The Chronicle joins the Cat Food Commission

 

Only a little surprising to see the Chronicle editorial this morning scolding President Obama on the Republican-created sequestration crisis:

 

Shame on President Obama for elevating public anxiety about "sequestration" while failing to serve up a reasonable set of alternative cuts that could gain GOP support to end this crisis.

Anyone who's been following this synthetic crisis understands that there is nothing the president can offer Republicans that they will accept. It's fashionable now for editorial bobbleheads to blame both parties for what the Chronicle accurately calls a "fabricated crisis," but it's fabricated entirely by the Repugs. Maybe it's time to put in another call to Biden and McConnell to work out a deal.

 

President Obama does in fact have a reasonable proposal on the table, but he's dealing with crackpots, not reasonable people. The Chronicle throws a bouquet to a new proposal from Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, who previously were on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, aka The Cat Food Commission, but the new proposal is even worse than their original plan, since it has a lot less revenue and a lot more spending cuts. Derek Thompson nails it here.

 

See also Kevin Drum and Jonathan Chait on sequestration.