuts and the least chance of making the party look like barbarians trying to tear down the gates of Congress.

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Dear Reader,

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If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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